mddm: elephant or serpent?

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

 "does the word  s l a v e r y  appear in the u.s. constitution?

 despite its importance as a political, legal, and ethical issue in american 
 history, the word  s l a v e r y  does not appear in the u.s. constitution of 
 1787. the first reference, curiously enough, does not occur until the 
 thirteenth amendment, adaopted in 1865, which abolished it! depite the 
 delegates' deliberate avoidance of the term, however, the reality of slavery 
 was the dominating factor in the convention which drafted the constitution as 
 the fundamental law under which the country would be governed. in the telling 
 phrase of the scholar cornel west, slavery was the serpent coiled around the 
 legs of the table on which the constitution was drafted."

 --- richard newman/marcia sawyer: everybody say freedom. everything you need to 
      know about african-american history. nyc 1996: plume/penguin, p. 48 --- 


later, kai