Posted on 02/08/2016 2:36:19 PM PST by pgyanke
I am in a discussion with a secular humanist who wants to know why, if our Founding Fathers believed in the inalienable rights of man, they allowed slavery. Can anyone recommend a good, honest book on the subject to share with him?
I’m surprised they aren’t quibbling over why women couldn’t vote.
But don’t worry. As soon as you wear yourself out trying to please them on slavery, they’ll switch immediately to women’s sufferance.
I have no doubt.
Try the bible. It shows quite clearly the fallen nature of Human Beings, expressed in this case their almost infinite capacity for denial and compartmentalisation.
I agree but did you notice the part about he’s a secular humanist?!
Any discussion about slavery that excludes the US federal income tax is incomplete.
Ask him if he believes it was so bad (along with clobbering the Indians) why doesn’t he live in a project to help obama’s sons, and SELL all his worldly possessions and distribute the money among women, indians, and slaves.
I would do that, but, um, I dont give a @#$@#.
I don’t have a book to offer, but lefties cannot fathom any culture but their own version of utopia.
Keeping things within a historical context is very challenging for them. But it was the culture of the day. To many it was an accepted norm. Many did not accept slavery and eventually fought against it.
I suggest finding books that clearly show Black Africans were the ones doing much of the rounding up, and either worked for the slave traders or sold slaves to them.
A New Economic View of American History From Colonial Times to 1940 by Jeremy Atack and Peter Passell. Available cheap on Amazon.com. Basically it points out that the government could have bought all the slaves from slaveholders and it would have cost them $3-billion. And the cost of the Civil War in materials,land damage, lost income of lost lives and limbs-—$3-billion. Very interesting how the North could care less as it was economically viable for the acquisition of raw materials for their factories until Northern Christian Abolitionists changed the economic balance.
By God....That is a good post!
Tell him the British started it and 650,000 Americans died stopping it.
“Northern Christian”
Most plantation owners
How about one on the first man in America to own a slave—
http://conservative-headlines.com/2012/03/americas-first-slave-owner-was-a-black-man/
Anthony Johnson was a Negro from modern-day Angola. He was brought to the US to work on a tobacco farm in 1619. In 1622 he was almost killed when Powhatan Indians attacked the farm. 52 out of 57 people on the farm perished in the attack. He married a female black servant while working on the farm.
When Anthony was released he was legally recognized as a “free Negro†and ran a successful farm. In 1651 he held 250 acres and five black indentured servants. In 1654, it was time for Anthony to release John Casor, a black indentured servant. Instead Anthony told Casor he was extending his time. Casor left and became employed by the free white man Robert Parker.
Anthony Johnson sued Robert Parker in the Northampton Court in 1654. In 1655, the court ruled that Anthony Johnson could hold John Casor indefinitely. The court gave judicial sanction for blacksto own slave of their own race. Thus Casor became the first permanent slave and Johnson the first slave owner.
Slavery started in medieval times
Because they needed the Southern States and was not going to get them without conceding slavery.
Any discussion about slavery that excludes the US tariffs on cotton is incomplete.
80% of the money coming into the US treasury was from tariffs on southern cotton. The north was bleeding the south. The US had no income tax at that time - so they put the burden on the south.
I’d simply ask him if he can name one race, civilization or even country that does not have a history of slavery.
The idea was not unique to America. In fact, it only lasted about 80 years in America. The Founders and the Constitution had nothing to do with what happened for hundreds of years when America was British colonies.
For that matter, ask him why the Union Jack is not a symbol of slavery rather than the Battle Flag of the Confederacy?
Don’t waste your time. Truth is foreign to such people.
While this is not exactly what you’re looking for, there are several accounts of mass white slavery in the South before the Civil War in this book,
The Life Stories of Undistinguished Americans as Told by Themselves: Expanded Edition
It’s like listening to your grandfather tell his life story.
My father’s parents grew up cutting sugarcane in Louisiana right beside the black folks after the Civil War. There wasn’t much quality-of-life difference for the 2 groups.
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