[Written before I read some of the later posts that raised at least one of the points that I’m making — and which I see was granted. I’ll go ahead and post my version too, though.]
> “There was NOTHING GOOD that resulted from the enslavement of the Black man and I challenge anyone on this site or elsewhere to publicly proclaim otherwise. Expose yourselves.”
Though I opposed Jim Crow in the South back when that was a very unpopular thing for a white Southerner to do, I don’t hesitate to accept that challenge (I have no strong opinion either way on the Bachmann statement, so I won’t get into that). Your argument reminds me of the controversy over Mussolini and the trains. It was quite possible for Mussolini himself to be bad, and yet for him to succeed in making the trains run more regularly (or so I’ve heard — I haven’t verified it).
The same applies to various aspects of slavery. I won’t express any opinion about the religious question, but most American blacks are Christians, and if they’re sincere about that, probably believe that their salvation outweighs any condition of oppression that they or their ancestors may have endured. It would have been better, of course, to have been exposed to Christianity in a more favorable guise, but the undeniably evil act of enslaving their ancestors and taking them away from their homes greatly increased the chances that they and their ancestors would become Christians. And from a Christian perspective, a Christian slave is better off than a pagan master.
Also, switching to the material realm, though the slaves themselves probably lived worse lives than free persons in Africa (if we value freedom highly, and I do), their descendants in the United States ended up being much more prosperous — and more free — than the typical African. That’s a benefit of slavery, indirect but still a benefit.
Then there’s the music of American blacks — black gospel, blues, and jazz. Would that have been anything like it was without slavery? No way.
It’s easy to let our emotions lead us into denying that there are good aspects (or good consequences) to evil things — a few, at least. Nearly everything bad, though, has something good about it. To point that out is by no means the same as advocating the evil itself. The question is how much good — and is there another way to obtain it?
You have a point. Some good things come from evil things sometimes. Still, it’s a point that is NOT worth making.
Hitler really DID make the trains run on time, and there are still Neo-Nazis in Germanic Europe who mumble this proudly to each other.
I love the soulful, gospel, anti-slavery songs that came out of the broken hearts and bodies of slavery. They are moving and they make me cry. But I’d rather have NOT had them than had the people go through what they went through.
When I was little my mom taught me “No More Auction Block For Me” and we both cried when we sang it. I learned all I needed to know (the basic fact) about slavery at 5 years old.