California State University Northridge The Constitutional Amendment Discussion

The Constitution gives a process for changing itself, called amending the Constitution. Propose a Constitutional amendment here, and argue in favor of it. Answer questions like:

• Why should we have this amendment?
• What problem would it solve?
• How would it solve that problem?
• Would it be likely to pass the amending procedure?

There’s a current controversy about how to grapple with the fact that many of the Founders (the group of English colonists who helped found America as an independent country) owned slaves. Some people think that we can entirely separate their writings about freedom from their behavior in owning slaves. Other people argue that the fact that they owned slaves means that we should discount their writing, and have less attachment to America’s political origins. Some people argue for a position in the middle.

What do you think? Should the fact that many of the Founding Fathers owned slaves change our relationship with America’s founding? How? Why or why not?