18 thoughts on “The Truth About Slavery”

  1. “…Germany has never been allowed to let the past be the past. Instead, Germans born decades after the war’s end are still culturally indicted as war criminals. As we’re seeing in America, acknowledging the past is one thing; blaming the present is incredibly destructive.”

    When I was at FAA, the DC office of DASA invited me over to get briefed on a nifty RLV concept they were working on. I thought it would work, and had a lot of merit.

    The head guy (whose name escapes me, but most people here would recognize it) was enthusiastic about it, especially about supplying German propulsion hardware and avionics. “All we need now is a partner to develop the vehicle.”

    “Why don’t you do that?” I asked innocently.

    He became uncomfortable, and said “We’re not allowed to. The last time we made big rockets, we did…bad things.”

    With a genuinely perplexed look on my face, I said “You didn’t.”

    By his reaction, I could tell that he had literally never thought of that, and didn’t quite know what to do with it.

  2. That article was a prime example of throwing every strand of spaghetti at the wall in hope some will stick. For example the author claims slavery persisted in Portugal’s African possessions into the 1960s. I knew enough European and African history to doubt that. Sure enough, Wikipedia says slavery was abolished in those territories in 1869.

    The author cites one book, but not a specific page, in support of her claim that ‘Most Africans didn’t want to be free […] Slavery was part of their culture.’

    1. There’s a difference between “illegal” and “not present”. See Saudi Arabia, where you have slavery today, though it is illegal there.

  3. Well if you want to talk about slavery into modern times what about the Nazi’s? They massively introduced slavery of the “slavic” populations (and obviously Jews as well) of the lands they conquered.

    1. You’re right, but don’t stop there. The Soviet Union sent millions of people to gulags where they were used as slave labor. Communist China and Cambodia did the same thing. Japan forced many of their prisoners of war to do slave labor as well. Slavery has existed in one form or another throughout human history and has involved pretty much every race of people, both as slave owners and as slaves. I suggest that much of the human trafficking that takes place today, especially in the sex trade, is a modern form of slavery.

      As an aside, a coworker of mine is a retired Army intel specialist and avid student of history in general and war in particular. He makes the point that what we call our Civil War is incorrect terminology. A civil war is when two or more groups battle to win control of a country. The Confederate States of America never had the objective of conquering and seizing control of the United States. They fought for their independence as a separate country. What we call the Civil War was actually a failed war of independence. Personally, I’m glad they failed because slavery was and is an abomination, and slavery was one of the driving reasons for that terrible war.

      1. To your point, the Road of Bones, built by Russian slaves, was constructed in 1932.

        Plus plenty of other examples more recent than 1860s America.

  4. “The author cites one book, but not a specific page, in support of her claim that ‘Most Africans didn’t want to be free ”

    How many people actually want to be free? Most just want a tolerable master and the ability to bitch about their circumstances. Actually doing something to improve them doesn’t cross their minds.

    1. The days of segregated sports are long over. Especially in the professional sports arena, merit is the reason why so many sports are dominated by black athletes. A pro sports franchise like an NFL team is a multi-billion dollar operation. Those teams work hard to get the best players they can because big money is on the line. In the NFL, some 80% of the players are black, and they’re there because they’re the best at what they do.

      Virtually all NFL players have worked hard all their lives to earn their jobs, and they have to continue working hard to keep them. To them, NFL stands for Not For Long. They know there are multiple people pushing to take their place all of the time. Each year, about a million boys in the US play high school football. Each year, thousands of young men play college ball, while only those at the Division I level have much of a shot at turning pro, with rare exceptions. There are fewer than 2000 players in the NFL, and that includes the practice squads. Only about 224 college players are drafted by NFL teams each year, and not all of them earn a position by opening day. Some players have long careers, but many don’t play for more than a few seasons. Some don’t even last a season before they’re injured or cut from their team.

  5. In keeping with my usual theme, at 18, if I’d been able to buy a slave-girl, I might have been motivated to become a productive citizen. (No racism implied, though my taste does run to buck-toothed redheads…)

  6. “In keeping with my usual theme, at 18, if I’d been able to buy a slave-girl,…”

    The assumption of your little fantasy is that you would be the buyer rather than the one being involuntarily sold. What if for instance your parents had been obliged (forced) to sell you as a child (catamite) to some middle aged pedophile in order to get out from under some kind of deliberately engineered debt? Buck-toothed (buxom) redhead 18 year old girls might be your fantasy, trouble is your liable to be someone else’s involuntary fantasy fulfillment. There are typically many more slaves than masters with the former having a much higher attrition rate than the later.

    1. I don’t have much respect for the intelligence of blog commenters, regardless of blog, but you appear to have managed to set a new standard for dumb. I think you’re what’s referred to as a gamma. I’m sorry for you.

  7. ” I think you’re what’s referred to as a gamma. I’m sorry for you.”

    Didn’t think I was accusing you of being an advocate for slavery (I am sure your not) but I am sorry to throw cold water on your fantasy. Few fantasies survive the harsh light of reality.

    1. The reason I’m now sure you’re a gamma is because you seem to think can throw cold water on my “fantasy.” That makes you a boob as well as a gamma. “Tim,” you’re just an anonymous poster, but I am not. Click on my name and you go to my website, which is merely advertising for my backlist, including pages of links to Amazon, where an interested person can see and read what I’ve written over the past 50 years (all of it selected by editors and major publishers and traditionally published, though the paper copies are only available in used bookstores now that I’m an old has been). It’s all available as ebooks now, of course. “Tim,” I’ve written extensively about slavery and human sexuality, literally millions of published words. But you, a gamma, think these are the fantasies of some lesser gamma, that you, a mighty thinker, can dash with a few choice words. But you’re a boob. And no boob I ever met was familiar with reality. Only their own boobish thoughts.

  8. A brief remark about these kinds of things: I have little tolerance for anonymous posters who mouth off at me. If you can’t stand behind your words, then your words are worth nothing. I have full respect for posters who are open about their identity, such as Mark R. Kelly. I also tend to respect posters who use what seems to be their real name, such as David Spain. I would prefer it if such posters added a link that confirms their claimed identity, such as a website or on-line CV. I’m also interested in anonymous posters like Gbaikie, who have interesting things to say.

    I have a deep and abiding interest in space travel, and, having followed along as best I could since I was a kid in the 1950s, know alot of detail about the subject matter. That’s really my main contribution to comment sections like this one. My comments about pussy are mainly self-deprecating wisecracks (I’m twice divored! How stupid is that?!).

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