When Jim Powell wrote an article for the website “History News Network” (HNN) regarding his new book, Greatest Emancipations: How the West Ended Slavery, he was immediately denounced by some of the commentators on the site. One, Lewis Bernstein, said he was sick and tired of “those like Jim Powell” distorting history and taking it “out of context.” John Edward Phillips accused Powell, a senior fellow of the CATO Institute, of being a liar: “You think you can lie . . . and get away with it,” he snarled. “Maybe you can at the Cato Institute . . . but not here on HNN.” “Does the Cato Institute endorse it [the book]?, he asked in disbelief.
What could Powell, author of FDR’s Folly, Wilson’s War, and Bully Boy, have written to solicit such a reaction? Greatest Emancipations is an historical account of how all the nations of the Western world — except for the U.S. — ended slavery peacefully by utilizing multiple strategies. These strategies, implemented by the British, French, Spanish, Dutch, Danes, and others, included slave rebellions, abolitionist campaigns to gain public support for abolition, election of antislavery politicians, encouragement and assistance of runaway slaves, raising private funds to purchase the freedom of slaves, and the use of taxpayer funds to buy the freedom of slaves.
Read Full Article: https://thewashingtonstandard.com/how-the-west-except-for-the-u-s-ended-slavery/
