11/27/12 & 11/28/12

Yesterday we read an article on the case of Dred Scott. He was said to be property while he was a slave so when he and his owners crossed boarders in to a free state, it did not matter. he was still considered a slave because owners are allowed to bring their "property" any where. Dred tried to fight the "once free, always free" point but that did not work. This shows that even if the people do vote for a free state, it doesn't matter because slaves can still come into the state without the slaveholders being penalized. Today we watched a clip of a movie and read multiple articles about the debates between Stephen Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was pretty out right in saying he was against slavery. Douglass takes a different route and doesn't come out right and say he is for slavery. He always recalls what Lincoln said to make it seem like he is the opposite of him, but it can never be proved that he is. He believes in popular sovereignty, so he says that whatever the states want, they can have. But there is still the issue that it doesn't matter if the state is free because slavery can still come into those states. It was also weird to see that Abe said he never thought that blacks would be equal at all. He only believed they were entitled to their natural rights. Everyone always makes out that Abe was so against slavery and wanted blacks to be equal with men but he says in his speech that they never will be.