Sunday, January 31, 2021

A Brief History of Slavery

 Many people have been caught up in the saying that "black lives matter."  Of course, it is true that black lives do indeed matter, but it is more true to say that all human lives matter.  This should be self evidently true, but it seems that people have been criticized and cancelled for saying it.  And while even animal lives and plant life matters, such a discussion is beyond the scope of this essay.  Note though, that the organization Black Lives Matter, Inc. does not care particularly about black lives, or indeed any lives.  These people are a Marxist organization pursuing power.  To repeat constantly the phrase that "black lives matter," does not signal virtue, but instead signals that you on on board with a Marxist government.  Are you?  If not, please stop chanting "black lives matter" because it doesn't mean what you think it means.

As an aside, one must also understand that if all lives matter, then surely the lives of the unborn also matter.  As Michael Brown points out in this piece at Townhall.com from the moment of conception, the life that forms in the womb is a human being. It has the same rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as every other person. Naturally, the immature life will need to be protected and nurtured by adults, but that does not give adults the right to end that life. Only God has that right.  But no one has the right to abort a child.  The Supreme Court got it wrong in Roe v. Wade.no matter who says otherwise.

Returning to the topic at hand, slavery is the claim by one person to the ownership of another.  As such, then, the "owner" feels entitled to benefit from the work output of "his" or "her" slaves.  But a true understanding of the God's Will for us tells that each of us has a mission in the world.  Slavery interferes with that mission, and turns what a person might do into something the slaver wants instead.  That is truly the original sin: substituting the human will for the Will of God.  Thus slavery is evil, a form of sin.

Nevertheless, slavery has been practiced by people since time immemorial.  It was common in the ancient world.  The Bible records that the Hebrews were enslaved in Egypt for some 400 years, until God freed them.  The story of God's freeing of his people is in the book of Exodus.  Interestingly, it is actually everyone's story, for God is there to free everyone from slavery to addictions and other things that may be limiting us (as said above, each of us has a mission to accomplish here on earth). In subsequent wars various tribes of the Hebrews were carried into "captivity" by the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and the Persians.  The reason these kings took people into "captivity" was of course to use the captives as slaves.

Every race and ethnicity of people has been enslaved at one time or another.  You can read about some of the people who have either been enslaved, or have held slaves right here. The Vikings kept other Europeans as slaves, as did the Saxons in England. The very name of the Eastern European peoples known as Slavs derives from the fact that they were at one time kept as slaves. It should be noted the slave trade has never been extinguished, and people are still enslaved in parts of the world including China and the Muslim Middle East.

Today, a number of Black personalities keep the fact that blacks were once enslaved to work on plantations in America on the front burner.  Note that slavery was officially ended in the United States by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution at the end of 1865, 156 years ago.  Suffice it to say that no one alive today experienced being enslaved, nor were slave owners.  The constant cry of racism keeps up the notion that somehow Americans secretly discriminate against blacks.  At one time, blacks were fighting genuine discrimination and to be equal partners in society. 

We, as a society have made great strides in achieving Martin Luther King's goal of judging each individual on his or her merits and not the color of his or her skin.  But, as we have made progress in racial understanding, the definition of "racism" has continually changed to make us seem, if anything, more racist.  Now, because the race hustlers can not point to any real racism, they point to something called "systemic racism" that allows for claims of racism where any sane person can not see any. Indeed, the constant use of racism as a way to end discussion and debate has rendered the charge meaningless.  And the notion that only whites can be racist is equally fatuous.  

The other thing the race hustlers cry for is reparations for slavery.  The demand for reparations though  has nothing to do with slavery.  It rather has to do with grabbing power for the person making the claim.  And the claims become more outrageous with each passing year.

One of the claims for reparations is that Americans have benefited from the monumental contributions of slaves to our prosperity.  It is as if other Americans didn't do anything except sit back and wave their hands while our slaves did all the work.  In their telling, every white American was a plantation owner using slave labor to achieve vast wealth.  Of course, a clear eyed look at history tells us that while blacks certainly contributed to our nations achievements, those contributions were in proportion to their numbers in the population, which has never been higher than around 12%.  So, George Washington Carver made great contributions to agricultural science, and he was black.  But was Henry Ford or Thomas Edison black?  No?  How about Eli Whitney or Samuel Colt?  No?  Of how about Jim Throrpe?  No, of course not, because he was Native American.

So here is my point, stated again:  Each individual has a purpose, a mission if you will.  We have been sent into the world by our Creator to accomplish something.  And our creator doesn't care about race, for we are all created equal before God.  It behooves each of us to attempt to treat each other as if character matters, not skin color.

While writing this post, I came across an article by Derek Hunter at      Townhall.com entitled I can't bring myself to care any more. He notes that the charge of racism has become meaningless, and he has become numb to it.  I will leave you with the following quote.  Yes, racism does exist, as does "white supremesism.  But the numbers of both are both vanishingly small, and confined to the morons and idiots that invariably exist in any population 

Racism still exists. In a nation of 330 million people there are always going to be a few bigots around, of every color. But this country isn’t racist, fundamentally or otherwise. The Democratic Party is. And as long as they continue to engage in that racism and get away with it, people will continue to suffer and the few real victims who exist will continue to be ignored for the politically convenient and manufactured victims. I’m not going to be a part of it, so I’m going to join the majority who tune it out.
Republicans don’t have the wherewithal to spot it, nor the underpants content to effectively counter it. As long as they remain afraid of the charge, it’ll work. For my part, that kid who scrambled to find someone who cared enough to do what was right has now heard wolf cried too many times, for too many things where there wasn’t a wolf or even a dog to give a damn anymore. If turning people off to fighting real injustice was the goal, mission accomplished, Democrats.

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