Blacks were taken from a life of horrific poverty, rampant disease, incessant warfare, and early death in Africa to a life of useful work, medical providence, and the same respectful care that was given to any tamed horse by his master, if not out of benevolence then out of a desire for consistent productivity.
Slavery has been turned into yet another mythical holocaust where Blacks, supposedly provided for free in endless supply to evil White southerners, were daily whipped bloody, raped, and worked without sleep in deserts full of cobras until they dropped from exhaustion. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Besides, Africa had and still has slavery, and so does the Middle East. And the crap we buy from our “trade partners” in China is essentially manufactured by slaves, isn’t it? That’s why we buy it. Slave labor makes for cheap products—in both senses of the word.
What would the average Black slave have become if he had been freed? We have the answer to this: He would keep working on his original plantation for a paycheck that amounts to nothing more than the benefits he got when he was a slave, and his freedom had thus expanded to either going to work on another plantation for the same pay, or moving north and trying to mooch off the naive pity of the anti-slavery liberals of the time. Few took that last option because it required thought and effort, which Blacks are not known for.
Slavery has been turned into yet another mythical holocaust where Blacks, supposedly provided for free in endless supply to evil White southerners, were daily whipped bloody, raped, and worked without sleep in deserts full of cobras until they dropped from exhaustion. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Besides, Africa had and still has slavery, and so does the Middle East. And the crap we buy from our “trade partners” in China is essentially manufactured by slaves, isn’t it? That’s why we buy it. Slave labor makes for cheap products—in both senses of the word.
What would the average Black slave have become if he had been freed? We have the answer to this: He would keep working on his original plantation for a paycheck that amounts to nothing more than the benefits he got when he was a slave, and his freedom had thus expanded to either going to work on another plantation for the same pay, or moving north and trying to mooch off the naive pity of the anti-slavery liberals of the time. Few took that last option because it required thought and effort, which Blacks are not known for.
