Posted on 06/01/2016 2:20:33 PM PDT by Kaslin
As construction of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture progresses toward its September opening, Museum Director Lonnie Bunch joined CBS “60 Minutes”’ Scott Pelley on a visit to Mozambique in search of a ship that carried hundreds of African slaves to the bottom of the Indian Ocean when it foundered 220 years ago.
“The story of slavery is everybody's story,” Bunch explained to Pelley. “It is the story about how we're all shaped by, regardless of race, regardless of how long we've been in this country. We hope that we can be a factor to both educate America around this subject but maybe more importantly help Americans finally wrestle with this, talk about it, debate it…”
So how are 21st Century citizens of the United States obliged to “finally wrestle” with, in this case, the long-ago deaths of Africans who were enslaved by other Africans, forcefully driven for many miles through a Mozambique port and on to a Portuguese slave ship bound for Brazil, while the descendants of all those who actually participated in this event are allowed to be wistfully unconcerned and guilt-free?
You see, Mr. Bunch is wrong on one key point. Slavery is not everybody’s story -- it must remain exclusively a story for the United States and its people. Only we are required to bear the indelible stain of this country’s original sin -- and it appears those who entered or will enter here assume this mantle of guilt themselves a century-and-a-half after the institution of slavery was ended.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Here’s a myth of American slavery that is taken as gospel by most. Most people believe that slave owners sole reason for having slaves was so that they had someone to beat on. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Slaves were property. Very expensive property. Why would a slave owner allow their very expensive property to be beaten incessantly? The obvious answer is, they wouldn’t. Of course some slaves were beaten. No one denies that. It was not, however, an everyday occurrence. Was slavery evil? Of course it was. Does that mean every slave owner was an evil S.O.B.? Apparently not, since at the conclusion of the Civil War many slaves chose to remain and work at the very same plantations that they were enslaved at. I wonder if anyone has done an honest study comparing slavery conditions between the U.S., the Caribbean islands, and South America (the latter two places are where almost all of the African slaves went).
Bkmk
Well said, I like it, it fits!
All of my ancestors immigrated legally in the eighteen-eighties.
You're right about the abuse of slaves by American owners. It was far from widespread for exactly the reasons you cited. Many slaveholders were decent, compassionate people who simply took advantage of an institution they themselves had no part in creating.
It is ludicrous to judge 17th century people by 21st century standards.
You're right about the abuse of slaves by American owners. It was far from widespread for exactly the reasons you cited. Many slaveholders were decent, compassionate people who simply took advantage of an institution they themselves had no part in creating.
It is ludicrous to judge 17th century people by 21st century standards.
Now there is an incoherent post.
How three hundred years of slavery in the United States is even a remote possibility.
Feel free to grasp as many straws as you want .
Those who get money and power by stirring up feelings about slavery have no interest in the truth.
I read once that slaves ending up in South America had half the life span of those who arrived in the U.S. Funny we don’t hear calls for reparations from South American blacks.
No way - seriously!?
I read a book about him called Patriotic Treason by Evan Carton - it was an eye-opener. Carton called John Brown, "the stone in our national shoe." I think that the name fits.
This is a keeper . . . . .
They obviously saw it as pragmatism. There would have been no country had slavery been abolished at the outset. Look how horribly hypocritical the Southern states were regarding the census.
Not to mention that today’s so-called “African Americans” enjoy a standard of living far higher than most Africans — yet they were never personally enslaved.
In some respects, they should be THANKFUL that for them, there was a SILVER LINING in their ancestors misfortune (they got to be citizens in the most civilized country in the world).
The racist black Americans have no appreciation for that fact. They’ve got TV’s, Cars, welfare, running water.
STFU, dudes!
Well, I think I will be in DC when it opens. I am sure all the guilty white folk will be there. I can go to all of the other museums in half the time.
No legislation against slavery was passed by Massachusetts until sometime around 1950, maybe later.
Massachusetts was one of the early slave traders. They had a slave auction in Fanueil Marketplace. They later claimed they outlawed slavery. They didn't. They just stopped listing people as slaves in the census.
I understand all of the arguments. I really do. My great great grandfather and his brothers fought for the Union. His youngest brother died on the first night of Cold Harbor.
It was a horrible situation. And it was a long time ago.
But arguing that we treated our SLAVES better than others is not an argument that will get anyone far at the Pearly Gates.
Mass made slavery illegal in its first constitution. Before the Federal Constitution. Us Yankees were too damn cheap to have slaves. That’s what kids were for.
I have never owned slaves.
Yes, I’m a direct descendent Of John Brown. Depending on who you ask, he was either a terrorist or a man on a mission from God. I have mixed feelings about him myself.
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