Posted on 10/13/2014 5:56:54 AM PDT by armydawg505
An “extremely rare” Civil War-era photograph of the enslaved woman who helped save Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Virginia home has been obtained by the National Park Service after a volunteer spotted the image on eBay.
The previously unknown photograph depicts Selina Gray, the head housekeeper to Lee and his family, along with two girls thought to be her daughters. The photograph was unveiled Thursday at the Arlington House plantation overlooking the nation's capital that was home to Lee and dozens of slaves before the Civil War.
An inscription on the back of the image reads "Gen Lees Slaves Arlington Va."
Park officials said this is only the second known photograph taken of slaves at Arlington.
"It's extremely rare to have an identified photo of an enslaved person," said National Park Service spokeswoman Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles. "Since slaves were considered property, it's very rare to have a photo where you can identify the people in the photo."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
You are the one jumping around to the 60’s not me. You are the one stuck on cotton. I am saying the Industrial Revolution was ushering mechanization in industry not just farming. Slavery was on course to die out anyway. Going forward it was not going to be economically feasible. Its a lot cheaper to hire people for wages than keep slaves.
“Mind yourself - your eyes are gonna stick that way!” - Mom
Our own area (east of Pittsburgh) is full of people of Eastern European and Italian descent who will tell you just how horrible their ancestors had it in the local mills before the advent of unions.
It is why so many of them still instinctively pull the "Democrat" lever even if they have almost nothing in common with the modern version of slavemasters.
As bad they claim they had it in those days, it was not remotely comparable to living in slavery.
Consider this. Look at how many of those immigrants came to the US, got a job in a mill or mine, saved some money, and then sent back to the old country bringing friends, family, in some cases nearly entire villages over to join them.
If conditions were that bad, would they have done that? I don't think so.
Do you remember the famous "rumble in the jungle" and what Muhammad Ali said when he got home and they asked him what he thought of Africa?
I don't remember the whole quote but the gist was that he expressed gratitude that his ancestors got on a slave ship bound for America.
Sure, there were Black slave owners, but using the word "vast" in this context surely overstates the case, as does referring to slave owning as a "commercial venture" on their part, rather than as a part of a farm or workshop or household.
From what we know, large scale slave owners, White or Black, were probably a small proportion of slave owners, as were commercial traders traders with a high turnover.
...
Nearly all slaves sold into slavery from Africa were sold by black slave holders.
Or black slave catchers and traders. Do we really know how many of those exported were worked as slaves in Africa and how many where captured for export?
Name some.
And yet the number of slaves and their price were both increasing.
Lee inherited the slaves from his father-in-law's estate with the stipulation that he free them within a certain time. Lee worked them up to the last minute and a little beyond.
A response to your chant is not worth my time.
It’s amusing then that you did respond, although “chant” is not used in this manner in US English. Where did you learn it?
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