Slavery wasn't racial, just an economic model.

a reply to: ConscienceZombie

lso. Please, you black, African Americans or however you want to word yourself. You were not a slave like your ancestors. So stop whining. In fact be grateful for it. It got you and your family from being massacred or becoming lion poop. Your here and not there. So silver lining folks.

First off us Black, African Americans or whatever we called ourselves are not whining about slavery per say but the bull sht that followed, and be greatful for what exactly?? being stripped of being human and turned into a base thing to be used and discarded at will...no thanks some of our ancestors " Maroons", like yours truly lived and died by the axiom give us liberty or we will give you ...DEATH!

If only they hadn't brought them to the new world in the first place.

This may be of interest to you guys , a thread I did last year.
Black Slave Owners

a reply to: anonentity

Ah yes, that's why terms like "white man's burden" never existed...because slavery wasn't racist.

You have to remember that Africans didn't identify as "Africans" but rather with specific tribal groups...much like the internet tribes we have now, only they fought with real weapons and not words. Therefore if tribe A captures some of tribe B and sells them to white men as slaves, it's still racism.

a reply to: Spider879

It's about time those South American natives stopped complaining about the Conquistadores too. Whining about millions of dead when they should be cheering about the benefits they got from the Iberian peninsula. Sure, they lost all their wealth when it was shipped back to the Royal Courts, but it's not like they really appreciated it.

a reply to: theantediluvian

Perhaps you should turn your eyes from the recent history of the US and look at a larger picture. What the OP postulates is indeed correct.
Who sold the people into slavery? Members of competing tribes in Africa. Just so you know---slavery didn't originate in the US colonies. Education is a wonderful thing. Study up on tribalism.

a reply to: diggindirt

In the early days of slavery, yes, you're correct, Europeans traded for slaves from Africans. Shortly afterwards, European companies from Belgium, Holland, Britain and Portugal acted as proxies for their governments and colonised much of Africa. They used the locals as slave labour for decades after it was abolished in the West.

The argument of tribalism falls on its ass when history shows decades of exploitation in Colonial Africa. Economics were the underlying drivers for much of it and racism was the oil to keep it going.

a reply to: Asktheanimals


The thing is life back then was ten times the crap, it is now. The average white guy knew if it wasn't the Blacks that were the slaves it would be him, or her. In Eastern Europe when, a landowner sold the Estate the deeds were written, containing the number of Gypsies that came with the property to work it.Because land without the labour was only good for hunting.
That's the economic reason for slavery, but I think their is another one, where the power it gives the owner over the oppressed is a real buzz, like a drug.

Some genius called Abraham Lincoln ended slavery by convincing the elite it was more economical to free slaves because then you could tax them. If he had never been shot there would have been no need for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as he would have given African Americans equal rights by 1870.

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: diggindirt

InIn the early days of slaveryyes, you're correct, Europeans traded for slaves from Africans. Shortly afterwards, European companies from Belgium, Holland, Britain and Portugal acted as proxies for their governments and colonised much of Africa. They used the locals as slave labour for decades after it was abolished in the West.

The argument of tribalism falls on its ass when history shows decades of exploitation in Colonial Africa. Economics were the underlying drivers for much of it and racism was the oil to keep it going.

In the early days of slavery? You have prehistoric records? Don't you realize that slavery has existed since people began living in communities?

Who do you think sold those slaves to the white people? Do you actually believe that the whites went into the interior to hunt down slaves? Please read the contemporary accounts of the day. Rival tribes fought each other and captured slaves to be sold to the whites. It is tribalism. No matter what you were taught in school---the fact is that Europeans didn't begin the practice of slavery. Education is a wonderful thing if you are going to talk about history. Perhaps you could join "theantediluvian" in an actual history course of Africa and the slave trade there. It's a long history and yes, it was economics. The tribes selling the slaves got goods/money. The guys transporting the slaves got money. If it weren't profitable it would never have lasted.

NOTE: There is also good evidence that slavery was common in the tribes on both American continents.

a reply to: diggindirt

The internet sucks.

The OP is aimed at the Transatlantic Slave Trade so that's where my comments were pitched. 'The early days' of the Slave Trade were as you described. If you were speaking about the entirety of slavery in human history, you should have been clearer.

Thanks for the recommendation to study the history of the Triangular Trade. Believe it or not, it was part of my university studies. I worked in the old Liverpool Transatlantic Slavery museum while I was there. None of which makes me an expert as it was over a decade ago.

a reply to: Kandinsky

Sorry for the misunderstanding but I still contend that tribalism was at the root of the issue. It was tribal rivalries that caused the raiding for profit by the sellers of their countrymen. The white guys didn't go into the wilds to round up slaves. The local tribe had them waiting in pens when the white guys came for pick-up. But you should know that from your studies if you read any of the accounts of the day.

wow! too many posts what is going on?

remove multiple posts

Well, that was interesting....stepped away from the laptop only to return to see that something had posted my reply numerous times....

I would add that Africans were not the only group held as slaves in the US. There was a large trade in Chinese slaves for the iron industry. One of my ancestors came to western Tennessee as a slave, a charcoal burner for the iron furnaces operating there just after the turn of the 19th century.

The Seminoles in the southeast US became the strongest tribe by capturing their neighbors and selling them to the Spanish. It was clearly an economic issue for both the sellers and the buyers.