I would like to add to your thoughts about the history of slavery in America, something that never gets mentioned: Okay, thank you.There was no other Road To America for black Africans than the slave ship. I agree.
I am NOT condoning slavery. Of course it was a hideous institution and a hold-over from barbaric days and barbaric ways of thought.
I agree here, and I would ask folks to consider what was taking place in the world at the time. Europe was itself not a particularly enlightened continent at the time. Africa was still deepest darkest Africa. Asia wasn't free from strife. Russia was broiling.
Religious persecution was the norm in Europe. People were not well educated as a whole. People were escaping the European continent, to find a new destiny in the Americas. Slavery that had existed for thousands of years, was still something that was being conducted. I'm not proud of it, and I don't know a single person who is. None the less it was our nation and others who decided that our societies would stop the practice, elevate the former slaves to equal status with others, and transition them to full class citizens over time. Slavery died out in part because of the United States. Yes, some of it's citizens were generational offenders, but we as a people came to the conclusion that we didn't want to treat people that way, and we endured a very destructive war to end it.
For the first time in recorded history, slavery was effectively being eradicated. This took place in no small part here, as a result of our Founding Documents. They included language that heralded the rights of man. And those rights weren't limited to just certain men. It covered all men. I know some people will make a big deal out of the use of the word man here, but it was meant in those days by extention to mean humanity, covering women and children too. Contining with the same thought, I know that people will also address the issue that women were not given rights in the day, and that is true. None the less, the Founding Documents did lead to full rights for every breathing human. It was the first set of Founding Documents by any government to do so. It granted those rights because those rights were gifted from God. No government should be able to infringe upon them.
Continuing, people will also say that the only reason women and Blacks have rights today, is becasue they fought for them. To an extent, I agree. None the less, without those Founding Documents there would have been no basis for those folks to claim equal rights under the U. S. Constitution.
Yes, we conducted slavery, as other societies had since the dawn of man. And yes, we were one of the first societies in human history to universally abolish it.
And of course no non-Muslim today would ever even THINK of owning another human being. Shhhh... ;^)
But the fact remains, if I were a Black American I would thank God for the suffering that my ancestors had to endure, suffering that enabled me to grow up here, in the United States, rather than any of the stink-hole nation-states on the African continent.
On the one hand, I understand where you are coming from, and there is a broad vein of truth running through it. None the less, we can't prescribe the personal perceptions family heirs have to something like ancestrial slavery. I reflect back on Joseph from the Bible, a man sold into slavery who so dedicated his life to God and indentured servitude, that he rose above it all to become one of the most respected men of not only his host slavery owning nation, but humankind through the ages. He was given the right to move his family there to live in peace and freedom. He was a man that has been remember favorably through the ages, for thousands of years. This was a man that was himself the initial slave, and he achieved this. Now we have people who haven't had a slave in their family for close to 150 years, and still can't shake it off. Racism made it almost impossible for a considerable length of time, but even so there were insprired achievers like George Washington Carver, Booker T. Washington and others who did. Certainly in the day and age we now live in, advanced achievement is possible, and quite likely if a person applies themself.
Again, I’m not saying slavery was a good thing and of course slave owners didn’t own slaves for the sake of the future welfare of the slaves’ descendents. I agree, and I understand the dynamic your addressing here.
But the fact remains, without the historical fact of slavery and the slave trade, Black Americans would have all grown up in horrible stink-holes in Africa.
I agree with this, but I also firmly believe that if someone was taken to heaven against their will, they would regret losing family, friends, and their former societies. Choice, doing something because you wanted to after weighing the pros and cons, is vitally important to humans. Resentment follows the absense of this. Yes the United States is much more advanced, as you have addressed it, but some folks cannot get over having been plucked from their heritage. I can understand that, and I'm sure you can too. At some point in time though, what has happened needs to be accepted and let go of. We can't undo things. The most desiring and capable person on the planet, with a vast willing following, couldn't do that. I am sorry for what happened, but at some point people have to agree to move on. Frankly, I think most folks have. You have your race baiters and their followers, but most folks get it. We hear the loud mouthed race baitors, and the folks they have misled, but for the most part I think Blacks have moved on. I respect the people who have. I am saddened by the folks who can't. I don't think it brings them happiness.
And by the way, some of those stink-holes are ruled by Arab Muslims who, in fact, HOLD BLACK AFRICAN SLAVES TODAY... a fact ignored by every liberal and leftist on Planet Earth.
Yes, that is true. It's a real shame too. What I find ironic, is that the only special interest group on the planet that still practices slavery, is the one that attracts Blacks the most to join it's ranks. It is done in no small part as a rebellion against the nation that abolished slavery on it's shores, but alligns them none the less with an entity that still does condone slavery.
Thanks for the comments. You raise some valid points, and it was nice to be able to bounce thoughts off them.