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The World’s Messiest Divorce?
Our first divorce was bad. This one looks worse.
We’ve been here before.
Our last few hundred years have been interesting, and accurately comparing where we started life as a country with where we are now should leave us proud. But about half of us aren’t — proud, or happy with our past or present.
Social division isn’t a new thing. Apart from a decade or two last century, when we seemed to be realizing all of our national dreams, we’ve always been divided. In fact, we were born divided.
To maintain a united front against the British, in 1776 our founding fathers papered over the issue of slavery. The paper was thin. Some newly proclaimed states were already free. A few years later Pennsylvania joined them, and others followed. But when the time came to negotiate a new Constitution, the abolitionists hit a brick wall — the South insisted on keeping their slaves.
Negotiations wore on, and when the smoke finally cleared, most people assumed the South had won — they got to keep their slaves. Few understood the Constitution’s (now contentious) poison pill…
…the 3/5 Compromise.
In 1791 there were 813,000 adult white males in the United States, 2.5 million females and underage males, and 701,000…
