For years experts have argued over the topic of how evils we have committed in the past affect us currently. One specific evil that garners a large amount of attention is slavery. While some may argue that slavery no longer affects African-Americans, we still see small amounts of animosity even today. Although Caucasians have worked their hardest to remedy the injustice completely, they can never completely make up for the past. The fact that slavery was allowed to exist is just an evil we can never take away. In saying that, there is no doubt that past actions directly impact on the future.
One thing to consider when talking about the evils of slavery is the fact that many politicians and genuinely smart people opposed abolition in the beginning. When trying to conceive how generations of American scholars and politicians were able to allow something as evil as slavery to take place, it is important to understand this simple fact. It becomes easier to understand why many felt that slavery should remain in tact through Robert Higgs quote of Senator Stephen Douglas saying "There is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race." (Douglas as cited in Higgs, 2009) This shows that even the smartest southerners were raised with the fundamental thought that blacks and whites were unequal. While it may be inconceivable to many who look at the issue today, Douglas had a voice that many southerners listened too. Although the average American had little power or say regarding the issue, many were brainwashed into believing African-Americans were inferior or unequal.
