Posted on 02/15/2011 4:39:43 AM PST by Pharmboy
yesirree, that sure shows some advanced technical skills and sophistication
why, these folks really DID build the pyramids and fly around them too
sarc
Sorry Pharm the race card done xpired for me
IIRC, I think it was Arthur C. Clark, the late SF writer, who said he was amazed by people who would condemn primitives for beating on drums to scare away evil spirits are the same people who would honk their automobile horns in an effort clear a traffic jam.................
Italian-American people who built my house threw baby booties behind a wall they sealed up, there were bus tokens and bingo tickets under the floor boards, and in the teenage boy’s room there was a skin magazine with pages stuck together hidden in a dropped ceiling panel, since the Italians do many things in secret. I’m humiliated not to have contacted a leading Italian Studies professor to document this “hidden Italian face” and present his findings on Columbus Day.
Not.
No doubt this will be spun into further evidence that Africa is the seat of all western civilization, and that we owe all we have today to the genius of black people.
So the mule that pulls the plow gets credit for the discovery of agriculture?
My gun is metal and shoots pointed objects, I never knew I had anything in common with West Africans.
Interesting. Thanks for posting.
One grows used to the frantic press attempts to “discover” early cross-cultural contributions to the “useless and clueless cultural contributions of European White Males” (i.e., everything worthy of note), but this piece, entering into paroxyisms of enthusiasm for what amounts to a few broken stones and bits of chicken bone a la voodoo, is so grotesquely over the top, one suspects the author is mentally unbalanced.
LOL, now I have to admit a good chuckle from that!
Actually, I was a little surprised by this article’s presumption of perception of level of skill from slaves.
I’m sure anyone who’s gone to a few estates of colonial times, and listened to the guides/read the info, is aware many of the beautiful carvings of the houses’ decoration were done by “skilled slaves”. That some would have extra skills to be involved in experimentation wouldn’t be too surprising to me.
I wasn’t even aware of this “famous sole colonial greenhouse” not far from the Bay Bridge.
Nowhere in this article does it say that the Africans designed the house or ran it; as a matter of fact, it mentions a Scotsman by name who oversaw the greenhouse. What it seems to say is that the construction took sophisticated workmen, and this is a well-documented site for African slaves building it and thereafter maintaining its workings--again, something that took sophistication. Perhaps the point of all of this is that slaves did more than just pick cotton or slop hogs.
AFAIC, the Black History Months that sell victimology over and over again fail dismally; I would much rather have the concentration be on the blacks that fought on the Patriot side in the RevWar and how they helped build this country. For example, the wall that gives today's Wall St. its name was--for the most part--built by slaves. Slavery in NY State was legal until 1827, and they evidently did much there as they did elsewhere in this emerging republic.
Cheers, PB
Frederick Douglass wrote of the plantation. Lots of history there.
Maryland PING!
“Clever quip, but I don’t think you’re being totally fair; and frankly I’m a bit surprised to see so much negativity about this find.”
I think the negativity results from the wording in the article which seems to exaggerate the role slaves. Rather than say they found evidence that slaves worked to build and maintain the house, we read that the excavation “ reveals that African American slaves played a sophisticated, technical role in its construction and operation. They left behind tangible cultural evidence of their involvement and spiritual traditions.”
Virtually the only evidence of this “sophistication” was the burying charms to ward off evil spirits at various locations. Then we get “AFRICAN AMERICAN CONTRIBUTIONS: The slaves were pioneers in early U.S. agricultural experimentation, the new research concludes. They did far more than manual labor, performing work that today might be conducted by skilled lab technicians, though under far different conditions”. Right, I’m sure they even wore white lab coats made from the cotton they picked themselves. We get this overhyped analysis every February.
IMO, the author of this report shows quite a condescending attitude toward the slaves. He thinks it is a big discovery that slaves they were capable of more than just picking cotton or plowing fields. Of course they were, given the proper training they could do any job a free person could do. Why would he think otherwise unless his assumption was that they were stupid.
Very interesting!
Thanks for your additions to the thread...
You’re welcome. This thread got a little hairy, eh?
Yes...it did, and that was disappointing. I can, however, understand some of the feelings about the bloviations of the left (esp. academia) which prop up their pet beliefs and prejudices. And certainly, African Americans have “benefited” from some of it; BUT, I would have expected Freepers to be a bit more discriminating and not have so overreacted to this story.
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