Finally, the last day of the political campaign is here! I doubt if anyone will miss the ads on radio and tv when tomorrow comes. I heard a tidbit this morning that I think is remarkable; it would have been legal for the first 16 Presidents of this country to own Barack Obama as property, i. e. as a slave. So that means the following list of men could have used a whip on him to go hoe the fields and pick the cotton: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Adams, Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan, and Lincoln.
I'm not sure how many actually did hold slaves, but I know Jefferson did and has been linked with one of his slave women as bearing a child by him. Andrew Jackson was a slaveholder; I have seen his grave site at The Hermitage in Tennessee where, nearby, his favorite slave is buried.
The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution officially abolished slavery and was adopted on December 6, 1865.
