June 29, 2019 Saturday
Bedtime Story
Constitution That Prevented Abolition of Slavery
This meant that tacitly the Constitution
and the Founding Fathers permitted slavery.
In fact the constitution of the United
States out rightly sheltered the slave trade for twenty years since its
creation in 1787.
Article 1 Section 9 of the Constitution
read as follows:
“The Migration or Importation of such Persons
as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be
prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and
eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten
dollars for each Person.”
Though it was not specified but “such
Persons” obviously referred to the African slaves from across the Atlantic.
Article 1 of the Constitution besides other
things places various limitations on the legislative powers of the Congress and
the states one of which then was curtailing its power to abolish slavery until
the year 1808.
Therefore until the year 1808 neither the
Congress nor the President had any power to touch upon the status of slave or
slavery which meant the status quo would persist which in turn meant that
slavery was not only legal but enshrined in the Constitution.
But the positive thing that can be said
about the people of this great nation is that as soon this time period was breached
the Congress with the support of president Thomas Jefferson brought forth the
Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves.
The Act was ratified in 1807 and took
effect in 1808 the very year until which the Constitution had tied it down.
One would think that once such an Act had
been instituted the issue of slave import and slavery would have been settled
and resolved once and for all.
But as always when a law comes up human
apes do their utmost to resist it either bypassing it deviously, by evading it
subtly or openly defying it.
Such was the case in the United States in
1808 when the law prohibiting import of slaves was brought into force.
While on January 01, 1808 the President was
congratulating his fellow countrymen for withdrawing from “all further participation
in those violations of human rights which have been so long continued on the
unoffending inhabitants of Africa” some of his more predatory and avaricious
fellow countrymen were demanding for covert faster boats in the majority of
American ports to secretly perpetuate the activities that this Act forbade.
What could be not done legally would be
done illegally henceforth for the next fifty years or more after the enactment
of the 1808 law.
Ships with secret slave holding areas were
specially designed to continue ferrying in this lucrative African cargo that
was much needed in the agriculture plantation of South and Deep South.
Just because some sweet-talking, charming,
nigger-loving President with high ideals sought it illegal did not meant that
profit making and business would come to a grinding halt.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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