Think you know about slavery? You don’t.

Flopping Aces ^ | 07-02-15 | DrJohn

[Starman417]

 

Certain things tend to set off triggers in you. For me it was Don Lemon- when he joined the flag-damning freaking idiot liberal lemmings in their bloodlust considering the removal of the Jefferson memorial:

CNN's Don Lemon on Tuesday hinted that there will come a day when the United States will have to "rethink" tributes such as the Jefferson Memorial. After a contentious segment with Ben Jones, in which the former Congressman defended the Confederate flag, Legal View host Ashley Banfield brought up the author of the Declaration of Independence.

She reminded, "There is a monument of him in the capital city of the United States. No one ever asked for that to come down." At first, Lemon asserted that the comparison was not "equal" and that Jefferson "was a part of the entire United States." He then added, "There may come a day when we may want to rethink Jefferson, I don't if we should do that. But when we get to that point, I'll be happy to partake in that particular discussion."

And so will I.

I'd already warned about this and I got to watch it take place. With each passing day liberals become more and more like ISIS- seeking to purge history of anything they deem politically incorrect according to THEIR version of politically correct history. Let's go back and look at how slavery came to be. Here are some hard facts.

Thomas Jefferson had nothing but contempt for slavery:

Thomas Jefferson was a consistent opponent of slavery his whole life. Calling it a “moral depravity” and a “hideous blot,” he believed that slavery presented the greatest threat to the survival of the new American nation. Jefferson also thought that slavery was contrary to the laws of nature, which decreed that everyone had a right to personal liberty. These views were radical in a world where unfree labor was the norm.

At the time of the American Revolution, Jefferson was actively involved in legislation that he hoped would result in slavery’s abolition. In 1778, he drafted a Virginia law that prohibited the importation of enslaved Africans. In 1784, he proposed an ordinance that would ban slavery in the Northwest territories. But Jefferson always maintained that the decision to emancipate slaves would have to be part of a democratic process; abolition would be stymied until slaveowners consented to free their human property together in a large-scale act of emancipation. To Jefferson, it was anti-democratic and contrary to the principles of the American Revolution for the federal government to enact abolition or for only a few planters to free their slaves.

But don't blame Jefferson for slavery. Don't blame the Founding Fathers for slavery. They didn't invent slavery, although MSNBC and CNN would have you believe they did.

Blame the Sumerians.

Slavery wasn't invented in Africa. It's probably a Mesopotamian concept, practiced in Sumeria for millennia before it was seen in Africa. Slavery has long been a staple of Islam and Muslim countries. Islam is also indelibly intertwined with African slavery.

Black Africans were transported to the Islamic empire across the Sahara to Morocco and Tunisia from West Africa, from Chad to Libya, along the Nile from East Africa, and up the coast of East Africa to the Persian Gulf. This trade had been well entrenched for over 600 years before Europeans arrived, and had driven the rapid expansion of Islam across North Africa.

By the time of the Ottoman Empire, the majority of slaves were obtained by raiding in Africa. Russian expansion had put an end to the source of "exceptionally beautiful" female and "brave" male slaves from the Caucasians -- the women were highly prised in the harem, the men in the military. The great trade networks across north Africa were as much to do with the safe transportation of slaves as other goods. An analysis of prices at various slave markets shows that eunuchs fetched higher prices than other males, encouraging the castration of slaves before export.

In the 1430's Portugese explorers came sailing down the West coast of Africa looking to trade not for slaves, but for gold (Hence, the Gold Coast). Slavery was well entrenched in Africa by then. The Portuguese discovered they could obtain their desired gold by transporting slaves from one part of Africa to another- from one African slave owner to another. And:

[marktwain]

“This really oversimplifies — not to say whitewashes — Jefferson. While he had major criticisms of slavery in his youth, he learned how to live with it as he got older.”

Your whole post is an oversimplification. Jefferson was one of the very few voices condemning slavery, which had been an institution supported and recognized all around the world for as long as history existed. There was a bit less of it in Europe than in Africa, Asia, and North and South America.

It was a ubiquitous institution. For Jefferson to even criticize it was incredible.

It was Europeans, particularly the British Empire,that almost eradicated Slavery. It hung on in remote parts of the globe like Saudi Arabia and Central Africa where it is practiced to this day.

Now with the rise of Islam, it is seeing a resurgence.

[X-spurt]

Why blacks think this is just a black thing is beyond me.

Why? That’s the only claim they have and reparations is so enticing.

[ronnie raygun]

Because history is more or less reinveted by the education system to conform to the agenda and most students today believe what the commie educators have taught them, we see zombies with talking points and the facts are irrelavant and wrong. The reinvented slavery issues plays well with the oppressed blacks in this country even though thier are more middleclass black families today then ever before. Progress not recognized

[x]

Jefferson was one of the very few voices condemning slavery, which had been an institution supported and recognized all around the world for as long as history existed. There was a bit less of it in Europe than in Africa, Asia, and North and South America.

It was a ubiquitous institution. For Jefferson to even criticize it was incredible.

Judges in England were ruling slavery illegal in Britain under common law before Jefferson publicly criticized it. While the decisions didn't free all the slaves in the UK, it did indicate how things were going in Britain even before Jefferson put pen to paper.

While Jefferson didn't like many things about slavery, he certainly wasn't a firebrand about it. As he grew older and other people turned against slavery, he didn't follow or lead them. For one thing, he didn't know what to do with the freed slaves and feared violence if slaves were freed and remained in the US. For another, there was the temptation to stand by his state against abolitionists from other places.

Like I said, it was more complicated than the article suggests. The page at montecello.com the writer linked to indicated how complicated Jefferson's attitudes were, but his statement that "Thomas Jefferson had nothing but contempt for slavery" is definitely not the whole of the truth.

[marktwain]

The Catholic Church condemned making slaves of the Indians in the New World, which is one of the reasons that slaver did not catch on in Mexico, and why slaves were imported from Africa to Brazil.

Slavery, human sacrifice, and cannibalism were common in Mexico when the Spanish conquered it.