The first post will consist of politically incorrect information about slavery in world history. The second and third post will consist of politically incorrect information about the life of slaves in the south and how they were treated.
Look Away! Politically Incorrect Information on Slavery in the CSA, America, and World History
“If you can cut the people off from their history, then they can be easily persuaded.”
-Karl Marx
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."
-George Orwell, 1984
“It means that the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy; that our youth will be trained by Northern school teachers;will learn from Northern school books their version of the War, will be impressed by all influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors, our maimed veterans as fit objects for their derision.”
-Major General Patrick Cleburne, C.S.A. Jan. 2, 1864
What I am not saying
As a Christian I do not think slavery is a good or wanted practice. I also see the South as moving away from our founder’s view of slavery. For example, on March, 21 1861 Confederate Vice President Alexander Stevens said:
“The prevailing ideas entertained by him [Thomas Jefferson] and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old Constitution were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature – that it was wrong in principle –socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with, but the general opinion of the men of that day was that somehow or other, in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent [temporary] and pass away.”
I see slavery as inconsistent with the beliefs and values of many of the freedom and liberty loving founders of the republic of this nation. These founders overwhelmingly wanted to outlaw slavery.
What I am saying
"Slavery is a moral evil in any society...more so to the white than to the black."
-Robert E Lee 1856
I am saying that slavery as commonly assumed is not the slavery of the majority in the American South. This modern vast evil view of slavery started post ww2. I will defend the South and slavery; not to say slavery was good, but to tell the side of slavery and of the Confederacy that most would otherwise not hear. Telling only part of the history of the south is misleading, and that is what we have a lot of today. Many people picture slavery as a white man with whip in hand, ready to use on any black slave; and slaves working in the field, mistreated and abused. While it is true that horrible things happened during slavery and in the Confederacy, these were the exception, not the rule. I am also making the assumption that you all know the terrible things that did occur during slavery, such as rape, murder, mistreatment, etc. These offenses can happen whenever one sinful human being [we all are sinful] has power over another[Just look at the totalitarian governments of last century]. My hope here is to fill in the historical facts you may be missing, to give a bigger and more accurate picture of slavery in the south.
Is slavery unique to America? The history of slavery
“The idea of slavery was so deeply ingrained that no one questioned its propriety. All nations enjoyed it.”
-A.O Sherrard, Freedom from Fear
“In 1860, according to the census measure of wealth, the average southerner white male was nearly twice as wealthy as the average northern white male”
-James McPherson Battle cry of Freedom
Economical imperative brought on slavery in America, not some preconceived racial bias. Slavery is not an American idea or a white idea. Slavery has been going on in thousands of nations since almost the beginning of time. Slavery was in America before any white men arrived. All races and groups of people have forced slavery on others of their own race and of other groups of people. Ancient cultures like Athens/Sparta had a 3-1 ration of slave to free man. When a culture denominated another culture, historically the result was slavery. The Romans owned slaves throughout the known world. The Romans had so many slaves that multiple large scale slave uprisings occurred. Arab Muslims enslaved a estimated 10 million Africans.
Aztec's in South America always had and still have slaves in large numbers in South America. Native Americans enslaved other Native Americans. Multiple groups of Native American’s were cannibals and ate their victims. They also branded, burned them at the stake, buried them alive, killed them, or forced them into prostitution. Native Americans enslaved not only their own people, but whites and blacks as well. Most of the Native American tribes fought for the Confederacy and were owners of black slaves at the time of Civil War. For example, one Choctaw Indian owned 227 blacks as slaves. Some native tribes like the Haida had slaves up until the 1950's in America. The Chinese and Asians also had slaves; In China, the Buddhist owned slaves.
Africans had enslaved their own people in larger numbers and for longer periods before any white men came to Africa. Africa’s number one export was slaves; this was the case even before any white men came to purchase slaves. In Africa, blacks enslaved whites and millions of their own people. Some countries in Africa had as high as 75-90%of the population enslaved by fellow blacks. Throughout history all races have enslaved other races and people of their own race. Only 6% of slaves that were imported to the western world from Africa in 1640-1820 came to America; most went to places like Brazil, Cuba, the Caribbean’s, etc. Slavery in America only lasted 222 years, versus slavery in Europe and Africa which lasted thousands of years. Slaves in America were not reduced to slavery here, but were already enslaved in Africa before being sold to traders. There is an estimated 30 million slaves in the world today [2015], more than at any other time in history.
White slavery in America and the world
When some people hear the word slavery, they automatically picture a black slave and white master. It seems often that only whites can be guilty of slavery. However, just as any other people group, whites have been enslaved. Muslim Arabs have been enslaving whites,Christians, and Jews since around 600 A.D. Muslims sold whites into slavery in Africa; Over 1.5 million whites were enslaved during the 1700's in Africa. Whites [and Americans] were enslaved by the millions by North Africans and Muslims, forcing the USA to build a navy and go to war to stop the enslavement. In 1816, England went to war in Africa to free 3,000 English people.
Whites have been enslaved “From Virginia to Barbados.” The English enslaved Irish/Vikings and Scots by the millions. In the English colonies of early America, prior to 1640, most sugar growing was done by forced white labor. In 1527, Native Americans enslaved white Spanish settlers in Florida. During the 1500's in Virginia,Algonquins Indians enslaved whites. The enslavement of whites was legal in Massachusetts in 1658. In England, a 1765 report gave a 90%mortality rate for slave children in “workhouses” in England.
The word slave derives from slav, a Caucasian ethnic group often taken and enslaved by Muslims from the Ottoman Empire. Blacks in America [and the first slave holder in American history Anthony Johnson]owned whites and blacks as slaves. As white slaves and indentured servants decreased from Scotland/Ireland/Germany, the need for African slaves increased. By around 1756, it became mostly black slavery in America. According to John Adams, white labor was preferred by most to black labor at that time. Joseph Stalin enslaved an estimated 14.5 million of his own people [Russians]. There were white slaves in the south during the Civil War. There are accounts of white slaves in Virginia. As well, in letters between John Bell Hood and General Sherman, Sherman offered help to the citizens of Atlanta and slaves black and white after the fall of Atlanta (indicating the presence of white slaves in Georgia).
“Did you know poor whites like slaves had to git a pass? I mean, a rem it like as slaves, to sell anythin an to go places, or do anyth in Jest as we Colored people, dey had to go to some big white man like Colonel Allen, dey did.....0ld Marster wuz more hard on dem poor white forks den he wus on us *******......two sets of white folks slaves up my way....Dese two families worked on..Allen's farm as we did Off from us on a plot called Morgan's lot, there dey lived as slaves jes like us colored fo'ks Yes de poor white man had some darkan tough days. like us poor ******* I mean worked lashed an treated, sore of dem, jest as pitiful an unmerciful.”
-Charles Charley Virginia Slave Narratives
African slaves coming to America- The source of American slaves
Slavery was not invented by Americans, it was inherited from Great Britain. Americans did not go to Africa and kidnap free blacks to force them into slavery. The slaves brought over from Africa were already enslaved by their own people; before 1820, no free blacks came to America. However, when the slaves did come to America they would usually be given the chance to buy or earn their freedom. Without the help from Africans, the transatlantic slave trade would not have been profitable and would not have come to America. As one slave ship captain said in the 1700's, “I have only transported them from one master to another.” Slavery in Africa was around before any white man came to Africa, and lasted long after slavery was ended in America. The origins of the slavery of Africans comes from Africa, not America, thousands of years before the first white man purchased a black slave. When American slave ships came to Africa, slavery was an already booming export of Africa. Most of African slaves had been sold and gone west to Arab Muslims and Asia. Africans enslaved their own people in numbers far greater than any country in the world; slavery being Africa’s number one export. Slavery was so common it was often used as money or payment; soldiers were sometimes paid with slaves. In some places in Africa, as much as 90% of the population was enslaved. Estimates in 1860 in Central Africa suggest a ratio of 3-1 slave to free man existed. Zanzibar's population was 75% slaves. The quality of life for the African slave that was brought to America improved in every-way (see below for more details).
Who abolished slavery in Africa?
Some African countries maintained legal slavery until 2007, such as the African Muslim country of Mauritania. There was no abolition movement within Pagan/Muslim Africa to end slavery before the American civil war. It was the white Christian pressure to abolish slavery in Africa. No race gets blamed more for slavery than whites, yet no race has done more to abolish slavery than whites.
Opinions toward slavery and blacks in America before the Civil war- The Americn Revolution and the generation following 1776-1830
“In the period of the American revolution the interest of the south in slavery declined”
-Historian Francis B Simkins, quoted in Myths of American slavery
“Regret for the presence of the African on the soil, was the universal felling of that generation which succeeded the revolution”
-Thomas Jefferson speaking of Virginia, Quoted in a defense of Virginia and the south R. L. Dabney
“There was a growing felling all over the south for its abolition”
-Jeff Davis CSA president, The life and death of Jefferson Davis
Founders view of slavery
“The American revolution gave an enormous impetus to the struggle against slavery”
-Robert William Fogel The Rise and Fall of American Slavery
Upwards of 70% of the early Americans founders were anti-slavery or abolitionist. But the individual states had power to determine their own slavery laws. While a few states continued to allow slavery,most did not. The states were allowed this individual control with the agreement that the slave trade would be outlawed in 20 years. Before the revolution, many Americans tried numerous times to end slavery before the war, yet England would not allow it. Once we were our own nation many founders and Americans released their slaves or outlawed slavery in their state. Many in the south wanted to end slavery including slave holders. Abolitionist worked together in the North and South, yet disagreed on how to end slavery. Northerners generally wanted slaves to go back to Africa, or simply let them free in America; Others [North and South] wanted them educated before letting them free. Southerners generally wanted slaves brought back to Africa and desired financial support for the loss of money associated with letting slaves go free. Since almost the entire southern economy was agrarian, to lose all the slaves would put the masters and family at risk of starvation. For example, a former slave said of his master,
“I cannot forget old massa. He was good and kind. He never believed in slavery but his money was tied up in slaves and he didn't want to lose all he had. I knows I will see him in heaven and even though I have to walk ten miles for a bite of bread I can still be happy to think about the good times we had then.”
-Gus Brown, Virginia Slave Narratives
“If slavery did not now exist amongst them, they would not introduce it If it did now exist amongst us, we should not instantly give it up.... When southern people tell us they are no more responsible for the origin of slavery, than we; I acknowledge the fact. When it is said that the institution exists; and that it is very difficult to get rid of it, in any satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the saying. I surely will not blame them for not doing what I should not know how to do myself. If all earthly power were given me, I should not know what to do, as to the existing institution”
-Abraham Lincoln
In 1787 the American states, north and south, unanimous outlawed slavery for states wishing to come into union from the west, thus limiting slavery [northwest ordinance]. After American gained its independence from England. In 1789 Georgia outlawed the slave trade 10 years before federal law would take effect. North Carolina outlawed the trade in 1794. In 1807, Representative Peter Early of Georgia declared before a congressional committee “We of the south consider slavery a dreadful evil.” By 1827, 4/5 of abolitionist organizations were from the south, both slave owning and non slave owning members. The number of slaves let free [with no monetary compensation] by slave owners in the two decades after the ratification of the US constitution doubled each decade. In 1822,America purchased Liberia in Africa for returning slaves. In 1828 the governor of Mississippi, the state with the largest population of slaves and producer of cotton, said “slavery is an evil at best.” The 1832 the Mississippi constitution limited slavery imports to the state. 1832 Virginia politician Charles Faulkner said, “Slavery,it is admitted, is an evil.” On June 9, 1832 Virginia legislature George Dinwiddie said, “Slavery is an evil.” In 1835, a southern slave owner said of abolitionism “So also is the south, with but a few exceptions.” Clearly, overall, north and south, was just as the founders said and thought, slavery was dying of natural causes.
Early black heroes and patriots of the Revolution and elected officials
During the American Revolution blacks and whites fought together. There were many black heroes and patriots of the war unknown to most today. Black heroes like Peter Salem, the hero of Bunker Hill; James Armistead, the hero of Yorktown and America’s first double spy. There were other battles, such as Lexington, where black patriots fought and were heroes of the battle. The first American shot dead in the war was a black man.
There were early black elected officials like Wentworth Cheswell, who was first elected in 1768 and then elected to multiple offices from 1768-1817. Thomas Hercules was another, elected in 1792. Blacks were elected to congress in the 1800's. There were early black federal American elected officials such as black Judge Winthrop Chestnut, who was elected as judge in 1775 in New Hampshire. Joseph Hayne Rainey overcame slavery to become the first African American elected to the U. S. Congress, even presiding over the U. S. House. There were many other early black heroes such as Absalom Jones, or Benjamin Bennker, who was born in 1731 and would become what Thomas Jefferson called “The greatest scientist in American history.”
The first self made woman millionaire in America was African American madam C.J Walker. “I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there Iwas promoted to the washtub. From there I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations….I have built my own factory on my own ground.” There were free blacks in the North and South who voted; Baltimore had more black votes than whites. More blacks than whites in Maryland voted to ratify the constitution.
1830-1860 Slavery in the South begins to grow and move away from the founder’s republic
So what caused pro slavery to increase in the American south? There were two main factors. Slaves were generally first used on sugar plantations [white and black], however with the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney, it made mass produce of cotton very valuable, and was best grown in the southern climate. With large money to be had, the moral Christian [and southern abolitionist movement that was growing] implications of slavery abated. In 1791,only 400 cotton bales were produced in the United States; by 1860,3,841,416 bales were produced in the south, 2/3 of the world’s production. Some have said the invention of the cotton gin was responsible for the Civil War.
“Had the cotton gin of Massachusetts inventor Eli Whitney not come on the scene in the late 1700’s, African slavery in this country was most likely doomed. The antislavery and emancipation feeling in the South was ascendant, but thwarted by profitable slave-trading and hungry cotton mills in New England which gave rise to more plantations in the South, and the perpetuation of slavery.”
-BernhardThuersam- Director Cape Fear Historical Institute NC
The second factor was the south’s reaction to northern abolitionist. During the second great awaking in America large numbers converted to Christ and the leading preachers started preaching slavery not just as a moral wrong as had been preached by some previous abolitionist pastors, but as a sin in of itself. Southern theologians objected. This caused northern abolitionist to demand immediate freeing of slaves with no financial support to the slave owners. This is because sin does not deserve financial support or any help,but must be stopped immediately.
The southerners [abolitionist] wanted financial support and a slow release of slaves to Africa. Abolitionist from the north went down south and agitated blacks and whites to rise up in violence against masters, such as the Nat Turner rebellion in 1831. This caused the south to push back harder against the northern abolitionist and enforce harsh “slave codes.” This led to some masters no longer allowing slaves to learn to read for fear they would read abolitionist material and rise up against the owners. North Carolina’s free blacks could no longer vote. Northern abolitionists started to be viewed as dangerous and radicals. The south was concerned with a mass release of slaves in their states[former pagan cannabis from Africa and recent slave uprising in Hati and other places causes major fear] and did not want the entire southern economy to collapse; an economy which was based on cotton and agriculture. This pushed the north and south apart. Eventually all things southern became evil, and two distinct cultures and ways of life started to grow. The north starting hating southern culture and the south starting hating northern culture. From this distain of each other’s culture, the feud became more than just about slavery. As the nation grew so did the southern states, including slave states as they went west expanding from just the few original slave colonies of early America.
Free blacks in the confederacy/Black men as slave owners in the confederacy/Native American men as slave owners in the confederacy
Free Blacks
There were thousands of free blacks in the south; in Virginia alone there were over 58,000 free blacks before the war.Virginia freed more slaves before 1861 than NY, NJ, Pennsylvanian and New England combined.In 1830 free blacks made up 24%of the population of New Orleans, by far the the largest southern city. Free blacks owned fire arms and used whip on their slaves as punishment. Many blacks entered the middle class and some became “rich” plantation owners, earning many times that of the average white southerner. Many notable confederate figures released their slaves and were anti slavery, such as Robert E.Lee and John Randolf.
America's first slave owner
America's first slave owner(not indentured servant,but slave being life long property)was Anthony Johnson from Virginia in 1653. He was a black man who owned John Castor,a black man,and another white man. In the court case Johnson vs Parker in Northampton county Virginia, it was declared that the two men he owned were his property for life.
Black men who owned slaves in the confederacy
There were thousands of free black men who were slave owners in the confederacy;who supported slavery and the south. In the 1830 census,there were more than 10,000 free men of color who owned slaves; from South Carolina, Louisianan,Virginia, and Maryland alone. Black plantation owners hired white “labours” to work on plantations alongside black slaves.Black owners used whips and the same punishments as white owners did on their slaves. Slave ownership was common among free blacks. In South Carolina in 1840,the percent of free blacks owning slaves was between 72.1-77.7%. In South Carolina, many black slave owners did not release the slaves after war, instead they were forced to by the federal government.
Black slave owners were generally as wealthy as white slave owners.A colored master near Canve River, LA had 7 plantations, owned 15,000 acres, worked more than 379 slaves valued at $1,000,000. The following are examples of black men and women who owned slaves: Auguste Donatto of St.Laundry Parish,LA owned a 500 acre plantation and at least 70 slaves. Justus Angel and Mistress L. Horry owned 84 slaves. Widow C. Richards and her son P.C. Richards owned over 100 slaves.Antoine Dubuclet's estimated value was $264,000;the average white southerner's value was less than $4,000. The Metoyer family of LA owned 400 black slaves.John Stanley of south Carolina owned 163 slaves.William Ellison of South Carolina owned over 100 acres and over 60 slaves. He also had a reputation for his brutal treatment of slaves (chaining up misbehaving slaves),slave breeding practices,and would not allow any of his slaves to buy their freedom.
African Slave Owners
The vast majority of slaves brought to America from Africa were bought from slave owning and trading blacks in Africa, who already enslaved other blacks and had them for sale.
Blacks around The World As Slave Owners
Blacks around the world and even in this last decade have had legal slavery in Africa. Blacks captured and enslaved whites throughout their history, as well as other blacks.
Native American/Jewish men as slave owners in the confederacy
The majority of Native American tribes supported and fought for the south in the civil war. Most of the tribes were owners of black slaves. At times they sexually exploited the slaves and physically abused them;they were regarded as harsher masters than the white man. Native American's also enslaved white men and other Native American groups throughout their history. Jewish men in the south were also slave owners.
Slavery today
“You know that moment when you read something, and then immediately have to re-read it because you cannot believe it is true? That happened tome when I read that the levels of slavery and people trafficking today are greater than at any point in history.”
-Freedom Project on cnn.com, Modern Day Slavery a Problem That Cant be Ignored
“Trafficking is a crime that involves every nation on earth, and that includes our own”
`HilaryClinton
“Each year 800,000 to 900,000 human beings are bought,sold, or forced across the worlds boarders”
`PresidentGeorge Bush, 2003
What many are unaware of is that there are more slaves today than in any other time in history.Global estimates of those enslaved today range from 21-36 million,with 100,000 enslaved at this moment in the US. According to the book Not for sale- the return of the global slave trade “More slaves live in bondage today than were bartered during four centuries of the trans Atlantic slave trade.” It is a trade that is worth $32 billion annually. In west Africa, 200,000 children are sold into slavery each year. As president Barack Obama said, “It's time to call human trafficking what it is slavery.” Often they are labor slaves, sex slaves, or slave soldiers. Among them, labor slaves and sex slaves are treated far worst than the typical slave was in the old south. Enslaved prostitute and forced labor slave are payed less,work more, is beaten more, is less healthy, has less free time, has worse living quarters. Given that it is illegal [ in USA], many are locked up and hidden when they are not working
g and their entire lives are confined to the work place with no laws to protect them. There is a larger demand for slaves today than at any point in history, even though it is illegal. Unlike in the old south, where as lave was a investment, to be cared for, today's slave once they lose their value are discarded and mistreated.
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