“Never heard of slaves? and the children they might spawn that earn their way up out of slavery? Or genetic “contributions” left behind on raids through rape?”
Silly Rabbit! Only Americans ever practiced slavery.
Actually, I am writing a paper on the world-wide practice of slavery (which will assuredly never be presented or accepted at my current institution). Slavery existed in every culture on every continent at some point (excluding Antarctica, at least so far, but no doubt some explorer dragged a slave along with him at some point and I’ll find a reference to it), sometimes their own people, sometimes enemy prisoners, sometimes both.
Nobody has “clean hands”. But looking at the aggregate data, the Anglosphere led the way in eliminating the scourge of slavery. And it is an ongoing battle. Muslims still widely practice slavery, as do the Chinese and North Koreans. And assorted other groups.
Also, don’t buy the line that serfs weren’t slaves. They were simply slaves tied to the land, and not even that in some cases (Russia and Poland). Many American blacks that were slaves had more rights than most serfs. Indentured servants were not much better off (sometimes worse). The enslavement of “whites” by Arabs and Berbers preceded any practice of the enslavement of blacks by Europeans. Chinese, Africans, Persians, Mongols, Aztecs, Ottomans, Japanese, Mayans, Incans and countless other cultures practiced slavery and in fact slaves in those cultures were often sacrificed. While atrocious, it’s just a thing that was, a barbarism from our (collective human) history.
So I am not making excuses for anybody, but it is a gross distortion of history to say that Americans are more to blame, or, in fact, to claim that Americans were not at the forefront of eliminating the practice (once we had our own house sorted). Example - the Portuguese slave trade from Africa to Brazil was still ongoing after the American Civil War (even though it had been outlawed in Portugal proper) until American and British navies actively disrupted and interfered with it. Slavery in Brazil was gradually abolished and was finally completely outlawed in 1888. Not that that actually stopped it completely. There are claims that it still exists in the remote jungles to some degree today.
Within the last week, I read an article about slavery in New Orleans.
They had all kinds of unexpected rights...
Sunday off - could own property, live on it, and farm it for personal profit - established families could not be broken up.
I find it interesting that the 1619 Project wants to blame the United States when it was NOT the United States but the Brits who colonized North America. There is a difference in this but then again there are people who believe North America had no history before 1619.
Another interesting development is the people who built the pyramids have said to not be slaves as was previously denoted. How much of this is true we will never know.
The slave trade as was in the West originated from the Arabs and was first introduced into the West by them. The West ever the capitalist opportunist found there could be money to be made. And the Western slave trade industry was born. Make sure you include the fact that the slave trade is still going strong in Sudan. However some people are calling this human trafficking. The slaves in the Sudan are being sent to places like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where the word for black is the same as the word for slave - abed (phonetically spelled in English). The slave trade originated with black tribes of Africa selling their prisoners of war into slavery.
and I believe I just read somewhere that there are more slaves in the world today then America had pre-civil war
But...but...but...only Americans thought their slaves were degenerates and fit only for slavery to a superior race.
/s
When I adopted my black children Sowell helped me make sense of race and gave me an international perspective that took away the American drama