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The Reality of Slavery in America vs Everywhere Else (5:50 min video and formatted transcript)
youtube.com ^ | John Stossel

Posted on 09/10/2024 3:58:56 AM PDT by RoosterRedux

TRANSCRIPT:

The original sin of slavery.

Today Americans are taught, when it comes to slavery, America was the worst. The Atlantic slave trade from Africa to the Americas was different from any other type of slavery. The United States didn't inherit slavery from anybody, we created it. American slavery was worse because the slaves were reduced to property. They were chattel property. No other system of slavery did that except American slavery.

That's complete nonsense. Wilfred Reilly is a political science professor and author of Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me. Generational slavery, like if you're the son of a slave, you're a slave, that was extraordinarily common. Slavery around the world was slavery. Books like Unfinished Nation say slaves in Africa were kept unfree only for a fixed term. No, is the short answer. Most of the slaves taken by these sort of players would be either kept a slave for their entire life, or, more likely, sold to the whites and the Arabs in two years.

Today, partly thanks to the New York Times' 1619 Project, students are taught that America's slavery was unlike anything that had existed before. We're the worst society ever. We've done things that no one else has ever done. And sometimes, there’s nothing wrong with acknowledging your historical mistakes. I mean, I'm black, Irish, a bit Native American, at least per the family lore. I mean, those are three peoples who have experienced a great deal historically. Nothing wrong with acknowledging that. But it's extremely odd to focus only on the negatives of your society and to exaggerate those.

Americans are taught that slavers caught people in Africa and shipped them here, but few are taught that most slaves were not shipped to the United States. Between 10.7 million and 12 million slaves from Africa went to the New World. We got a little under 400,000. Under 400,000 out of 10 million. The extreme focus on slavery in the United States—why did that happen? One reason is that a lot of black people survived here. Slavery was harsh, but it was a lot less harsh than clearing the Brazilian jungle.

All right, but American blacks are at a disadvantage. They have less capital, financial and educational capital. What's the harm in pointing out how abusive white people were? The harm is that pointing out how abusive white people were is not going to get black Americans any more capital. Most of the problems in the modern black community don't have anything to do with historical ethnic conflict 160 years ago. The Great Society asks not how much, but how good.

Reilly says most of the problems began when welfare began. Crime in the black community, every time I’ve tried to break this down, increased about 800% between, say, 1963 and 1993. Racism didn't increase between 1960 and the modern era. You're looking at the impacts of the Great Society, the welfare programs.

Reilly argues it’s better to teach the truth, that almost every society had slavery. The Aztecs, the Persians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Vikings, and most of all, the Arab world. The Arabs were probably history's premier slave traders. Sometimes they captured poor whites from Slavic countries. The Muslims, many of whom were dark-skinned or even black, took so many blonde slaves out of this region that they gave the world “Slav,” slave, to the global slave population.

Many slaves were forced into harems. Sexual slavery was very much a part of slavery. Like if your group was defeated in war, the men would probably just be killed, or they'd be sold as farmhands. The women would often be sold as harem girls or prostitutes. More than a million Europeans were enslaved. But Muslim slave traders took more people from Africa. The Arabs targeting Africa took out about 17 million people. The British and then the Americans were the rare people who moved to abolish slavery.

So, yeah, the British Navy, in a story almost no one now knows, sank 1600 slave ships. It freed 150,000 people that were enslaved at the time. Because the Brits objected for moral reasons. Yeah, they'd had enough of it. Saudi Arabia only abolished the slave trade relatively recently. Well, that's another inconvenient fact, right? The Global Slavery Index estimates that even now, although slavery is “officially” illegal, there are more than 700,000 slaves in Saudi Arabia. Where there were no westerners, you’d have a lot of slavery for a long time. And you do.

American slavery was horrible. But it wasn’t unique. Our culture would be healthier if we learned about that. And schools dwelling on America’s evils hasn’t helped Americans get over them. Gallup polls show after schools started focusing on oppression, race relations got worse. The idea of generational slavery, the idea of slave trading, none of that was unique to America.

And another thing, you don’t need radicalism to critique the worst excesses of an existing system. All you need is incrementalism and honesty.

In a few weeks, I’ll post a video about another of Reilly’s myths—the claim that before Columbus, the native people were kind stewards of the environment.

I know every rock and tree and creature has a life, has a spirit, has a name.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: r; slavery
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1 posted on 09/10/2024 3:58:56 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
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To: RoosterRedux

The truth hurts.


2 posted on 09/10/2024 4:03:42 AM PDT by riverrunner
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To: riverrunner
The truth hurts.

Particularly when you've built your entire life on a lie.

3 posted on 09/10/2024 4:10:24 AM PDT by RoosterRedux (Thinking is difficult. And painful. That’s why many people avoid it.)
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To: RoosterRedux

In the 1860s slavery for blacks was abolished. Today, all of us are slaves. This fact is not well hidden


4 posted on 09/10/2024 4:14:48 AM PDT by C210N (Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.)
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To: RoosterRedux
European and Yankee slave traders didn't go catch people from Africa. Think how time consuming and expensive it would have been to go into the bush and capture people and drag them back to the ships one by one. That would have made no commercial sense at all. No. They BOUGHT slaves from the LOCAL AFRICANS who SOLD them for PROFIT.

There was nothing unique or even different about slavery as practiced in the US.

Yes, what became the US and the slavery that existed there was inherited from the British Empire.

They didn't even mention all the Western European travelers and fishermen and people who lived in coastal villages who were enslaved by muslim slave traders - especially the Barbary Pirates.....against whom the US fought its first war.....Stephen Decatur.....the 2nd line of the Marine hymn "to the shores of Tripoli". What the hell does anybody think that refers to? The MUSLIM Barbary pirates were demanding tribute from us - which we paid until we could build up a navy. When we stopped paying they started enslaving Americans trading in the Med and elsewhere. Thomas Jefferson sent the US Navy and Marine Corps to teach them why that was a very bad idea - which they duly did.

5 posted on 09/10/2024 4:16:46 AM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: RoosterRedux

bfl


6 posted on 09/10/2024 4:17:27 AM PDT by Skooz (Gabba Gabba accept you we accept you one of us Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us )
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To: RoosterRedux

#taxationisslavery

Not hyperbole.

Any legal declaration of ownership over a person, person’s property or their wealth is de facto slavery.

It is NOT a matter of degree, but of kind.

So, tell me again why our founders never put taxes into our US Constitution? Why our nation’s first war was fought against its own citizens by taxing homemade whisky?

The last bit is rhetorical, I won’t argue.


7 posted on 09/10/2024 4:22:05 AM PDT by normbal (normbal. somewhere in socialist occupied America ‘tween MD and TN)
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To: RoosterRedux
"Between 10.7 million and 12 million slaves from Africa went to the New World. We got a little under 400,000. Under 400,000 out of 10 million."

Interesting bit of history.

8 posted on 09/10/2024 4:30:07 AM PDT by Psalm 73 ("You'll never hear surf music again" - J. Hendrix)
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To: RoosterRedux

Once you become enlightened to the reality of the history you discover the whole schtick is get people to hate one another. Sow strife and division. Use every means possible to inject this poisonous false teaching into every classroom. Get the people into an emotional frenzy. If you are not of slave ancestry you are supposed to feel guilty. If you of slave ancestry you are supposed to demand reparations! Guilt and hate! Guilt and hate!


9 posted on 09/10/2024 5:05:03 AM PDT by missnry (The truth will set you free ... and drive liberals crazy!)
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To: Psalm 73

Many of our slaves came from the Caribbean or Brazil. Many of them already spoke English


10 posted on 09/10/2024 5:07:42 AM PDT by AppyPappy (Biden told Al Roker "America is back". Unfortunately, he meant back to the 1970's)
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To: missnry
Once you become enlightened to the reality of the history of MARXISM you discover the whole schtick is get people to hate one another.
11 posted on 09/10/2024 5:13:05 AM PDT by RoosterRedux (Thinking is difficult. And painful. That’s why many people avoid it.)
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To: RoosterRedux

Bookmark. Thanks for posting.


12 posted on 09/10/2024 5:43:52 AM PDT by Made In The USA (Ellen Ate Dynamite Good Bye Ellen)
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To: RoosterRedux
Saudi Arabia only abolished the slave trade relatively recently. Well, that's another inconvenient fact, right? The Global Slavery Index estimates that even now, although slavery is “officially” illegal, there are more than 700,000 slaves in Saudi Arabia.

I read a number of articles a few years ago exposing how Saudi Arabians would lure Pilipinos to Saudi Arabia with the promise of good jobs and after their arrival they would become slaves.

I can imagine that since no money ever changes hands in this practice that it would be completely legal in Saudi Arabia.

Because slavery is enshrined in the Koran it can’t be made ill-legal in Saudi Arabia.

13 posted on 09/10/2024 5:56:19 AM PDT by Pontiac (esse welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
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To: RoosterRedux

I’ve never owned a slave. Not one. No American alive today has ever been enslaved. I doubt many can actually trace their lineage back to slaves. Blacks are reminded about slavery to keep them voting for their perceived liberators. What was that infamous phrase from LBJ?


14 posted on 09/10/2024 6:05:44 AM PDT by bk1000 (Banned from Breitbart)
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To: normbal

“..Any legal declaration of ownership over a person, person’s property or their wealth is de facto slavery. It is NOT a matter of degree, but of kind....”

^THIS^
I nominate that post for “Post Of The Day”.
Taxation is nothing more than outright “legalized theft” at the point of a gun.
Whoever came up with idea of taxing the fruits of a person’s labor and/or property has a special place in hell.
The communist regime’s most recent “unrealized gains tax” scheme is their ultimate wet dream tax where they can ultimately and legally confiscate any and all personal assets for the engineered inability to pay it. It is the most hideous and dibilitating tax ever dreamed up. The taxing a person for what might be or could be is just outright evil regardless how wealthy or poor that person is.


15 posted on 09/10/2024 6:11:56 AM PDT by lgjhn23 ("On the 8th day, Satan created the progressive liberal to destroy all the good that God created..." )
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To: bk1000
And even when there was slavery, only a tiny percent of people actually owned slaves.

BTW, it's not just the LBJ Democrats pushing this narrative. It's part of the Marxist victimhood indoctrination pushed at almost all U.S. colleges and universities today.

16 posted on 09/10/2024 6:21:17 AM PDT by RoosterRedux (Thinking is difficult. And painful. That’s why many people avoid it.)
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To: RoosterRedux

I took a tour of Fort Jesus in Mombasa this summer. It was built by Vasco da Gama in the late 15th Century, and occupied by the Portuguese for a little over a century. After a two year siege by the Omanis, the Portuguese garrison surrendered. As the tour guide went on to talk about the Omani period for Mombasa, I asked “Hey, what happened to the Portuguese guys who surrendered?”

Of course, I already knew the answer. Some were killed, the rest went into slavery. I’m sure that didn’t go well.


17 posted on 09/10/2024 7:01:50 AM PDT by henkster (He's got a day time job; he's doing all right)
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To: RoosterRedux

The lucky slaves escaped Africa to the U.S., where they lived as well as many free whites.


18 posted on 09/10/2024 7:03:23 AM PDT by UnwashedPeasant (The pandemic we suffer from is not COVID. It is Marxist Democrat Leftism. )
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To: RoosterRedux

This article ignores modern slavery managed by the Mexico-based cartels in partnership with the Democrats.


19 posted on 09/10/2024 7:09:35 AM PDT by UnwashedPeasant (The pandemic we suffer from is not COVID. It is Marxist Democrat Leftism. )
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To: RoosterRedux
The extreme focus on slavery in the United States—why did that happen?

To justify the carnage. To create the illusion that the civil war was fought for a moral reason rather than for monetary greed, which is the actual reason why it was fought.

To distract from the fact that Lincoln precipitated the civil war for the economic benefit of the ruling class.

To shore up the power structure of the corrupt part of Washington that profited from the War and it's aftermath, and to keep the ruling class in power.

The propaganda is still going on today, because it still helps the "elite" corrupt "ruling class" maintain their power and control of Washington DC.

20 posted on 09/10/2024 7:19:35 AM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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