The toppling of confederate statues and monuments has been controversial. In the wake of George Floyd, a whopping 202 confederate statues have been taken down. However, this isn’t limited to just Confederate generals and soldiers. The likes of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson have become targets as well due to their ownership of hundreds of slaves, prompting an even bigger outcry from the political right. And they pose a fair question. Is this fair?

The prevailing argument is that it is unfair to judge historical figures based on present-day standards. This argument is so appealing because it is true. It would be unfair to judge people of the past by the standards of today. So of course, we should judge them not by our standards, but by the standards of their contemporaries. All of their contemporaries.

When it comes to slavery, there are two distinct groups: the slave owners and the enslaved. The notion that we should not judge someone like George Washington negatively for owning slaves because it was acceptable at the time raises an important question: To whom was slavery acceptable? If we think about this honestly, it becomes clear that the only people for whom slavery was acceptable were those who can become slave owners themselves. Surely no enslaved person thought their enslavement acceptable. Some may have accepted their position in life, but it is crucial to not equate such resignation with acceptance. By asserting slavery was acceptable at the time, this argument completely disregards the perspectives of the enslaved, which accounted for roughly 20% of the population during George Washington’s time. That is a significant portion of the population! Does their opinions and thoughts on the matter not count because they weren’t considered people? Barred from learning to read and write, enslaved people had to rely on oral traditions. Therefore, they could not document their histories and the atrocities committed against them, the way the other 80% did for the exploits of their heroes. They were literally barred from being heard.

Fast forward to today and their descendants are still struggling to be heard. They’re repeatedly being told that the people who enslaved their ancestors were not bad people, and that slavery was acceptable back then. The founding fathers were great people who did many great things. They were also horrible people who did many bad things. Let’s stop deluding ourselves into believing that only one of those is true.