Here is the basic problem.
People look back on these early historical figures, such as Washington or Jefferson, and complain that some of them were slave owners.
Yes, some of them were.
And modern critics complain that 21st century rights and equality didn't exist in the late 18th century.
It took time to get there.
Lincoln began his Gettysburg Address with "Four score and seven years ago..." 87 years since July 1776.
It took time to get there.
Historical figures and monuments show vital steps along a historical path to get to where we are today.
You take for example the 15th Amendment. This gave coloured men the right to vote.
The Republican Party in power at the time, without Lincoln, worked very hard to get that passed and ratified, with the Democrats fighting tooth and nail every step of the way.
You look at that today and complain that it didn't allow women to vote. No, it didn't: that's the 19th Amendment.
But the 15th was a huge step for its time. It would have been impossible, had it not been for the 14th Amendment which granted US Citizenship to all former slaves.
And that would have been impossible without the 13th Amendment, which finally outlawed slavery.
You can't have everything all at once. These things are accomplished in steps, and often with great resistance from political opponents.
And these historical monuments are just that: standing for the monumental victory that these heroes of the past achieved.
It might be hard to imagine that at the time of the American Revolution, and United Empire Loyalists who came here in those turbulent years, and you realize that slavery was still a thing in Canada back then.
It was 1793, I think, when Gov John G Simcoe of Upper Canada ended slavery.
If you have an agricultural economy dependent on slavery, you can't just cut it off without a disastrous economic impact.
Furthermore, Simcoe's own cabinet, which he chose, were property owners, many of whom did own slaves.
Simcoe decreed that everyone who is a slave now will have to remain a slave. No more slaves can be imported, and any children born to slaves from this day forward are free at age 25.
This allowed the economy to transition.
Are you going to blame Simcoe because he didn't free everyone overnight?
The British Empire still had active slavery. The newly formed USA had active slavery. Simcoe broke new ground, being the first to abolish slavery.
Did that suddenly give citizenship and voting rights to African-Canadians? Probably not. I don't know when that changed. But segregation was in play up into the 20th century, I think.
Are you going to blame Simcoe for not fixing all that as well?
By 1820, there were virtually no slaves in Upper Canada. It was abolished!
What he did was a huge, almost unthinkable achievement for his time.
That's why history matters.
