Talk:Thomas Patterson Brockman

This article is rated Stub-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Biography: Politics and Government

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography
	This article is supported by the politics and government work group (assessed as Low-importance).
	This article has been automatically rated by a bot or other tool as Stub-class because it uses a stub template. Please ensure the assessment is correct before removing the `\|auto=` parameter.

United States: State Legislatures

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by WikiProject U.S. State Legislatures (assessed as Low-importance).

I read a few other biographies regarding southern plantation owners at the time (eg. Robert E. Lee). They don't seem to emphasize the slave-owning bit. I think it goes without saying that Thomas was a slaveowner as that was how the economy worked, et cetera. But with such a brief biography at this point it seems negative to emphasize it in a 3 line stub. If we had copies of some of his senate remarks, his military record et cetera then it might fit in a bit better, particularly if he supported seccession against abolitionists or something like that.

There is a lot more on the page now than when the slave-owning comment was there, and it seems like it is an interesting fact given that Brockman was a Unionist. Would it make sense to put a reference to this back at this point? Abulsme 06:10, 16 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps. It is interesting, and one assumes that it would have been politically difficult to have been both an abolitionist and a unionist in the plotical climate of that time, though such a supposition is clearly not suitable for the article without a good reference regarding the political climate at the time, which I do not have. I believe I have a reference that he owned about 32 slaves. He inherited about half of his father's 500 acres and added about 700 or so acres to it. The original reference was something like 'he was a major landholder and slave owner.' I do not know, but suspect, that 32 slaves and 1000+ acres was not necessarily major league plantation-owner relative to the low-country/piedmont plantations. Sandwich Eater 12:14, 16 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Added a couple notes on the topic. There is not enough information in the sources I have access to regarding his views on abolition. Sandwich Eater 00:43, 17 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Good addition. Thanks! Abulsme 07:56, 19 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]