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Debate Info

8
5
Yes No
Debate Score:13
Arguments:15
Total Votes:14
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Argument Ratio

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 Yes (7)
 
 No (4)

Debate Creator

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Should William Ellison statues come down?

Willaim Ellison was a black man and former slave who owned a cotton plantation and had 40 slaves.


   

Yes

Side Score: 8
VS.

No

Side Score: 5
1 point

I have read and studied the store of one of many slave owners, statues from all over the country are being taken down for one of many reasons, the main reason is that they were slave owners, if we take down one we taken down all. YES William (April) Ellison is no exception to the fact. He bought and sold slaves, at one time he owned the most out of just 171 black slave masters in the state of South Carolina, he sold them and would breed them. He is NO better then the rest of the slave owners. It’s so sad that a lot of people really don’t know the facts of the history, it was not just the whites that were slave master it was also black slave masters, let’s come together as one and tell it like it is.

Side: Yes
2 points

No, his apparent philosophy of, ''if you can't beat them, join them'' was sound reasoning.

Good old William Ellison was one of the few clever black business men who recognized the positive impact free labour made to the Profit & Loss accounts.

He avoided the hypocrisy of feigning sympathy for those whom he had enslaved and treated them with the contempt which they deserved.

Side: No
1 point

That's a piece of history I am not familiar with, but, did he take up arms against the U.S.?? If he DID, yes, he should come down like the rest of the traitorous ones.

If he treated his "slaves" well, he may have just been giving them "employment", while making work easier for them with his Cotton Gins. In this way he would be protecting them from the nasty white slave owners. I dunno, maybe I'll look him up. Anyway, how he treated them is the measure he should be judged on, not the color of his skin.

Side: No
AlofRI(3294) Clarified
1 point

Okay, so why should he?? He was a FREE slave who saved enough money to free (purchase) his wife and make HER free. He "hired" his "slaves", which means he PAID them, he TRAINED them (gave them a trade), Seems they were "called slaves" because of the times, but, were actually employees. Later they were taken away from him because of the racist law that "slaves" had to be under the "supervision " of , um, "superior whites".

No, Mr. Ellison's statue should remain UP!

Your racist post failed like a Trump tweet.

Side: Yes
outlaw60(15368) Clarified
2 points

Crazy AL can you tell us all who freed the slaves ? It was not a Democrat and that is your first clue !!!!!!!!!!!!

Side: Yes
Olofio(1) Disputed
1 point

According to Henry Louis Gates jr. of The Root, Mr. Ellison was NOT a benevolent owner of slaves. He allowed none of them to purchase their freedom. At the time of his death, he owned 900 acres, 63 slaves and was one of the wealthiest men in the South. His family gave aid (both financial and produce) to the Confederates, and when the war broke out, he offered his slaves to the Confederacy for labor or soldiers.

From where I sit, it seems his statue should be removed like the others. By the way, Robert E. Lee never owned slaves, however, U.S. Grant did.

Side: Yes
Kristyklb(1) Disputed
1 point

It should come down if everyone wants to act a fool then yes why is his statue better then anybody else everyone is raising hell about something that happened way before our time if you want to get down to it if your a black person I bet the shirt you have on right now is 100% cotton why is that ok slaves picked cotton and when you take an aspirin don't you have to pick the cotton out of the bottle ? Why not try to start some crap to ban aspirin. And when are we going over and start destroying the great pyramids they were built by slaves. Why act a fool over stuff that we had no control over it happened that was then and this is now be a great American and teach younger generation respect and our history but let them know you can't change what happened by acting a fool but you can change the way it is taught not through violence but by research. Everything happens for a reason we may not know why but it does and that's why we're here today

Side: Yes
1 point

What if a lot of white plantation owners were doing the same thing? I'm certain that slavery was a bad deal for most, but I've read memoirs from slaves that actually didn't want to leave because of how well they were treated as family by white slave owners. Why can we use moral relativism hundreds of years after the fact to decide what statues come down? Robert E. Lee wound up condemning slavery in reflection after the fact and was actually good friends with U S Grant, and he even gave a well thought out speech about us "all being Americans and needing to now unite together as Americans" after the war. Nevertheless, they just hung a noose around his statue's neck with no regards for historical preservation or even looking into what history actually says about the man.

Side: Yes
1 point

Hello bront:

I have NO idea HOW right wingers get it SOOO wrong, and SOOOO many times in a row too.. Now, I'm gonna set you straight, but it won't matter.. You're gonna sing that old tune again...

Most people are bad.. Most people did bad things.. If we decided to remove statues based on bad behavior, we'd have NO statues.. We'd have NO memorials... We'd celebrate NOBODY!

In my view, THIS debate is about whether we should venerate soldiers who were traitors to the United States, and besides that, they LOST the war. If these statues were put up to celebrate them, WHY weren't they put up right after the Civil War??? Why did they wait until the Civil Rights era to erect these statues??? Was it to celebrate war hero's, or to make a statement about civil rights????

Next, you also gotta ask yourself whether the Civil War was about slavery, or states rights.. If it WAS states rights, then the hero's of THAT war should remain.. Cause, states rights are POLITICAL rights..

But, if it was about SLAVERY, the people who fought for it AREN'T hero's.. Cause slavery is about HUMAN rights..

excon

Side: No
2 points

Most people are bad.. Most people did bad things.. If we decided to remove statues based on bad behavior, we'd have NO statues.. We'd have NO memorials... We'd celebrate NOBODY!

I agree. That was kind of the point.

Side: Yes
1 point

If these statues were put up to celebrate them, WHY weren't they put up right after the Civil War??? Why did they wait until the Civil Rights era to erect these statues??? Was it to celebrate war hero's, or to make a statement about civil rights????

Some statues fit your description and some do not. Why do we get to use moral relativism hundreds of years after the fact to decide what does or doesn't come down? Each one was probably put up for a different reason, some good, and some bad. But the fact is, some of them may have been put up as a reminder of history or even possibly as a reminder to not repeat the past.

Side: Yes
1 point

Next, you also gotta ask yourself whether the Civil War was about slavery, or states rights.. If it WAS states rights, then the hero's of THAT war should remain.. Cause, states rights are POLITICAL rights..

But, if it was about SLAVERY, the people who fought for it AREN'T hero's.. Cause slavery is about HUMAN rights..

So if you aren't 100% certain, and I'm not 100% certain, why do we get to suddenly be outraged about it and start yanking them all down, when nobody cared enough to do anything about it for hundreds of years? Why is today the magical day for progressives to start going vigilante and destroying everything that they dislike?

Side: Yes
outlaw60(15368) Clarified
1 point

Super Stupid do you know who freed the slaves ? Come on JEW tell us who freed the slaves !!!!!!!!!!!!

Side: Yes
1 point

Contrary to what is claimed here: (a) Ellison was not only a cruel slave owner, he was a notorious slave breeder for decades and had a slave dungeon on his property; (2) his sons also owned slaves and one fought and died as a member of the Confederate army; and (3) the family had a large amount invested in Confederate bonds and currency at the end of the war.

Side: No