Throughout the discussion people shared backgrounds of people that were either pro-slavery or anti-slavery. Two people that stood out to me was Sojourner Truth and Henry Clay.
Anti-Slavery
Sojourner Truth was an African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist best-known for her speech on racial inequalities, "Ain't I a Woman?", delivered in 1851 at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention. Truth was born into slavery but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. She devoted her life to the abolitionist cause and helped to recruit black troops for the Union Army. Although Truth began her career as an abolitionist, the reform causes she sponsored were broad and varied, including prison reform, property rights and universal suffrage.
Pro-Slavery
Born on April 12, 1777, in Hanover County, Virginia, Henry Clay worked as a frontier lawyer before becoming a Kentucky senator and then speaker of the House of Representatives. He was secretary of state under John Quincy Adams in the 1820s, later returning to Congress, and pushed for the Compromise of 1850, with overall conflicting stances on race and slavery. Even though Henry Clay owned about 60 slaves, his views on slavery were very mixed. He thought of slavery as a blessing and a curse because morally it is wrong to treat humans like property but it was free easy labor. Overall slavery was a curse for both the slave and the master. His views on slavery were usually progressive especially for being a slave holder. Henry gave good and kind treatment to his slaves and emancipated most of them before his death
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