Posted on 07/19/2017 8:54:28 AM PDT by Kaslin
Too many people believe that slavery is a "peculiar institution." That's what Kenneth Stampp called slavery in his book, "Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South." But slavery is by no means peculiar, odd or unusual. It was common among ancient peoples such as the Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Hittites, Greeks, Persians, Armenians and many others. Large numbers of Christians were enslaved during the Ottoman wars in Europe. White slaves were common in Europe from the Dark Ages to the Middle Ages. It was only after A.D. 1600 that Europeans joined with Arabs and Africans and started the Atlantic slave trade. As David P. Forsythe wrote in his book, "The Globalist," "The fact remained that at the beginning of the nineteenth century an estimated three-quarters of all people alive were trapped in bondage against their will either in some form of slavery or serfdom."
While slavery constitutes one of the grossest encroachments on human liberty, it is by no means unique or restricted to the Western world or United States, as many liberal academics would have us believe. Much of their indoctrination of our young people, at all levels of education, paints our nation's founders as racist adherents to slavery, but the story is not so simple.
At the time of the 1787 Constitutional Convention, slaves were about 40 percent of the population of the Southern colonies. Apportionment in the House of Representatives and the number of electoral votes each state would have in presidential elections would be based upon population. Southern delegates to the convention wanted slaves to be counted as one person. Northern delegates to the convention, and those opposed to slavery, wanted only free persons of each state to be counted for the purposes of apportionment in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College. The compromise reached was that each slave would be counted as only three-fifths of a person.
Many criticize this compromise as proof of racism. My question to these grossly uninformed critics is whether they would have found it more preferable for slaves to be counted as whole persons. Slaves counted as whole persons would have given slave holding Southern states much more political power. Or, would the critics of the founders prefer that the Northern delegates not compromise and not allow slaves to be counted at all. If they did, it is likely that the Constitution would have not been ratified. Thus, the question emerges is whether blacks would be better off with Northern states having gone their way and Southern states having gone theirs, resulting in no U.S. Constitution and no Union? Unlike today's pseudointellectuals, black abolitionist Frederick Douglass understood the compromise, saying that the three-fifths clause was "a downright disability laid upon the slave holding states" that deprived them of "two-fifths of their natural basis of representation."
Douglass' vision was shared by Patrick Henry and others. Henry said, expressing the reality of the three-fifths compromise, "As much as I deplore slavery, I see that prudence forbids its abolition." With this union, Congress at least had the power to abolish slave trade by 1808. According to delegate James Wilson, many believed the anti-slave-trade clause laid "the foundation for banishing slavery out of this country." Many of the founders abhorred slavery. Their statements can be read on my website, walterewilliams.com.
The most unique aspect of slavery in the Western world was the moral outrage against it, which began to emerge in the 18th century and led to massive elimination efforts. It was Britain's military sea power that put an end to the slave trade. And our country fought a costly war that brought an end to slavery. Unfortunately, these facts about slavery are not in the lessons taught in our schools and colleges. Instead, there is gross misrepresentation and suggestion that slavery was a uniquely American practice.
Nice brief history lesson there, however I disagree with the assumption that counting slaves as a whole person would have been bad for them.
I appreciate Dr Williams.
Slavery continues today, in Africa. Arabs buy and sell black Africans. Today.
Where is the outrage?
Where is the media coverage?
Slavery in the US was the best thing that ever happened to any black back the IE: how in hell did 15 or 20 WASP herd 2 to 3 herded blacks into a very small ship.....blacks should ask themselves how did this happen....and, another thing in the slave era more blacks owned blacks than whites did.......I bet that get someones dander up but check it out....it’s true.
Counting them as whole persons would have increased the population in the South by about 16-20%, thereby increasing the South's representation in Congress. More political power for slaveholders would not have been to the slave population's benefit.
Slavery is a blot on our history but I dare anyone to find another people who sacrificed as much to end it.
A lot of these idiot liberal morons think the USA INVENTED slavery.
I have to keep telling them that it was a way of life before the USA led the world in eliminating it.
You went to Africa to buy slaves because that is where the slave store was. People sold themselves into slavery. Indentured Servants was the nice name for slavery.
Bkmk
Wrong.
The Constitution does NOT count slaves as whole or partial persons.
Read the darn thing.
It talks about ‘representation’.
o Since a Republic grants States rights, does that say that people voters are not whole persons? NO.
o Since women could not vote, were they chattel, zero persons?
Read the darn thing.
Slavery and partial person hood is a common big mistake.
That is Democrat leftist Fake News.
The very first slave in the early colonies were the Irish and Scots. Read about it at Williamsburg.
The very first slave in the early colonies were the Irish and Scots. Read about it at Williamsburg.
What a shock! From media reports since the 1950s anyone without access to history books would have believed that slavery was a specifically American invention, created by evil white men. I suppose that’s what’s still taught in Black Studies departments around the country.
How about studying the years that Jews were slaves in Egypt and elsewhere then six million murdered in Nazi Germany!
“Indentured Servants was the nice name for slavery.”
An old song by the Irish Rovers describes that.
Hiring Fair
He said, “You’re welcome with me, Johnny. And you’re with a decent man.”
But little I knew what I had to do for Grady of Stravan.
As I went down to the Hiring Fair in a place they call the Strand,
Twas there I hired for seven long years with Grady of Stravan.
And before I went and hired with him, he was very nice to me.
He promised me eggs and bacon, and he then shook hands with me,
Saying “You’re welcome with me, Johnny. And you’re with a decent man.”
But little I knew what I had to do for Grady of Stravan.
When I went up to my bed that night, I let out an awful bawl.
For the fleas they made a fierce attack, and I got no sleep at all.
When I came down for my breakfast, what do you think I see,
But a dozen squawling children saying “Is there anything there for me?”
He said, “You’re welcome with me, Johnny. And you’re with a decent man.”
But little I knew what I had to do for Grady of Stravan.
I worked on Grady’s farm til I looked an awful sight.
My bones were pushing through my skin, for I worked from morn til night.
One day, I died and passed away, and Grady gave a grin,
Saying “He’ll make good fertilizer, and there’s plenty more like him.”
Saying “You’re welcome with me, Johnny. And you’re with a decent man.”
But little I knew what I had to do for Grady of Stravan.
Writer(s): Will Millar
When Rome conquered and occupied part of England, the Irish used to come across and take English slaves.
When the Romans left, the Irish came more often for slaves.
I’m not of Irish or English descent.
To say 'led' implies being first or being decisive and on that basis I am afraid that I must disagree. The greatest effort against slavery in the Western World was led by Great Britain from the mid 1700s. This resulted in Parliament passing the 1807 Slave Trade Act that led to the British Royal Navy establishing an anti-slave ship squadron in West African waters.
I commend the excellent movie, AMAZING GRACE, a biopic about William Wilberforce, for this subject and time period.
Years ago there was a PBS program on how the evil Europeans started the slave trade and other evils inflicted upon Africa.
The claim was it was started by Europeans because there is no descendants of black slaves anywhere in the Middle East.
But HERE is why, the Arabs castrated their male slaves.
Another point missed in the liberal “discussion” of slavery guilt in the USofA (not even approaching HISTORY) is the blatant fact that only about 5% of these poor wretches came to what became the USofA! To blame the same for all of the transgressions is just typical LEFTISM!
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