"A certain degree of misery seems inseparable from a high degree of populousness."-James Madison

 Slavery is still a sticky subject.  Whenever slavery comes up in class, you can be assured that I am wincing at the mere mention of the concept.  Even though I had nothing to do with it personally, nor did my family (we emigrated in the 1900s and 1920s) it still saddens me. I am still an American citizen, those stories are a part of my heritage, and I feel as though it is a part of my collective past. How can someone take a life like that?
Reading about Thomas Jefferson's plan to free his slaves (never carried out) it struck me that slavery isn't just  the lack of freedom.  It's a lack of education.  It's a lack of a better solution.  The more people there are, the harder it is to find jobs, the harder it is to compete.  When people are limited, they're limited by a society that lacks a better solution.