Posted on 05/05/2010 4:55:06 PM PDT by edcoil
In an 1856 letter to his wife Mary Custis Lee, Robert E. Lee called slavery "a moral and political evil." Yet he concluded that black slaves were immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially and physically.
The fact is large numbers of free Negroes owned black slaves; in fact, in numbers disproportionate to their representation in society at large. In 1860 only a small minority of whites owned slaves. According to the U.S. census report for that last year before the Civil War, there were nearly 27 million whites in the country. Some eight million of them lived in the slaveholding states.
The census also determined that there were fewer than 385,000 individuals who owned slaves (1). Even if all slaveholders had been white, that would amount to only 1.4 percent of whites in the country (or 4.8 percent of southern whites owning one or more slaves).
(Excerpt) Read more at americancivilwar.com ...
I had him read this.
He never knew there were black slave owners, never knew slave were very expensive and generally treated well by white owners and terrible by black owners.
This needs to be forwarded.
just look at how wickedly blacks treat one another today. it’s not hard to imagine.
More information is a good thing.
But just remember that slavery is DNC history. Slave economics, Jim Crow race repression, lynch mobs, fire hoses, church bombings, the whole lot of it. If you’re a Republican you should never put yourself in a position of defending or explaining away Democrat history. Let them own it. Let them defend it, or explain it, or apologize for it, or whatever they feel moved to do about it.
They try every chance they get to re-write history, and if I was a Democrat, I would too.
Skip Gates had a column regarding the black participation in the slave trade in the WSJ. It was actually very good, except for the last part which included wide-eyed fawning over Obama.
In 1654, Casor had the honor of being the first black slave in the colonies. Prior to that point, blacks were brought over as indentured servants and became free men after 7 years of service. Casor's owner, Anthony Johnson, filed suit to have Casor declared a slave for life. Johnson won his suit and black slavery was established in Virginia.
Anthony Johnson was himself black.
>>>>Yet he concluded that black slaves were immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially and physically
That is the same exact argument that leftists often used to defend the Soviet Union during the Cold War. They said that the average quality of life of Russians under communism, was higher than it was under the Tsars.
They pointed out that Russians under Brezhnev, were better educated, had better health care, and were better fed, than under the Tsars. And they had the life expectancy statistics to make their case. Would you argue that communism was good for Russians?
It is better to be poor and free, than to be well-fed and in slavery.
This is the biggest lie told about slavery. Only the head of household owned slaves. Families had 5 or 6 kids so many times more people lived with slaves than "owned" slaves. My dad did lots of work on our family tree - Texas - Louisiana - Florida - Georgia, and it is plain to see from the census that about 1 house in 4 had slaves.
My Mouton family in Louisiana was among the biggest holders so I'm not excusing it but this is a fine example of how to lie by telling part of the truth.
Black slave owners, voluntary black confederate soldiers, etc.
Blacks that sold other blacks into slavery in the old country (Africa). Blacks for thousands of years killing other tribes of blacks.
Quite a long history of black on black crime.
“It is better to be poor and free, than to be well-fed and in slavery.”
Like they are now?
Thanks for posting this. Had been wondering about the percentage of slave owners - more info here than I knew to look for.
What are your thoughts of the blacks that owned white slaves?
What of the conversations between Adams and Washington by the demands of black slave owners to pay to free their white slaves?
Slavery and comparing to communism is apples and oranges.
What about the slave sellers in Kenya?
Shelby Foote (November 17, 1916 – June 27, 2005) noted one encounter between a Union solder and black Confederate solder. The Union solder asked the black Confederate soldier, “why are you fighting for the South?” The black Confederate soldier replied, “because you’re down here.”
The idea that there were free black business men (planters, etc) who owned slaves is difficult for many to come to terms with, but it is true that they existed. However, most of the free black men who owned slaves actually owned their immediate family members that they were able to purchase out of slavery. There were also some church ministers that were able to purchase some of their members out of slavery.
“I was taught in school that white men sailed to Africa and caught slaves in what was essentially a large butterfly net. And yes, I’m serious.”
Didn’t Roots portray Kunta Kinte as being caught by a net?
>>>>What are your thoughts of the blacks that owned white slaves?
Slavery is wrong, no matter who is practising it. Whether it is blacks enslaving blacks, or whites enslaving whites, or any other combination, slavery is wrong. Robert E. Lee was right to oppose slavery.
>>>>Slavery and comparing to communism is apples and oranges
Communism was a form of slavery. The communist governments promised the people that they would be well fed and have job security, but that all their rights and freedoms would be taken away from them. Ronald Reagan often compared communism to slavery.
There is also a book out there called “Black Masters” on this topic.
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