Talk:Jonathan Walker (abolitionist)

Category

Is the category 19th century criminal relevant here ? According to some standards of that time, yes, but in a contemporary encyclopedia, I feel it is very misleading. --Pierre et Condat (talk) 03:45, 23 October 2011 (UTC)

I agree that it seems inappropriate to have Walker categorized with the likes of the Bloody Benders, a family of serial killers. However there is nothing in the definition of "criminal" that does not reasonably apply to a law-breaker motivated by conscience. From the article Crime:

In ordinary language, the term crime denotes an unlawful act punishable by a state. The term crime does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition, though statutory definitions have been provided for certain purposes. The most popular view is that crime is a category created by law (i.e. something is a crime if applicable law says that it is). One proposed definition is that a crime, also called an offence or a criminal offence, is an act harmful not only to some individual, but also to the community or the state (a public wrong). Such acts are forbidden and punishable by law.

Walker's actions were "crimes" in the sense that he was convicted and sentenced by a legitimate government. However, using the "proposed definition" above, one might argue that his actions are considered laudable today, so we might argue that his act was not "harmful… to the community or the state," therefore he should not be classed as a criminal. The counter-argument, though, is that the State of Florida and the slave society it governed was harmed by his actions, which challenged the moral right of some people to enslave others. So in that context, he was a criminal in Florida even though other Americans celebrated him as a hero.

Maybe a subcategory should be created for 19th-century Americans who were convicted of crimes for deliberately violating laws that upheld slavery. The category would need a shorter title, of course. At the moment there would be only one article there — this one. — ℜob C. alias ALAROB 20:41, 21 July 2014 (UTC)

Description of picture

The article states that it was his right hand and that the letters were reversed. However, the picture either shows a left hand with reversed letters or a right hand with normal letters. Can anyone clarify from a source text whether his left or right hand was branded? Adambondy (talk) 19:27, 4 April 2013 (UTC)

The text had been copied verbatim from a website that may have been copyrighted. (There was no statement of either copyright or free use on the copied page.) I have removed the descriptive text for that reason. I can’t speak to the accuracy of the description. — ℜob C. alias ALAROB 20:27, 21 July 2014 (UTC)

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