Posted on 03/17/2006 8:50:53 AM PST by High Cotton
Teaching about the slave trade "is the right thing to do," Wright said. "Absent South Carolina, the biggest importer of slaves was New York City."
The New York Historical Society recently presented an exhibition on slavery in New York that featured documents, paintings, video and sculpture.
In lower Manhattan, a long-lost burial ground where thousands of slaves and free blacks were laid to rest during the 18th century was recently declared a national monument by President Bush.
Slavery was abolished in New York in 1827, but when the American Revolution began in 1776, the only city with more slaves than New York was Charleston, South Carolina.
Oyster Bay eighth-grader Fiona Brunner said she was amazed to find out there were slaves buried near Oyster Bay.
"You always think that happened so far away, only in the South, and a lot of it was right here in our town," she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
I guess it's time to step in again and start jerking posts left and right.
We try to let these threads have a little more latitude, but I'm not sure that's working. When it looks more like a middle school gang fight than a discussion of history, I'm not sure what the point is.
I guess we're going to have to get a little more heavy-handed until you folks can argue without unnecessary insults.
A wise person once said "Sometimes freedom means that you have to grow a thicker skin."
the VAST majority of northerners couldn't have cared less about slavery. there is simply NO truth to you post. sorry, but that's FACT!
free dixie,sw
well said!
it's called FREEDOM OF SPEECH!
the NATURAL RIGHT of FREE SPEECH is in the FIRST AMENDMENT. it is NO coincidence that it is FIRST!
the founders of this republic & the authors of the Constitution KNEW that UNPOPULAR SPEECH needed protection. POPULAR speech needs NO protection.
free dixie,sw
I don't know where you are getting your "facts" - but I'm afraid you are delusional.
In the late 1700s the percentage of slave owners in South Carolina was 26%. The percentage of slave owners in Pennsylvania was less than 2%.
In 1790, Virginia and South Carolina the slave populations was over 45% of the total population.
In Mass. the number of slaves in 1790 was 1.4%, in NH it was 0.6%, in NY it was 7%, in Conn. it was 2.3%, in R.I. it was 6.3%, in Pa it was 2.4% and in Vermont it was 0.3%. Those numbers are a far cry from 45%.
All you have to do is look at the census figures for 1790, 1800, 1810, 1820, etc. The figues speak for themselves.
for example the 1860 census of TX, indicated that there was NOBODY on the west bank of the Trinity River. (an ODD idea, since DALLAS & FORT WORTH are BOTH on the west side of the Trinity!). in case you're curious about WHY this is, the river & the BRIDGES were "out" during the time the enumerators were in that area.
otoh, the tax-man always "gets his pound of flesh".
ALSO, less than 10% of southerners could have bought EVEN one slave in that period, as MOST southerners were TOO POOR to do so, even if they had wanted to "trade in human flesh" (MOST did NOT!)
free dixie,sw
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