i'm still in bondage
The horror of slavery still exists- at least 20 million humans are currently held in bondage around the world today. Several countries 'tolerate' the institution even though it may be technically illegal-people are forced to cut the sugar cane in Hispainola; in Pakistan and India about 300,000 children are shackled to their work stations to make carpets. About 100,000 blacks are kept as chattel slaves in Sudan, held against their will by Arabs who view the practice as their 'right' and tradition. Mauritania is a center of exploitation, as are several other african nations.... In some places, parents sell their daughters into prostitution.
Colin Powell once informed the UN that about 30,000 people are being kept as slaves in the USA...most of these are illegal immigrants locked in sweatshops, but some are the mentally ill who are led away from their mental hospitals by local police officials and taken to 'farms' where they perform drudge work and are kept locked up at night.
Originally, slavery in the 13 colonies wasn't racially based. English law forbade making a Christian a slave....so black Christians could not be slaves. The first 50 years of the Virginia colony had both black and white slaves, and black and white indentured servants. The indentured servant system often ended up in slavery due to ever-rising levels of debt owed to the master- thus many whites were in effect de facto slaves, and the Virginia Assembly had to write many laws dealing with the situation of indentured/enslaved whites, and fear of a poor-white-slave uprising was common. Only gradually did slavery become just for blacks, in the late 1600's.
(A certain black worked his way to freedom, and set up his own plantation, with his own slaves, and he also had four white servants- the farm was called Angola, and is a tourist attraction today).
The harshness of slavery gradually increased, after a few minor revolts.
The really bad form of the institution arrived in South Carolina from the Barbados.
Blacks in Africa caught slaves to sell to white ship captains, but to me this is inaccurate- white people never kept slaves- it was the capitalists who dealt in the slave trade, since only the well to do actually owned any.
White European governments ended slavery- 1807 (Britain) 1833 (France)
Colin Powell once informed the UN that about 30,000 people are being kept as slaves in the USA...most of these are illegal immigrants locked in sweatshops, but some are the mentally ill who are led away from their mental hospitals by local police officials and taken to 'farms' where they perform drudge work and are kept locked up at night.
Originally, slavery in the 13 colonies wasn't racially based. English law forbade making a Christian a slave....so black Christians could not be slaves. The first 50 years of the Virginia colony had both black and white slaves, and black and white indentured servants. The indentured servant system often ended up in slavery due to ever-rising levels of debt owed to the master- thus many whites were in effect de facto slaves, and the Virginia Assembly had to write many laws dealing with the situation of indentured/enslaved whites, and fear of a poor-white-slave uprising was common. Only gradually did slavery become just for blacks, in the late 1600's.
(A certain black worked his way to freedom, and set up his own plantation, with his own slaves, and he also had four white servants- the farm was called Angola, and is a tourist attraction today).
The harshness of slavery gradually increased, after a few minor revolts.
The really bad form of the institution arrived in South Carolina from the Barbados.
Blacks in Africa caught slaves to sell to white ship captains, but to me this is inaccurate- white people never kept slaves- it was the capitalists who dealt in the slave trade, since only the well to do actually owned any.
White European governments ended slavery- 1807 (Britain) 1833 (France)
posted by Zero at 2:12 PM
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