Morning Belz, July 27

A quote about Virginia.

Jan. 6 testimony ongoing now — PBS
Nice piece on Chloe Valdary — Dispatch
Brief whale breach video — Deep Sea Life
Orwell, socialism and patriotism — Noah Smith

Quote
“The key to the puzzle, historically, does lie in Virginia. Virginia was the largest of the new United States, in territory, in population, in influence — in slaveholding. Virginians owned more than 40 percent of all the slaves in the new nation. It was Virginia slaves who grew most of the tobacco that helped to buy American independence. And Virginia furnished the country’s most eloquent spokesmen for freedom and equality. Virginia adopted the first state constitution with a bill of rights. A Virginian commanded the Continental Army that won independence. Virginians drafted not only the Declaration of Independence but also the United States Constitution of 1787 and the first ten amendments to it. And Americans elected Virginians to the presidency for thirty-two of the first thirty-six years of its existence. They were all slaveholders. If it is possible to understand the American paradox, the marriage of slavery and freedom, Virginia is surely the place to begin.” — Edmund S. Morgan, “American Slavery, American Freedom,” 1975

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