Posted on 06/17/2020 8:52:31 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Did you know that the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery did not apply to ALL slaves?
Most see slavery as a simple black-vs.-white issue. But those who do may not realize that the “Five Civilized Tribes” of the southeast — Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole — also participated in the institution of slavery.
Because these tribes were located outside the sovereignty of the United States, constitutional amendments did not apply to them.
In the period before the arrival of the Europeans, the Natives practiced flexible forms of slavery that often allowed slaves avenues to freedom through intermarriage. That all changed with the arrival of the Europeans, who introduced Native Americans to a system of permanent bondage based on race.
According to journalist Aliana E. Roberts, this switch occurred after the Yamasee tribe lost a war against the English Carolina colonists in 1717. The Europeans began turning from Native slavery to African slavery, and the Native Americans followed their lead. Many Natives, especially those in the “Five Civilized Tribes” (so-called because they embraced the ways of American settlers) picked up on the trend. By 1800, they had developed “plantations that rivaled those of their white neighbors.”
Roberts states that like most average Americans, many Natives did not own black slaves. Most slaveowners were part of the upper-classes, and were those who had the most influence in society.
In spite of this she also notes that the percentage of black slaves in the population was not insignificant:
In 1860…Cherokee Nation citizens owned 2,511 slaves (15 percent of their total population), Choctaw citizens owned 2,349 slaves (14 percent of their total population), and Creek citizens owned 1,532 slaves (10 percent of their total population). Chickasaw citizens owned 975 slaves, which amounted to 18 percent of their total population, a proportion equivalent to that of white slave owners in Tennessee, a former neighbour of the Chickasaw Nation and a large slaveholding state.
While many Native American nations allowed white slaves to earn their freedom through intermarriage, the tribes also had strict laws forbidding any intermarriage between a Native and a black slave, often punishing those who married their slaves with banishment from the tribe.
The Native slaveowners could also be horrifyingly brutal towards their black slaves. This is illustrated by the case of Lucy, a black slave burned alive for the murder of her native master. She had no part in the murder but was executed anyway at the request of the murdered warrior’s wife.
During the Civil War, the “Five Civilized Tribes” fought on both the Union and Confederate sides. After the war, the Treaties of 1866 freed the slaves. Even after that, blacks still faced discrimination in the Indian territories, with many tribes passing laws similar to the infamous “Black Codes” in the South.
This often-overlooked part of American history takes on new significance in light of today’s debates over slavery reparations and monuments to those who owned slaves or fought to keep them.
Do the descendants of the “Five Civilized Tribes” owe reparations for slavery? Should monuments to their leaders be taken down? The institution of slavery was rightfully eradicated with the passage of the 13th Amendment. But any debate over how to deal with the legacy of this evil institution must remember that the phenomenon was much more complex than is often portrayed or remembered.
I have been saying for years we need to find the ancestors of those black slave owners and see if they will pay reparations.
Shhhh.
Lets see, the Africans were rounding up their enemies and selling them to slave traders of all races. Many of those coming to America arrived at northern ports yet the north doesn’t like hearing that part of history.
I said Portuguese because they were the first ones to explore along the coast of Africa.
That event began the Gold Coast slave trade of tribes that were more civil and had better living conditions the then European superpower, Portugal. If fact early explorers begged the Monarch to remain in there. There was no running water or sewage in Portugal at that time like the African villages had. After the slavers were done burning the villages, the jungle covered them over.
Of course there were other slavers elsewhere, but the US population of blacks came from the Gold Coast, which is the subject at hand.
“I said Portuguese because they were the first ones to explore along the coast of Africa.”
Correction again: I said Portuguese because they were the first Europeans to explore along the west coast of Africa.
The east coast of Africa was already familiar to folks in the Middle East.
Bookmark.
Thank you for posting.
Oh for gods sake that bit about the muslims is fake history like most of their crap.
The Choctaws and Chickasaws sent representatives to the Confederate Congress. The last Confederate general officer to surrender was Stand Watie, a Cherokee, at Doaksville near Fort Towson in the Choctaw Nation.”
Do you have a date on that?
I’d wager that it was pretty late....seems that news of the end of the war traveled slowly?
Just curious...good post.
Indentured servitude is when a person volunteers to be a slave in return for food, shelter and care. The ancient Egyptians, the Romans and the Greeks practiced variation of this type along with captive slavery but even captives could rise in society.”
Yes. Quite correct.
And references to slavery, both implicit and explicit, in the New Testament need to consider that it is the Roman practice of indentured servitude that is being referenced, just exactly as you describe.
So many people think all slavery was the same and that Hollywood portrays the truth of the condition. I lament the fall of the US education system and quality to near moronic standards. Even people in the late 19th century were better educated the the average grad student today.
It’s kinda messed up we called them the civilized tribes.
RE: It’s kinda messed up we called them the civilized tribes.
Make me wonder what the UN-CIVILIZED tribes were like.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_States_Congress
It was early in the war. I’ve had two separate courses in Oklahoma history and the involvement of The Five Civilized Tribes in the war is well known. They were Southern tribes and had heavily inter-married with Southern whites. Stand Watie held off for several reasons one being concern for the safety of his soldiers.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/06/flashback-first-legal-slave-owner-america-black-man/
“The first legal slave owner in America was black and he owned white slaves. Anthony Johnson (BC 1600 – 1670) was an Angolan who achieved freedom in the early 17th century Colony of Virginia. Johnson was captured in his native Angola by an enemy tribe and sold to Arab (Muslim) slave traders.”
No later than the 1300s Mohammedans [now called muslims] raided the isolated coastal villages of the British Isles and Ireland along with the isolated villages located on the European coast and along the Mediterranean coast to kidnap villagers to take them back to the muslim countries to be sold as slaves. But according to the history the school children are taught, only Blacks were slaves and they were enslaved in America.
Good facts on slavery in America
Sounds interesting.
Could you give me a link for that?
There was running water and sewage in France in the middle ages, for the aristocracy.
No links - is from African History book from 1965 used in a college course - you could go looking in a library or on Amazon.
Never heard that France had indoor plumping including hot and cold water (like the Northern Gold Coast tribes) during the Dark Ages (400AD-1400AD) when bathing was a social no-no. Do you have a “link” for that statement - just curious.
Additional info:
the villages had aqueduct fed wooden pipes to each home which ran under the floor were they passed through blocks heated by small fires, some water went to wash basins or carins, but most was just circulated back to the village system - I think this came from Roman times, but not positive. Home sewage was also eliminated by a series of wooden pipes.
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