Hindsight is always 20/20; and it’s far too easy to judge the past applying contemporary morality.
The enslavement of one group by another characterizes a large segment of human history. Colonial whites were not the only group to engage in the practice.
Not to mention that there were plenty of non-black slaves—typically referred to as “indentured servants”—running around.
Oh, and let’s not overlook the role of the Religion of Peace in enslaving their fellow Africans.
First off, I detest Scientific American. I had an ongoing subscription for many years, and they jumped on the AGW bandwagon early on, among other things.
Secondly, it really irritates me when pompous crapholes like this author want to apply the mores of today to people who lived hundreds of years ago, and doing it in a vacuum, no less.
Okay—and lets not forget that there were a significant number of BLACK slave owners here in the US as well. As I’ve heard it, Jefferson could not have freed his slaves if he wanted to due to prevailing laws at the time.
What I find most interesting, having read early works on Lincoln and Jefferson’s biography is that neither man thought that the slaves, once freed, should remain in the US. They did not believe that constructive integration was possible. Instead, they believed in repatriating the slaves to their original homelands. These books are available for the e-readers, and are uncensored by contemporary, politically-correct censorship. They are free, and well worth a look. Frederick Douglass’s and Booker T. Washington’s autobiographies are available as well, and also worth the read.