How was it possible for opponents of slavery to be so vocal in opposing the practice when they were so accepting of the economic exploitation of workers in western factories
- many of which were owned by prominent abolitionists? David Brion Davis's The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution 1770-1823 uses the critical thinking skill of analysis to break down the various arguments that were used to condemn one set of controversial practices & examine those that were used to defend another His study allows us to see clear differences in reasoning & to test the assumptions made by each argument in turn The result is an eye-opening explanation that makes it clear exactly how contemporaries resolved this apparent dichotomy
- one that allows us to judge whether the opponents of slavery were clear-eyed idealists or simply deployers of arguments that pandered to their own base economic interests