thinksense

Slavery...

Recently there have been mentions of slavery in some of the strings on OPP.

There have been references to slavery in the history of the U.S.A. made by certain Colored groups, stating that they, being of Negro ancestry, and implying their ancestors were brought here as slaves, should be entitled to “reparations”.

We even have a person who plays the Negro Slavery game whenever he gets the chance. Seems to think it is “cool”.

Many of these are riding in a broken buggy, implying that being a slave was literal hell.
It is time we took a look at slavery, as it really was... And is.

Most people have the impression that slaves were ripped out of a happy home, where they could get plenty of healthy food by hunting and gathering, and lived in an ideal, safe environment. Taken in chains to the coast, placed in the crowded ship's hold, fed almost no food or water so that a number of them died on the trip to wherever.

There they were sold at auction, families being torn apart. Then under a mean master they lived like an animal. Getting little food, very poor housing, long exhausting work, and being whipped into action by slave drivers.

This story told by the “activists” of that day has been what people of today often believe.

The only thing wrong with this is that with rare exception all of the above is a Lie.


First, the slaves, captured by the slave hunters (most of whom were black themselves) lived as so many in Africa today. With periodic shortages of food, poor water, in mud huts. Extremely short and brutish lives.

When taken in captivity, it was usually by a tribe they were at war with, who realizing they could be sold, did not kill them out of hand. These were valuable commodities, so they were fed, given good water and protected from other tribes.

Once aboard ship, they became even more valuable commodities, and though the ships were crowded, they were fed, and taken care of as well as could be expected. The slaves had been bought and paid for. Any who died, well the cost came directly out of ship master's pocket. If you were a ship’s master would you treat valuable merchandise roughly, destroying some of your profit. No sane person would.

When they were sold, again they were treated as a useful, expensive commodity, because that is what they were. Would you allow a family to be torn apart? What kind of behavior would you expect from the father, the mother? Would tearing the family apart make the members more valuable?

The same would apply at their ultimate destination. The plantation owner had to feed them house them cloth them, in other words take care of them. In all cases they well outnumbered the so called masters. Do you really think that the bosses would work their people to exhaustion, feed them poorly, allow them to be whipped? Wouldn’t that be insane to do? No, you would treat them as well as you would treat any valuable item. And you would rest the worker sufficiently so he would not get sick and die, or get desperate and run off, wouldn’t you. Ever see those pictures of those fat old nannies? Think they got fat by being starved?

Did some of the slaves hate their situation? Maybe most of them did. Did any of them ever want to go back to Africa? Many of them liked being taken care of. Knowing they would have food tomorrow, housing tomorrow, clothing tomorrow.

When I was in the Marine corps, I earned less than $4 a day. But I was content because I had food most days, a place to sleep, and a yearly clothing allowance. And all I had to do was train all day from before sunrise to sunset, go on 20 mile conditioning hikes, carrying a full 70 LB. pack, and 47 lb bipod for an 81mm mortar, go into combat and let the gooks shoot at me and pull guard duty or mess duty every once in a while. Wasn’t that slavery?

You, worked most of your life, didn’t you? Probably hated some if not all of the jobs you had. Why did you work? So you would be able to eat, clothe yourself, house yourself, and when you finally decided to marry, didn’t you go to work 5 or more days a week, to support your family.

And didn’t various people come to you in one way or another and extort your money for licenses, taxes, various permits, speeding tickets,etc.

YOU TOO HAVE BEEN A SLAVE, “wage slave” is what you were called.

Think about it...

PaulPisces Loc: San Francisco

Just wondering. Have you or any of your kin ever been the legal property of another person?

steve66613

For the most part, "black slaves" were people literally dragged out of the Stone Age. Within weeks they were immersed in "modern civilization".

The shock of being chained/restrained was their first taste of European-style civilization. Not long until the Stockholm syndrome sets in.

However, after a few years, being fed, clothed, housed and socialized (maybe educated)...people begin to see what others have...and desire more. Most people have experienced a desire for upward mobility.

Was slavery, in the U.S. brutal or unbearable? For the most part, probably not. But, history has shown that people instinctively want to be free.

Today's problem is: how many rights and liberties are we willing to sacrifice in order to retain a certain amount of freedom?

Carol Kelly

That wasn't his point. AND YOU KNOW IT! Enough said.

Carol Kelly

Many of the descendants of those same slaves are living off our government with time on their hands to march and scream for more, more. However, they don't do anything to earn what they want. We have become the slaves, working to pay taxes to support them.
Moreover, every time we turn around, we're asked to donate to their food pantries, etc.
Where does it end? Now we have Maxine Waters and her ilk demanding to impeach our
President. WHERE DOES IT END?

CounterRevolutionary

At least in the United States, there is one thing most of us all hold in common, be they rich or poor, old or young, white or black or anything in between, educated or uneducated, beautiful or ugly, brash or recluse: They hate somebody else telling them what to do.

That is, up until the arrival of Mark Zuckerberg, offering "universal pay" to all, the potential future presidential candidate of the Democrat Party, people had to earn a living.

Think about it. Who is going to do the work with Universal Pay?

Will the idle become the new slave masters? Will the workers become the new slaves? This voluntary slavery under socialism is in exchange for "security" and is happening under the wealthiest nation on earth, not the African continent, nor the Black population in America.

Just who is going to do the work?

Owning land used to offer the greatest security; farms were cottage industries plus food and housing. Now the college students with their huge debts are begging for state serfdom on the government plantation. We are losing our mammalian instincts and reverting to an insect hive mentality.

If Zuckerberg wanted to restore human dignity, then why not offer real reform? Pass a New American Homestead Act to grant farmland to all who can work the land and make their home, tax free for life. Let us define "property" as the philosopher John Locke did: one's personhood, one's conscience, one's intellectual property, one's land, and the fruits of one's labor. Property rights were as revolutionary in 1776 as they are today.

Life is a gift. We are born free.

L8erToots

Ummm...I don't know about him, but my sister and I were my parent's legal property from birth until we were 18. They fed us, clothed us, put a roof over our head and even hit us, always on the bare behind and usually with a belt (only by my Mom...she had delicate skin, but never by my Dad and never when they were angry) when we really screwed up and did something that put us in harms way or danger. They forced us do chores for free, the home motto was "When I say jump, all you should ask is 'How high?', I was forced to eat food I didn't like sometimes (eat or starve...not eating what was on the table was NOT an option) and we had a big, 150'x50' garden we worked in on hot summer days. My parents were great parents but, yeah, they legally owned us, lock, stock and barrel and I'm proud of my work ethic and who I was by the time I turned 18 and was let loose on the world. I changed a few things when I was raising my own kids - no belt and very few spankings...only as a last result, and we only forced them to try a bite of everything, but never forced them to eat when they weren't hungry...but they understood beyond any doubt that legally, I was only required to feed them, clothe them and put a roof over their head...toys and everything else were "optional" and only if they behaved. I knew when I was growing up (because my mom informed us as teenagers) and my kids knew that home was a dictatorship, not a democracy. My "children" are 22, 24 and 27 and to this day, if I say, "When I'm talking to you like this..." they will all smile and chime in together and finish the sentence "...I don't want to hear excuses, all I want to hear is 'yes ma'am' "
Yeah, I legally "owned" my kids until they were 18 and I'm proud of the amazing human beings they are and were as children growing up and they think I was a great Mom, too.

thinksense

Obviously you missed the point of my above missive, which was that people today make a horror of the slave history of our country. They base their ideas on propaganda they have read, much of it written by the Abolitionist Agitators of the past and those who today wish to take advantage of the exaggerations and lies written by those people.

Frank Slavery was bad, but not as it is described by certain people who want to benefit from repeating the lies. For example the largest slave holder in Georgia with more than 400 slaves was himself a Negro. None of the current crop want to mention that. Why not?. This man took care of 400 strangers to our world, gave them employment, guaranteed them daily food, lodging, clothing, and Christian religion.



First, let me comment that your question is, of course a trick question, implying that unless someone "owns you" directly, you are not a slave. However common sense would recognize that anyone who is not allowed the control of his own life and the products of that life has been made a slave.

For example, you are a homosexual. Homosexuality, although more tolerated today (maybe you would disagree with that) is still looked down upon, and most heterosexuals would be uncomfortable to be around you with the result that you probably find there are places you can not safely go. That demonstrates a form of enslavement, doesn't it? Although generally not recognized as such.

The modern world has been developed so that ALL people are to some degree owned/enslaved.

If you live in the U.S.A. you are owned by the USA.
Does your profession require a license? The entity that issues that license controls/enslaves you.
Do you pay income taxes? If yes, that part of your labor which has been taken from you for taxes would class as wages of slavery.(you worked for it, but it was taken from you and given to someone else.
Do you need to carry identification? If you are obligated to carry identification it implies ownership by an entity.
Do you need permission to leave or re-enter the country? Again this implies ownership.
Have you ever been arrested and jailed? Ownership is demonstrated.
Have you ever been in the Armed Service? Again ownership is demonstrated.

In all of these examples no single person owns you, but the outcome is the same....You are enslaved.

PeterS

Tell you what, lets try it out. Why don't you and your family come over to my house for a year as my slaves. Do my bidding, live in the shack I build for you, eat the scraps I allow you to eat, allow me to rape your wife and daughters when ever I felt, and basically treat you as if you were my property--which of course, as slaves, you would have been.

Deal?!?!?

thinksense

Peter, You too are a trickster. Instead of adding something to the discussion, you, as usual scribble some nonsense. Anyone who answers you seriously is foolish.

No sense dealing with you....and you are not worth the bullet.

PeterS

And what was the trick--treating you as my property? As my property you would have ZERO rights. I could do with you as I wanted, I could do with your family as I wanted, and there would be no protest from you that would be legal. And of course if you did protest then I could beat you until you protested no more. That's slavery. How you could think it would be something else really is beyond me...

karpenter Loc: Headin' Fer Da Hills !!

Don't Forget There Were Thousands Of Black Slave-Owning Masters
Owning Almost 13,000 Slaves Collectively, Living Mostly In The South
Abolitionists Wanted Slavery Abolished, But Wanted The Freed-Men Forcibly Repatriated To Africa
Slavery Is A Time Honored African Tradition

JediKnight

You have no idea just how idiotic your post is! No, hard work for little wages is not the same, nor is a billet in the military - I served on active duty for 12 years, so yes, I know how it is. Slavery goes much, much deeper than hard work or horrible living conditions. Slavery in America, literally stripped the native Africans of all rights as a human being, their culture, their language, and their heritage were all taken away and replaced with subservience to a race of people who had no more right to rule over them than you have to being King of England. How could you equate torture, the denial of basic human rights, and the horrors of being stolen from your country, beaten and maimed, watching your women and daughters raped and humiliated right in front of you, or having your wife and children sold away to another plantation hundreds of miles away and you have no way to even contact them? Slavery is a stain that imbues the fabric of this country and not even reparations will wash it away....but reparations could go a long way in healing the divide and leveling the field. We have a difficult time understanding why the white man was so willing to give reparations to the Holocaust descendants, who were afflicted in Germany - not America - but not to the descendants of black slaves who did nothing to deserve such treatment. You should be ashamed of yourself.....and I'm praying for people like you.

Big Bass

You should ask male muslims this question. They STILL treat their women as chattels. You may learn something if you try.

Big Bass

Some slave-owners were honorable and treated the slaves well, some were bastards. Well, well, well, tiny peter, we now all know what kind of slave-owner you would have been, don't we? Typical libturd!