Saturday, June 26, 2010
What did it mean to be conservative?
This may be an off-the-wall question, but what did it mean to be "conservative" during this time period? I'm in the middle of BCOF and they keep quoting "conservative" journals and papers. For example, one of the conservative papers declared the saving of the captured fugative slave Shadrach "an outrage." It seems like most of the conservative papers they quote were pro-slavery. I consider myself a conservative in today's political climate, and I'm obviously against the institution of slavery, so it kind-of rubs me the wrong way when it seems conservatives of the time were fighting for what I believe to be wrong. It's not really a big deal, just a thought that keeps coming up as I read.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I don't know if this would help but on a Political views spectrum poster I saw once it said the Conservative: seeks to keep in place economic, political and social structures of society. Since Slavery was the structure of society at the time they would be considered conservative. The South was trying to keep their economic and social sturctures the same and didn't want to change thus the war.
ReplyDeleteToday if you are conservative you would support the economic, political and social structures not wanting them to be changed.
Just a thought.