It’s like reading hammurabi’s code where the punishment for stealing is getting your hand cut off. It’s completely barbaric by modern standards but it was an improvement at the time because it used to be if you fucked with a rich dude he could do whatever the fuck he damn well pleased. Only getting to cut your hand off was an improvement.
The 13th amendment was an improvement in the sense that slavery was no longer simply your birthright, they had to find some kind of crime to convict you of first and they threw a couple white guys in here and there with the blacks to make it slightly less horribly racist.
If anything it’s a testament to how horrifying slavery was that the “improvement” is still terrible.
It’s like reading hammurabi’s code where the punishment for stealing is getting your hand cut off. It’s completely barbaric by modern standards but it was an improvement at the time because it used to be if you fucked with a rich dude he could do whatever the fuck he damn well pleased. Only getting to cut your hand off was an improvement.
The 13th amendment was an improvement in the sense that slavery was no longer simply your birthright, they had to find some kind of crime to convict you of first and they threw a couple white guys in here and there with the blacks to make it slightly less horribly racist.
If anything it’s a testament to how horrifying slavery was that the “improvement” is still terrible.