They never taught me this in school-------

[duck walk]

our flag, guns, God, all liberties are being erroded or stolen from under our noses...we are living in a society of revisionist history...Libertarian here and my flag flies every day...also a military family dating all the way back to that scirmish with the Brits and the signing of the Declaration Of Independance...what is going on in our society right now saddens me and is a bit scary, but I believe in America and Americans...you can push them only so far toward the cliff before they get ticked off and push back...'nuff said...

 

[JetBlack]

That's because (and I could be totally wrong!!!) probably the only people who abused their slaves were the same type of people who, nowadays, are abusing their animals.

I've never known a farmer who's animals were treated anything other than the way they treated their equipment. Well taken care of machines last forever. Same with animals. If you whip the tar out of your horse today, tomorrow, it'll be a dang sight harder to get him back in that harness. Only the small minded and cruel would whip and beat their slaves. One slave cost a LOT of money.

If a draft horse cost $3500-5000, wouldn't you want to make sure it was healthy and fed/watered, had clean bedding, etc.? Certainly there was abuse. Just as there is abuse now. It's just difficult to believe that constant whipping/abuse/starvation was the norm and not the exception.

We are inclined to put ourselves in a different group from people "back when".

"They used to whip their slaves for hours, for no reason at all!"

"You would do that?"

"No! [shocked] Of course not!"

"So you wouldn't but "they" would..."

Modern people will always think they are better than the uncouth savages of old.

 

[Miltonchix]

Don't know how we slid into a slavery discussion, but what the heck, its DISCUSSION/DEBATE.

Myself, I have never understood how a person, no matter what they look like, could enslave another human being. Blacks weren't the only ones enslaved. Its happened to a variety of cultures and races. Still goes on today, which is mindblowing. But we still have cultures who feel its their "right".
But, going along with the original topic. They didn't teach me in school that England was completely responsible for slavery in the U.S. We were'nt the USA yet, but England REQUIRED everyone who owned land to own slaves. If they felt you were worthy of land ownership you needed the "assets" to work the land. The legal importation of slaves ended way before slavery itself. SO, if anyone wants to pursue reparations, sue England.

 

[JetBlack]

Hope everyone had a great 4th and still have all their fingers.

On NPR (National Public Radio), every year, on the 4th, they get a few people with good voices, to read the Declaration of Independence. My Girlfriend is really into American History. REALLY into it. So I bought her a copy of The Declaration and a copy of the US Constitution. It is a really inspiring couple of documents and I recommend them.

I grew up 12 miles from Annapolis (America's first Capitol and the port where Kunta Kinte first set foot on US soil).

One of the coolest restaurants, in Annapolis is called "Chick-n-Ruth's" (best crab cakes ever!) I believe there's one in DC as well. Every M-F morning, at 8:30AM and Saturday at 9:30AM, the patrons and staff stop what they are doing, stand and address the flag to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. My Mom worked for the government, in a building that was built in 1645. I wished, yesterday, that I could have visited Annapolis on the 4th. It's a great day to spend in a place that saw a lot of history.

 

[JetBlack]

Quote:
A couple of ways that make sense to me.

1. Your army defeats the enemy, on your soil. What do you do with all those captured soldiers? Well, you could sell them to land owners to work the soil, build things in factories and stores, etc..

2. Indentured servitude. You pay for someone to leave their country and come to America. In exchange for that passage, they must work for you for free, for 2-3 years. They get room and board, clothes, heat and water, on your property.

There are still training school, in America that I think *sort of* blur the line. You get room and board, while being trained to, say, weld or machine. 2 years. You work in their production facility manufacturing parts, with on-the-job training. You are paid almost nothing to make parts for the company, while they train you to leave the facility to do skilled labor, in the future.

Ask a doctor if they think their residency was akin to slavery. You are called a "resident" because you used to live at the hospital. Little or no pay. At the end of my bachelor's degree, I did an internship, for which I was not paid. Sucked. Slavery. No beatings though so it wasn't too bad

 

[ginbart]

Well now I need to tell you a funny story since you are talking about slaves, my husband trains race horse's. He doesn't own any he trains them for other people. Where he trains them there are other men training them and one just happened to be a black man. Now my son, who was about 6 or 7, was at the barn with us and Verl said something about his owner. My son said out loud, " I didn't think people were aloud to own black people anymore. My face got very red and I could feel it. I didn't know what to say and I looked at Verl to see if he was mad but thank God he was a long time friend of my DH and Verl explained that he was talking about the horse's owner and no one owned him. He started laughing so I knew it was ok to laugh

 

[Miltonchix]

Quote:
If only ALL of us could laugh at ourselves when situation warrants. Too many take offense where none was ever meant. The innocence of a child has caused many embarrassing moments at my house too. Anyone remember Art Linkletters "kids say the darndest things"? I remember watching with my parents as child and thinking, "whats so funny"? They all made sense to me.