Quote Originally Posted by a completely inoffensive name View Post
I am saying this is why we should not judge people based on the time that they lived in but instead based on our own modern ideas. Otherwise we let too many people fall through the cracks. In his time George Washington was beloved by almost all. If we simply judge based on the standards of his own time, then yeah he was a great man for doing all the things he did including letting his slaves go which was unheard of at the time. However, this completely lets the key point go unasked which is "Why did he take so long to let his slaves go?". This is a question that stems from our own conceptions of slavery (AKA it is wrong an no one should ever have slaves for any amount of time period) whose answer may put Washington in a more unfavorable light but an overall more realistic one.
Hmm you're contradicting yourself.

Let's say we have X amount of hatred for someone who owns slaves today. That's "based on our modern ideas". Would you have the same of hatred for washington? No, because of the times he lived in.

He also treated his slaves much better than other people and refused to break up families. He kept slaves because his entire livelihood and social standing was based on it. What new, unfavorable light does that shed on him?

You guys are on tricky ground here and don't quite realize it. People today who are brought up in poverty in are likely to be less educated and more ignorant than middle class people. Wouldn't you agree though that our judgement should be influenced by the circumstances in which they grew up? If not, what do you think about black people compared to white people?

If you straight up judge people from the past by our standards you will most likely judge them too harshly out of ignorance of the times. Also I don't get this suggested dichotomy between saying everything was ok back then and simply using modern standards.