Free Republic

A sign commemorating the arrival of the first Africans is displayed at Chesapeake Bay, in Hampton, Va., August 24, 2019. (Michael A. McCoy/Reuters) It didn’t begin or end in the United States. The same people most obsessed with slavery seem to have little interest in the full scope of its history. There has been an effort for decades now — although with new momentum lately, as exemplified by the New York Times’ 1619 project — to identify the United States and its founding with slavery. To the extent that this campaign excavates uncomfortable truths about our history and underlines...

Archaeological excavations at the Aranbaltza site in the Basque Country coast (Northern Spain) have revealed several episodes of neandertal occupations with preserved wooden remains... In 2015, the excavation revealed two very well preserved wooden tools, one of which is a 15 cm-long digging stick... The detailed analysis of this tool and the luminescence dating of the sediment that bears the wooden remains indicate that the objects were deposited around 90,000 years ago, and thus were made by neandertals. The Micro-CT analysis and a close examination of the surface have shown that a yew trunk was cut longitudinally into two halves....

In 1786, Thomas Jefferson, then a minister to the French government of Louis XVI, had a concern more intimidating than anything else he’d faced before: the threat of pirates off the coast of North Africa, a region known as the Barbary Coast. These pirates had already taken over two American ships, the Dauphin and the Maria, plundering their goods and taking their crews hostage. Unfortunately, this was a common fate for ships venturing near the area, where the Sahara’s arid coast was divided into four Islamic nation-states. Running west to east were the Barbary nations Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and...

Since the epiphany of last September, we have heard countless comparisons between the murders by militant Mohammedans and various epochs of Western history, in a bizarre, masochistic, self-condemning attempt to extenuate the current jihad movement. Dominating the examples of a Western conduit for bloodthirsty religious fervor similar to that of the Osama Movement has been the Spanish Inquisition. Unfortunately for our media and this self-deprecating sequela, examination of the Spanish Inquisition reveals it to be none of the things it is alleged to be, but to be in fact the most just tribunal of its time. The very word “Inquisition”...

The Battle of Tours Charles de Steuben's Battaile de Poitiers en Octobre 732 depicts a triumphant Charles Martel (mounted) facing Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi (right) at the Battle of Tours. Date: October 10, 732 Location: near Tours, France Result: Decisive Frankish victory CombatantsCarolingian Franks v. Umayyad Caliphate Commanders Charles Martel v.Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi Abd er Rahman Strength 15,000-75,000 v. 60,000-400,000 Casualtiesabout 1500 reported in western history, but probably far heavier unknown, but reported massive, notably Emir Abd er Rahman. The Battle of Tours (October 10, 732), often called Battle of Poitiers and also called in Arabic بلاط الشهداء...