Historian Uncovers The Racist Roots Of The 2nd Amendment

[Charlemagne]

Historian Uncovers The Racist Roots Of The 2nd Amendment

Carol Anderson says the Second Amendment was designed to ensure slave owners could quickly crush any rebellion or resistance from those they'd enslaved. Her new book is The Second.

www.npr.org

 

[Valcazar]

Hard to say "uncovers" here, is it? This is pretty well known, don't you think?

 

[The Fox]

Yep but as you know, it’s the 2nd Amendment and you can’t change an amendment.

 

[mandrill]

The militia thing had numerous causes though. Indian wars as well.

Also fear of the European colonial powers. The militias fought the British in 1812 with varied success. It was a violent frontier society with lots of organized killing that had to be done.

 

[jcpro]

That's a quite a leap especially considering at whom the Declaration of Independence was aimed at and against whom the war was fought. And there is of course the spirit of the Constitutional Convention and the aim of the Framers to "shackle" the government to a limited role with the various "may nots".

 

[Valcazar]

The militia thing had numerous causes though. Indian wars as well.

Also fear of the European colonial powers. The militias fought the British in 1812 with varied success. It was a violent frontier society with lots of organized killing that had to be done.

The war of 1812 convinced the US to give up on the idea of having no professional army because the militias were so unreliable and badly trained.
Yes, Indian wars were also a reason for the militias. But "put down slave rebellions" was a big one and one that the Southern states particularly didn't trust a Federal government to go along with.
It was a major part of the discussion over who would be in charge of raising and controlling the militias.