The West's abolition of chattel slavery was one of the greatest victories for liberty in our civilization's history.
In the years since Biden signed the so-called Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, the holiday has become increasingly co-opted by progressives in media, academia, and politics as a way to push for radical policies like collective reparations or the exclusion of white people from celebrations.
Where negative rights entail an obligation not to do something, like murder or steal, positive rights refer to the supposed right to be provided with something, like education or healthcare.
While detailing the brutality of slavery in colonial Virginia, Murray Rothbard wrote that the essence of slavery is that "Human beings, with their inherent freedom of will, with individual desires and convictions and purposes, are used as capital, as tools for the benefit of their master. The slave is therefore habitually forced into types and degrees of work that he would not have freely undertaken." Progressives have demonstrated, through action and rhetoric, that they do not actually find the essence of slavery to be unjust.
Their opposition to American chattel slavery is genuine, but it tends to boil down to it being racist.
Only libertarians have a consistent, principled, and ongoing opposition to slavery in all its forms and degrees.
The abolition of chattel slavery was a major triumph for human liberty that's worth commemorating.
No comments:
Post a Comment