Posted on 10/02/2007 12:41:30 PM PDT by SJackson
Those who want to discredit the United States and to deny our role as history’s most powerful and pre-eminent force for freedom, goodness and human dignity invariably focus on America’s bloody past as a slave-holding nation. Along with the displacement and mistreatment of Native Americans, the enslavement of literally millions of Africans counts as one of our two founding crimes—and an obvious rebuttal to any claims that this Republic truly represents “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” According to America-bashers at home and abroad, open-minded students of our history ought to feel more guilt than pride, and strive for “reparations” or other restitution to overcome the nation’s uniquely cruel, racist and rapacious legacy.
Unfortunately, the current mania for exaggerating America’s culpability for the horrors of slavery bears no more connection to reality than the old, discredited tendency to deny that the U.S. bore any blame at all. No, it’s not true that the “peculiar institution” featured kind-hearted, paternalistic masters and happy, dancing field-hands, any more than it’s true that America displayed unparalleled barbarity or enjoyed disproportionate benefit from kidnapping and exploiting innocent Africans.
An honest and balanced understanding of the position of slavery in the American experience requires a serious attempt to place the institution in historical context and to clear-away some of the common myths and distortions.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
Bump
And PS - Whites were slaves too...
A million Europeans enslaved
(Washington Times March 11, 2004 )
REUTERS NEWS AGENCY
An American historian says that more than a million Europeans were enslaved by North African slave traders between 1530 and 1780, a time of vigorous Mediterranean and Atlantic coastal piracy.
The number of white European slaves is only a fraction of the trade that brought 10 million to 12 million black African slaves to the Americas over a 400-year period, historian Robert Davis says, but his research shows the slave trade was more widespread than commonly assumed. The impact on Europe’s white population was significant.
“One of the things that both the public and many scholars have tended to take as given is that slavery was always racial in nature — that only blacks have been slaves. But that is not true,” said Mr. Davis, an Ohio State University professor.
“Enslavement was a very real possibility for anyone who traveled in the Mediterranean, or who lived along the shores in places like Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, and even as far north as England and Iceland.”
In a new book, “Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800,” Mr. Davis calculates that between 1 million and 1.25 million Europeans were captured by pirates called “corsairs” and forced to work in North Africa during that period.
The raids were so aggressive that entire Mediterranean seaside towns were abandoned by frightened residents. “Much of what has been written gives the impression that there were not many slaves and minimizes the impact that slavery had on Europe.
“Most accounts only look at slavery in one place, or only for a short period of time. But when you take a broader, longer view, the massive scope of this slavery and its powerful impact become clear.”
The pirates, sailing from such cities as Tunis and Algiers, raided ships in the Mediterranean and Atlantic as well as seaside villages to capture men, women and children, he says. They were put to work in quarries, in heavy construction and as oarsmen in the pirates’ galleys.
Mr. Davis calculated his estimates using records that indicate how many slaves were at a particular location at a single time. He then estimated how many new slaves it would take to replace slaves as they died, escaped or were ransomed.
“It is not the best way to make population estimates, but it is the only way with the limited records available.”
Slavery without a doubt was the worst mistake this country ever made. No other aspect of our history has had such a negative impact on this country, from start to now. While there is much to be thankful for from former slaves, the crime, culture differenence and injection of race into every single disagreement between black and white has made any contributions from former slaves not worth the pain. Those who bash America for its slave holding past actually hate America. They should have the foresight to understand that the fallout of slavery will eventually destroy this country and that should make them happy.
I hate it when people put facts up before rhetoric. This can’t be true.....
“In short, politically correct assumptions about America’s entanglement with slavery lack any sense of depth, perspective or context.”
As is the case with virtually all leftist thought. (if you’ll excuse me for referring to the demented leftist mental processes as “thought”)
“Slavery without a doubt was the worst mistake this country ever made”
Every country and civilization and culture has/had slaves. Only America is suppose to be guilty of it.
I am not, my ancestors worked to free slaves and I never had one so I feel no guilt.
Facts have no place in this discussion. Any thesis must be founded on hysteria, knee-jerk emotionalism, and race-baiting. Now write me a check and we’ll forget this ever happened.
I said that in the context that bringing slaves to this country has been a sin we have paid for ever since.
The zulu’s traded their slaves to the dutch that carried them here, lets blame the zulu’s.
Here’s a question for the group. Is Communism a form of slavery? Socialism? What about specific states (China, N. Korea, Cuba, Vietnam)?
American Indians were stone age culturally and white colonists/pioneers were more advanced...
That particular clash played itself out all over the globe in the 19th and 20th centuries and in many ways. In the US and elsewhere indigenous peoples were overrun and exploited, etc... Africans were transported far from Africa by the British, Portuguese and others to be sold as slaves. America (the brand new, weak, vulnerable and struggling country) WAS NOT the prime mover or even the main player in THAT holocaust. More and worse was done to weak people elsewhere on the globe and almost NO ONE had it worse at the time or since than American Indians.
Yes, remember Jefferson wanted to put that in the Declaration of Independence, that the British were responsible for the evils of slavery, not the Americans, who were now burdened with the question of how to deal with it.
America doesn't have to 'apologize' for slavery, since its founding document, the Declaration, was the first political document that explicitly stated that the institution was immoral and thus, put slavery on the way to extinction.
It was the rejection of the Declaration of Independence principle, that all men are created equal by God, (which was from Locke, who took it from the Bible), by later Americans, that led to the Civil War.
The only group that still holds slavery to be acceptable are the Muslims.
To me the most interesting things about slavery are the things that are nearly forgotten.
For instance the fact that slavery existed on this continent under British rule for far longer than it did under American rule. It’s always pointed out that the Brits abolished the slave trade and that’s true. The reality is that they didn’t abolish the trade until it had become unprofitable due to a large enough breeding population to sustain slavery anyway.
The British didn’t condone slavery but they didn’t abolish it till they needed fighting men for the revolution. After all, slavery generated huge amounts of revenue for the crown. Most of the promises made to slaves willing to fight on the British side weren’t kept anyway. Most ended up back in slavery here. The lucky ones escaped to Canada and a few were taken back to Great Britain. In some cases unscrupulous British naval captains promised freed slaves a trip to England but took them for resale in the Caribbean.
I’m not beating up on the Brits, just pointing out some things that have been all but forgotten in American history.
One of the more interesting master/slave stories I’ve read is about George Washington and his personal “servant” Billy Lee. Some accounts I’ve read suggest that Billy Lee was Washington’s most trusted advisor and friend. It was said that George Washington was the greatest horseman on the continent, and Billy Lee was the second.
Obviously slavery was wrong but there was a lot more to it than racism, forced labor, and beatings.
Excellent article!
What everyone should know, before supporting the concept of reparations, is that free blacks owned more than 10,000 slaves in Louisiana, Maryland, South Carolina, and Virginia. How do you possibly exclude their offspring from such a program?
That is true, but black slavery was held to be legimate because of that race's supposed 'inferority', and was defended as such by the leaders of the Confederacy on that basis.
As Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy stated,
But not to be tedious in enumerating the numerous changes for the better, allow me to allude to one other —though last, not least. The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution—African slavery as it exists amongst us—the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson in his forecast, had anticipated this, as the "rock upon which the old Union would split." He was right. What was conjecture with him, is now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon which that rock stood and stands, may be doubted. The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with, but the general opinion of the men of that day was that, somehow or other in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away. This idea, though not incorporated in the constitution, was the prevailing idea at that time. The constitution, it is true, secured every essential guarantee to the institution while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly urged against the constitutional guarantees thus secured, because of the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the government built upon it fell when the "storm came and the wind blew."
Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=76
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