The readings so far have been very fascinating. It is interesting to hear about the actual history of how slaves were treated and valued, as this wasn’t anything I had previously heard about or been taught in high school. I thought it was interesting how people thought it was their liberty and freedom to be able to hold others in bondage, and some of the abolition acts that were supposed to stop slavery were instead condemning slaves to a lifetime of slavery. Very few were guaranteed freedom because they had a shorter life span. Even states like Rhode Island had put abolition laws into place, but would still participate in the slave trade because of the profit they gained from it.
This brings up the question of morals and what people value: Do people truly value money over the lives of human beings? Shouldn’t human lives be the most valued thing in our government, and don’t we all have the right to be protected and granted freedom?
To start researching and finding evidence to support this question, a good place to start would be looking up personal accounts from slaves to learn how they were typically treated. Another thing to find would be messages from the slaveholders, since they are likely more literate. It would also be good to look into the abolition acts that were released in the 1700s to find out what the laws were supposed to do, then look at evidence from the same time to find out what actually happened and whether or not the law reached its goal. Going to a local library would be a good place to find non-digitized documents about the history of slavery.
These are really interesting thoughts about the readings and how they shape your research question. There is certainly a push-pull factor between economics and morals. As you discussed, I think finding a diverse array of source material from different perspectives would offer different opinions and beliefs over maintaining and abolishing slavery.