
A Database of Fugitive Slave Ads Reveals Thousands of Untold Stories (2018) - benbreen
https://hyperallergic.com/435183/freedom-on-the-move/
======
aazaa
The article links to the original source:

[https://freedomonthemove.org](https://freedomonthemove.org)

Scrolling down, one sees an ad from none other than Thomas Jefferson:

> In Alberale, a Mulatto slave called Sandy, about 35 years of age, his
> stature is rather low, including to corpulence, and his complexion light; he
> is a shoemaker by trade, in which he uses his left hand principally, and is
> something of a horse jockey; ... Whoever conveys the said slave to me, in
> Albermarle, shall have 40 s. reward ...

One of the histories of the US that I read mentioned the ridicule that the
British heaped on the Americans for their hypocrisy, a copy of the Declaration
of Independence in one hand and a whip in the other.

It's striking to consider the self-delusion that must have been necessary for
people at the time to believe in such wildly inconsistent notions as
"inalienable rights" and slavery.

On the other hand, culture is a powerful reality distortion field. Scratch
just a little below the surface and you'll find the most bizarre creatures
scuttling for cover.

~~~
Ididntdothis
Jefferson’s and Washington’s psychology was certainly very interesting as far
as their attitudes towards freedom and slavery went. I wonder how they
justified to themselves having slaves while talking about freedom and liberty.

But we do the same today. A lot of us have pretty unsustainable lifestyles as
far as the environment goes but we make ourselves feel good (or even superior
to others) by adding a little bit of organic food and organic clothing. The
hypocrisy gets even more exaggerated when stars promote climate change
awareness while flying private jets all over the world and living in 20000
square foot houses.

The interesting thing is that a lot of famous hypocrites still do good. Maybe
not with their own lifestyle but by other people being motivated to do better

~~~
Erlich_Bachman
> I wonder how they justified to themselves having slaves while talking about
> freedom and liberty.

Isn't it pretty clear and straight-forward? It was based on the beliefs
(regardless of the degree to which you might think from your perspective that
those beliefs accurately represent reality or not) that many people held back
then that there are significant racial differences between slaves and people,
and the same rules do not apply to white ones as to black ones because they
are not the same species, they do not have the same
brains/possibilities/rights/etc. Just like they did not grant any freedom to
animals or trees.

However much one might disagree with the basic premise of the racist argument,
it does not make it a hypocricy freedom-wise. If someone was holding these
racist beliefs in this past USA (and many of them did) - they could very well
believe in freedom of all people, and at the same time not consider the slaves
"people" based on their racist beliefs that there are actual important and
significat differences between those races.

Just because someone treats someone else badly doesn't automatically make it a
hypocricy, the world is just more complicated than that and there are plenty
of examples of violence or exploitation being based on well established
logical thought systems or even ethical (from the point of view of the
exploiter) beliefs. And this is important because if you want to make a change
in a society, you might benefit from understanding how that society actually
thinks and what ideology is behind it. Just calling it a hypocricy is not good
enough.

~~~
chillwaves
That explanation would be more credible if Jefferson did not impregnate one of
his slaves.

Hypocrisy of deed is not covered up by some fig leaf of convenient belief
systems.

Wikipedia says he fathered 6 children with her. Do you honestly believe that
he thought dark complexion was some seriously different subhuman race?

~~~
bobbylarrybobby
Do you think horses don’t know that donkeys aren’t horses? And yet they can
and do create mules. I imagine that’s how Jefferson felt; after all, there is
a derogatory term for mixed race people that begins with “mule”.

------
SloopJon
According to freedomonthemove.org, there are 22,236 advertisements. If I
search (registration required) for transcribed ads, I get 6,920 results.
Transcriptions are not visible in the default view. Select the icon on the
right to see images and transcriptions side by side.

------
codeulike
A newspaper ad about a missing human-as-possesion is such a weird mix of
mundane and terrifying

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fredophile
There's a really good museum that includes info from this period in
Montgomery, Alabama. I'd definitely recommend visiting if this is something
you're interested in. I wouldn't bring small children since there is a tonne
of text and some, entirely optional, graphic imagery.

[https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/](https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/)

------
mlforlife123
THIS is so important for society to see, read and learn from the past in order
to grow in the future

------
ceautery
> I wonder if any of our current practices will be viewed as barbaric.

The US jailed 70,000 migrant children this year. I doubt history will smile on
that.

~~~
tasogare
You forget to say these kids didn’t magically lend in jail. They were brought
there by their parents that purposely broke immigration laws. They possibly
even did it with the idea of appealing to emotion of US citizens to get away
with it.

~~~
sfkdjf9j3j
They aren't breaking immigration laws as they are asylum seekers.

~~~
oh_sigh
Pretty much everyone is going to say they are seeking asylum if they are
caught.

~~~
take_a_breath
Just like anyone is going to say they are innocent if arrested. Luckily, we
have a process to determine validity.

------
praptak
Makes one reflect on how much do we take for granted when it comes to ethics.

I remember a (googleable) exchange of letters between the former owner and an
ex-slave. The former was genuinely hurt by slave's betrayal and urged them to
go back.

There were people for whom owning other people was so normalized that they
were actually angry at their former slaves. I wonder if any of our current
practices will be viewed as barbaric. Or maybe we'll go back and the future
generations will laugh at our idealistic concept of "human rights", while
sipping drinks served by their slaves.

~~~
Ma8ee
I think the way we treat animals today will be viewed as very barbaric within
a generation or two. We are everyday learning more about how much intelligence
and consciousness something like cows posses.

~~~
reportgunner
> _We are everyday learning more about how much intelligence and consciousness
> something like cows posses_

How can I join this learning ?

~~~
moccachino
Regarding crows, here is a start:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21769575](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21769575)

~~~
Guillaume86
Cows <> Crows

