Date: Sat, 29 Feb 2020 13:29:18 -0500
From: Taylor Kish
Subject: One side to a fact; more sides to a story
Mark, history is written by the victors. (Post #6627)
Fact:
-6% African slaves were brought to British American colonies. Most went to Central America, South America, or the Caribbean islands.
-There was no way to permanently hold an individual in servitude until the 1660’s in the Virginia colony when laws were passed by Virginia colonists to keep slaves based on the appearance of race and skin color with African roots and American Indians appearance.
-Laws were passed after the 1660’s making it illegal to speak publicly about emancipation.
An entire economy and society grew up using the slave labor. Families too poor to own a slave leased slaves for labor “white people don’t do”. Only the poorest of the poor did all their own labor and they were called “poor white trash”. Poor families were dependent on rich landowners who set the way things work for the entire county. You either went along or you were ostracized.
Elsewhere in America and the rest of the western world, slavery became less and less tolerable. Slave owners became more and more entrenched. Justified. Rationalized. But “proven” because they became richer and richer from “cash crops” (e.g. tobacco, corn).
Forced labor was destined to die out with the invention of farm machinery as can be seen with the evolution of manufacturing in America. Attitudes take a lot longer to change.
2020-03-02