If you were one of the founding fathers...

[MaC]

how would you deal with the issue of slavery?

Forewarning: For those with 'progressive' veiws, saying 'ending it immediately' won't fly with most of the country-you're still trying to help start a country and don't want it to be destroyed before it's started.

[adam]

A really good question and a hard one to answer. I would lower taxes and increase benefits to plantation owners (in coordination with cutting funding in other places) in an attempt to phase out the need for slavery without strong economic consequences. I wouldn't take any abrasive federal action unless absolutely nessecary.

[MasterJedi]

Either phase them out gradually or pay the people who own slaves to free them and no new slavery. That's the compromise, should just forcibly take away all slaves, would be much better.

[jokerman]

Gradual, compensated Emancipation.

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

Phase it out gradually and not allow the slave trade from the start. Have a process of gradual emancipation so that 1830 is the final, absolute date that its ended

[Josh/Devilman88]

Stop the slave trade first of all, then I would slowly work out slavery.

How I would do that is.

- You can only own up to 25 slaves.
- You must help support the slave's family, if  their family is not in slavery them self.
- Make deals with slave owner that if they freed their slaves the state would help hire workers for their plantation.


Thats just a few ideas.

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

I would of course also make it clear thast the ex-slaves could never become citizens and purchase the cape colony from britain(good climate and no diseasesl ike mosto f africa) for slave resettlement.

[DanielX]

I would implement an immediate ban on the slave trade. I would also prohibit selling of married couples apart or a mother from her children. Also budge the Southern states to less than a 3/5ths compromise - maybe make congressional districts by registered voters and not by overall population (making it advantageous for states to maximize the number of people they allow to vote - not just slaves but non-property-owning men, women, ...).

If possible, I would implement a pre-emptive anti-Dred-Scott rule: any slave that sets foot in a state that does not permit slavery shall be a free man unless he voluntarily returns to his state of origin. Also, put in a law that says after, say, 1808 any slave born shall be free and that all slaves shall be free by 1828.

Seriously, I would consider forming a union without Georgia or South Carolina if it would allow a more expedient dealing with slavery. Either they'll join the US soon anyway or will swiftly be marginalized or become foreign puppets.

[© tweed]

Originally?  Ignore it.

[Boris]

Originally?  Ignore it.

That'd probably be the easiest/best way to do it. During the early stages of this country, we needed unity and we needed it fast. It's unlikely that a compromise on slavery could've been reached C. 1783.

[Dr. Cynic]

I would've ignored it for the time being, my thoughts being we can tackle this issue once we've won the Revolution or had our Constitution written. You never specified a year. However, if this was the Revolution, I would've strongly urged Washington to actively recruit black soldiers in exchange for thier freedom, and after winning the revolution, I would have encouraged industrialization in the south, so as to limit the need for slave labor, and hopefully phase it out... If that wouldn't work, I would explore other alternatives.

[MaC]

Originally?  Ignore it.

That'd probably be the easiest/best way to do it. During the early stages of this country, we needed unity and we needed it fast. It's unlikely that a compromise on slavery could've been reached C. 1783.

um, that's what happened and it was a cause of southern secession.

[Richard]

Nothing.  The problem would have solved itself, without a war and without that s.o.b. Lincoln.

[MaC]

I'd put a ban on imports, definitely.  I'd also make emancipation a sunset provision-say 50 years.  So after 1831 all slavery is illegal.  50 is more than enough time for the market to cope with a loss of free labor and it would provide incentive for somebody to invent a better system.

[Boris]

Originally?  Ignore it.

That'd probably be the easiest/best way to do it. During the early stages of this country, we needed unity and we needed it fast. It's unlikely that a compromise on slavery could've been reached C. 1783.

um, that's what happened and it was a cause of southern secession.

Southern Secession occured in 1860. Had the founding fathers attempted to deal with slavery in the late 1700s, it would've spurred bad blood between the newly created nation from the very beginning. At least the slavery issue and the sectional crisis was postponed until the post War of 1812 era, when the nation was on its feet enough to deal with the slavery issue and the ensuing civil war that slavery would partially cause.