Southern Slaveholders: The Inventors of ‘Cancel Culture’

Southern Slaveholders: The Inventors of ‘Cancel Culture’
A 100-foot monument to former U.S. vice president and slavery advocate John C. Calhoun towers over a downtown square in Charleston, S.C., on June 23, 2020. Meg Kinnard/AP Photo
Rob Natelson
Updated:
Commentary

There’s a prevailing orthodoxy and its opponents are branded “insurrectionists.” Nonconformists are banned from social media outlets. They’re threatened and they lose their livelihoods. Street mobs attack them and destroy their property. Government officials not only refuse to protect their rights, but also sometimes even conspire with the oppressors.

Rob Natelson
Rob Natelson
Author
Robert G. Natelson, a former constitutional law professor who is senior fellow in constitutional jurisprudence at the Independence Institute in Denver, authored “The Original Constitution: What It Actually Said and Meant” (3rd ed., 2015). He is a contributor to The Heritage Foundation’s “Heritage Guide to the Constitution.”
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