Debbie Ingram: As good, decent people, let’s vote to abolish slavery, without exception

This commentary is by Debbie Ingram, executive director of Vermont Interfaith Action and a former state senator from Williston.

Ballot initiatives are rare for our state, and this year Vermonters have the chance to vote for two of them. 

The one proposal many voters are not familiar with — and in fact are often surprised by — is Prop 2, to amend Article 1 of the Vermont Constitution to abolish slavery without exception.

Vermont Interfaith Action and the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance have been collaborating on a campaign to pass Prop 2 for over a year now. The partnership is a natural one for both parties. People of faith and goodwill, who comprise Vermont Interfaith Action, are energetic about taking a moral stand against the most reprehensible of our historic institutions — slavery. The African Americans, especially American Descendants of Slavery, who comprise the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance, have a personal interest as well in unambiguously ending a system that directly affected their forebears and has brought adverse effects to succeeding generations — including the one today.

It makes sense for these two groups to lead the campaign, and it makes sense, too, for every Vermonter to vote in favor of this amendment. To say that “slavery and indentured servitude in all forms are prohibited” asserts a value that all Vermonters hold dear, wherever they may be on the political spectrum. 

If we are all in agreement that it is simply wrong for one person to own another person, then there is no reason not to vote “yes” on Prop 2.

Despite various efforts over the 246-year history of our state and our country, there has never been a time when slavery has been unequivocally abolished in American life. 

The Vermont Constitution, the first example of a state constitution to address slavery, serving as a template followed by some 25 other states, details three exceptions to prohibiting slavery: for those under age 21, for those who consent to being enslaved, and as punishment for debts, damages and fines. 

These exceptions will be stricken from our constitution when Prop 2 passes, removing archaic, confusing language in favor of plain, modern and infinitely clearer wording to ensure that all persons are free and independent.

Although we fought the Civil War to end slavery, neither the Emancipation Proclamation, which applied only to freeing slaves in the states in rebellion against the Union, nor the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which to this day still allows an exception for “punishment of a crime,” truly made abolition of slavery the law of the land.

What does it matter that the language has not been clear? Some ask this question, adding that chattel slavery, the kind that we saw on Southern plantations, no longer exists. 

To say that slavery is an historic anomaly, some kind of moot point, is to be willfully unaware of what our country has inherited from being the center of slavery in the modern world. Hate crimes, violence, backlash against protests, fear of teaching historical truths in our schools, and systemic racism in jobs, business development, housing, policing, criminal justice, health care and education — all of these are attributable to the legacy of slavery in our country. 

I ask instead, “Why would we not take a moral stand against the most reprehensible of human practices in the document that exists to declare what Vermont is and what its people value?” 

Let us join together, Vermonters, as the good, decent people that we are, to make a common-sense vote in favor of abolishing slavery, without exception.