"Nobody used to think men exploiting women was wrong" is up there with "Nobody used to think slavery was wrong" as a really impressive giveaway of who you think counts as "nobody".
This is my favorite defense of Columbus because it’s so damn easy to refute. The man was FORBIDDEN FROM TAKING SLAVES BY THE SPANISH CROWN. Did it anyway.
I'm always irritated when people try to do "of his time" discourse about Jefferson, because he absolutely understood that slavery was evil and contradicted his other political ideals, and he did it anyway, because it would have cost him too much not to.
I made a (probably pathetic) attempt to turn his "The God who gave us life gave us liberty" statement into a work chant, with the idea of going back in time to teach it to his slaves.
I'm sure you can guess where I hit a snag.
"But as it is, we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other." Jefferson to John Holmes, April 22, 1820.
He understood exactly the position he'd put himself in.
