I don’t know what to make of slavery. The entire concept is so alien and so horrific it is easy, as a modern man, to say “Oh, slavery is terrible. Those who eradicated it are heroes. I would have supported them whole-heartedly.” But if I were fighting in the American Civil War, or listening to an abolitionist of the Wendell Phillips variety how would I feel? I like to think I’d feel the way I do now: I always judge by the group but react to the individual. I might swallow the propaganda and care little or nothing for those in bondage. I might be generally in favor of gradual abolition but turned off by the crackpottery of extremists pushing immediate and unconditional freedom.
In fact, I am almost certain I would despise all abolitionists as I would despise all fire-eaters, know-nothings and other uncompromising demagogues.
Actually, as wonderful a film as this is, what struck me was what horrible people abolitionists were. How full of righteous moral fervor, how unpleasant, how lacking in humour. They remind me of your average modern left-winger. Not a funny bone in their entire body. Hopeless people.