Outgoing head of African Union slams US for 'taking Africans as slaves but not as refugees'

International Business Times ^ | 01/31/2017 | Fiona Keating

[DiogenesLamp]

Fair enough but not the practice of slavery, which is what I meant, and was the point I intended to make by linking to info on modern African slavery.

It is a minor point, but I think it is important for people to realize that the transatlantic slave trade was banned by US law in 1808.

Another point of which most people are unaware is that the US Constitution effectively protected slavery in the US, but people just started ignoring this embarrassing constitutional provision.

[TigersEye]

I confess my ignorance, which Constitutional provision is that?

[DiogenesLamp]

Article IV, Section II.

No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, But shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.

[TigersEye]

Sure enough. I had never really contemplated the practical meaning of that paragraph. It certainly is contrary to the meaning in the DoI which is considered by at least some scholars as a legal document known as the Organic Constitution.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

If one takes that sentence seriously then slavery is unthinkable.

[DiogenesLamp]

If one takes that sentence seriously then slavery is unthinkable.

Given that the guy that wrote it, and many of the guys who signed it were all slave owners, I think it is not reasonable to believe that they intended those words to apply to slaves.

If they did, wouldn't they have freed all their own slaves?

No, I think that was just a bit of Jeffersonian mischief, and one which had farther ranging consequences than he envisioned.

[JimRed]

AnyEvery country bad mouthing America, but especially third world sh*t holes, should have their foreign aid cut to zero.

It should ONLY be restored with proof positive of a significant benefit to America. The world's been skating on our dime long enough.