[email protected] wrote:
>
> If 
> Desmond and Moore are right about Darwin's motivation, it's remarkable to 
> think that Darwin held such views at a time when most, including many 
> religious authorities, defended the practice of slavery. 
What is your evidence for this remarkable claim, Stephen. "Most" of 
whom? The British outlawed the slave trade before Darwin was born (1809, 
as I recall) and they outlawed slavery itself across the empire in the 
1833, while Darwin was still out on the Beagle. Many (though by no means 
all) religious leaders argued against slavery on both sides of the 
Atlantic. Darwin's opposition to slavery was hardly unusual among 
British citizens. Indeed, Lincoln's famous emancipation proclamation, 
issued suddenly in the middle of the Civil War, was primarily aimed at 
keeping the British from running the Union blockades of Confederate 
ports because, although the British had no compunctions about 
interfering in a war over the unity of the US, it was politically 
impossible at home for it to intervene in a war over slavery on the side 
of the slavers.

Regards,
Chris
-- 

Christopher D. Green
Department of Psychology
York University
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
Canada

 

416-736-2100 ex. 66164
[email protected]
http://www.yorku.ca/christo/

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