An 18th century depiction of the casta racial classification system created by the Spanish. The painting is in the Museo de Virreinato, Tepozotlan; image from
From the U.S. Declaration of Independence (1776), known for its introductory statement that "[A]ll men are created equal," in a subsequent section of this USA-defining document:
"[T]he inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions."
Perhaps a not-so-crazy "alternative history" question: Would Jefferson, the drafter of the Declaration, have advocated building a wall in the newly-created United States of America to keep (to use contemporary US political language) "drug-dealing, rapisthombres" out of the city upon a hill?
Well, I guess not that unlikely, if the hombres' ancestors were "Indians" ... :)
(Ok, maybe not, since being on a hill keeps the God-given "city" keeps miraculously out of the messy, sinful reality below).
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More on slave-owning Jefferson and Indians (sorry, I did not mean to offend the politically correct but meant "native Americans"):Thomas Jefferson believed Native American peoples to be a noble race[1] who were "in body and mind equal to the whiteman"[2] and were endowed with an innate moral sense and a marked capacity for reason.[3] Nevertheless, Jefferson developed plans for Indian Removal to lands [JB see also (1) (2)] West of the Mississippi, includingforced removal such as that carried out by later presidents in the Trail of Tears. [4][5][6]
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IS THE ONLY "AMORAL" LESSON FROM ALL THIS IS THAT HISTORY IS COMPLICATED/MERCILESS? ...