Journal #8: Response to Catherine Roe

I really enjoyed reading Catherine’s post comparing and contrasting Jefferson Davis and Henry Garnet. It is so interesting to see the two juxtaposed side by side, considering they both have such entirely different backgrounds, arguments and views. What really struck me about Catherine’s blog was the idea that the two vastly different men used the same idea of their rights being violated as justification for their individual causes. As Catherine said, Davis’s reasons for the South’s secession from the Union cite a violation of what he believes to be American’s right to own slaves, while Garnet argues that slavery violates the rights of those enslaved as humans. It is very interesting to see how they each interpret the idea of American rights to fit their own agendas in accordance with what each man thinks are the correct views.