342,683 views
26 votes
26 votes
How did most Americans during the time of the Revolutionary War reconcile the

rhetoric of liberty and the widespread system of slavery?

User Wanderors
by
2.2k points

2 Answers

22 votes
22 votes

Final answer:

During the Revolutionary War, Americans struggled to reconcile the rhetoric of liberty with the existence of slavery. African-Americans fought for their freedom, while some Americans in the North embraced emancipation. However, slavery persisted in the South despite the revolutionary ideals.

Step-by-step explanation:

During the time of the Revolutionary War, many Americans grappled with the contradiction between the rhetoric of liberty and the widespread system of slavery. African-Americans used the language of natural rights and liberty to demand their freedom from slavery and fought on both sides of the war in the hopes of securing their freedom. Some Americans, especially in the North, embraced emancipation and worked to end slavery within their borders, while others in the South resisted the shift towards statewide emancipation.

User Dagge
by
2.6k points
21 votes
21 votes

How did most Americans during the time of the Revolutionary War reconcile the rhetoric of liberty and the widespread system of slavery?

The answer is: that they didn't. Most Americans during this period were not in favor of slavery. However, they also did not see it as their place to challenge the institution or try to change it. The Constitution itself was written with language that made it clear that slaves would be counted as three-fifths of a person for purposes of determining how many representatives each state would get in Congress. This means that many Americans at this point were still not willing to question whether or not slavery should exist. They were more concerned with how much power each state would have in Congress than whether or not it was morally right for people to own other people as property.

User Vijay Hardaha
by
3.3k points