“You try to name one Republican who ever owned a slave. There was not even one. “
Ulysses S. Grant.
Start with that.
Start with that.
Didn't watch the D'Souza video, did you? He claims that prior to 1860 Grant was a Democrat. Actually prior to the rebellion Grant was pretty much apolitical.
Start with that.
Dinesh D'Souza debunked that already. Julia Dent, President Grant's wife was from St. Louis, Missouri where her parents owned around thirty slaves and of course they were Democrats. General Grant got a slave from his father-in-law in 1858. He freed the man in 1959 and when he owned his slave, he was a Democrat! In 1856, he even voted for the Democrat Candidate James Buchanan.
“Ulysses S. Grant” was a Republican who owned a slave.
The original statement was “In 1860, the year before the Civil War, no Republican owned a slave.”
Ulysses S. Grant essentially inherited a slave through marriage. Technically he bought him from his father-in-law in sometime between 1854 and 1859, and freed him in 1859.
But he did not own him in 1860 and he was NOT A REPUBLICAN when he owned a slave:
“Grant: a Biography.” Grant: a Biography, by William S. McFeely, Norton & Company, 1982, p. 64.
So, yeah, technically this is an example of a Republican (Grant) owning a slave... WHEN HE WAS A DEMOCRAT.
Now, D’Souza’s statement is just an anecdote. Good men owned slaves. The Bible allowed slavery in the Old and New Testaments. It is easy to get carried away with debates over something that occurred over a century ago. We could go back and forth endlessly. Abuses and injustices happened. Evangelical Christians were, for the most part, the driving force behind the abolition movement worldwide. Christians desired to spread liberty to all people. It really is not a Republican vs. Democrat issue. It was a Christian versus anti-Christian issue.
D’Souza is just helping to illustrate that the Democrat ideology is deeply flawed. Their attempts to smear Republicans, and especially conservatives, as vile, hateful, abusive people is the opposite of the truth. Sure, bad apples are in every group. Take Judas for example. But the accusations that Democrats and antifa types make against Trump, Republicans, and conservatives in general are all merely manipulative, mind-control garbage. They are lies and smears.
And I think that is the main takeaway from D’Souza’s commentary. Though the issue of slavery itself is very deep and can not be honestly dissected into simple soundbite answers, D’Souza does a good job of showing how the left is driven by a destructive ideology, and it misrepresents the beliefs, values, character, and actions of conservatives.
Watch the video, Mr. D’Souza deals with that - Grant’s wife inherited a slave, but he was a Democrat at the time.