Good
morning,
Quote
of the day:
“Every
saint has a past and every sinner has a future,”
Oscar
Wilde
Here
is a small essay that should be enlightening to all.
Slavery
was common in 3,000 BC and earlier. This was documented by paintings
on the walls of Egyptian burial crypts and the Bible (see Moses and
the Hebrews). The Jews were enslaved several times totaling hundreds
of years and even in slavery as a nation, some Jews had slaves.
There is even proof of slavery in the writings on cuneiform tablets
dating back to the time of Abraham...or ancient Mesopotamia if that
is better for you. The ancient Persians had wall paintings and wall
reliefs that depicted the glory and power of different kings shown by
them conquering, slaughtering and enslaving their enemies. The
number of slaves owned was an indicator of wealth and power for
thousands of years from pre-history through the Egyptians, Greeks,
Romans, Carthaginians, Minoans, Cretans, various African kingdoms,
etc. In 1480 Alfonso de Borgia (Italian) was elected to (or bought)
the Papacy of the Holy Roman Empire. He was then known a Pope
Calixtus X. He immediately issued a Papal Bull that allowed Portugal
to enslave any non-Christian. This opened the door for the slave
trade from Africa and any other non-Christian area. Except for the
Vikings, North America was unknown to the Europeans in those times.
There is a written record of the Vikings making runs to the west
coast of Europe looking for men, women and children to use themselves
or trade as slaves, especially to the Rus. This was a people that
lived east of Scandinavia across the Black Sea that eventually became
the Russians. At one point in the 17th
century the finances of England became rather tenuous and they
decided the quick solution was to engage in the very active slave
trade around them. But where were they going to get any human to
enslave? They decided on Ireland. They sent army troops ashore on
the Emerald Isle and captured any human regardless of age or gender
and sold them into slavery to the tune of between 750,000 and a
million souls. They sent the men to the sugar plantations in the
windward islands of the Bahamas and the women and children were sold
to some of the African Kingdoms on the Atlantic coast. Then they
were traded or sold to the kingdoms in the interior engaged in the
white slavery circuit. The Irish men that ended up on a sugar
plantations really suffered because of their light skin and blazing
hot sun. They were nicknamed “The Red legs”. To this day there
are “natives” of the Bahamas with red curly hair and aquiline
facial features. The capitol of the white slavery circuit was
Zanzibar on the southern coast of Africa...it is believed that
circuit is active to this day. About the same time Dutch, English
and Portuguese ships sailed into Charleston, SC harbor and sent
hunting parties to the interior looking for native Americans to
enslave and sell to the sugar plantations in the Caribbean. The same
thing happened at the ports of Mobile and New Orleans. The first
person to set foot on what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts was not the
Pilgrims, it was Captain John Smith that went there a few years
before to survey for a plantation of his own. He knew that a good
relationship with the Native Americans was imperative if he was going
to do what he wanted. He departed on another mission and left his
second in command and one ship to oversee his potential property.
This jackass decided to make some money on his own so he lured about
thirty native Americans into the hold of a ship, lock the doors and
sailed for the Mediterranean coast of Spain. He was going to try to
sell them at a well known slave market there. He missed the slave
market and landed near a monastery. When the Friars saw what was
happening they came down and put a stop to it. One of those native
slaves was a man who was named Squanto and was instrumental in the
survival of the Pilgrims. I will not pursue that any further and let
y'all look into if you are interested.
Remember
those kingdoms on the Atlantic coast of Africa? It was those
African kings that sent search parties into the interior and brought
back men, women and children and sold or traded them to the Dutch,
Portuguese and English and later on they sold or traded them to
various pirates. Most of these slaves ended up in South, Central and
North America including the very young United States. After a while
and with careful calculations, the slave owners in the US decided
that they had enough slaves to maintain the present population. This
meant that the number of births of slaves equaled the number of
deaths or close to it. The importation of slaves to the US was
discontinued about 1807 but the buying, selling and trading continued
in the US until the 13th Amendment was enacted in 1865. Make no
mistake, slavery in the world is alive and well today especially in
central Africa in those nations bordering the Nile river and others.
That is the central heart of white slavery with Zanzibar its capitol.
I often wonder if Natalee Holloway passed this way.
This
is an interesting example as to how the English language is really an
amalgam of many others. In Greek mythology Heracles (Hercules) was
assigned 12 “labors” or tasks to complete in atonement for
killing his wife and two sons because of a momentary “madness”
put on him by Hera, the Queen of the Gods. One of the tasks was to
slay the Hydra which was a nine headed poisonous snake. Not only was
the hydra's bite poisonous, so was its blood. Heracles encountered
the Hydra and began hacking off its heads but as soon as one head
would fall two would grow back on the stump. He solved this with a
torch by cauterizing the stump as soon as he could and ended up
killing the Hydra. He decided to dip his arrows into the blood of
the Hydra making them poisonous. What has all of this have to do
with the English language? Heracles' had named his bow Toxus. I
think y'all have figured out where I am going with this by now.
That's right, it is “toxin” and “toxic” and associated words
that we use every day come from Greek mythology. Every time you
think of or used these words you are making the memory of a hero in
Greek mythology immortal. By the way, the Mayan God of Storms is/was
“Huracan”. Hellooo.
This Date in
History July 17
1870 On this date
James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok being unemployed was knocking
back a few back at Drum’s Saloon in Hays City, Kansas. At one time
“Wild Bill” was the sheriff of Hays City and nearby Newton,
Kansas. There was a US Army camp nearby that was the headquarters of
infamous 7th
Cavalry. On this particular day there were five cavalry troopers
standing at the bar at Drums and all of them were drunker than Cooter
Brown. For reasons known only to them they started “needling”
Bill even though he was advanced in years but was still quick with
his fists and pistols. The troopers went too far and brawl broke out
and the five soldiers got Bill down on the floor. One of the
soldiers pulled his sidearm and pulled the trigger but it misfired,
then Bill pulled his two revolvers and opened fire hitting one of
them in the wrist and elbow and hitting a second one in the stomach.
The other three troopers backed off. Bill got up and immediately
left town even though it was a clear case of self defense. Bill got
tired of doing nothing and applied for a scout’s job with the 7th.
It was then that he found out that the trooper he shot in the
stomach had died so there was no chance of him getting the job. He
knocked around for a while doing personal appearances in Wild West
Shows and other things and ended up in Deadwood, South Dakota. It
was there that he was shot in the back of the head and killed while
playing poker. He was 39 years old. The poker hand he was holding
was two pair, aces and eights, from that day to this is known as a
“dead man’s hand.”
1996 On this date
TWA flight 800 departed JFK airport in New York headed for Paris.
About four minutes after departure flight 800 was given permission to
climb to cruise altitude and almost immediately the plane exploded
and fell into Long Island Sound in pieces killing all 230 souls
aboard. It was just a few weeks before the Olympics were to begin in
Atlanta so everyone yelled “Terrorist!” Not only that, there
were eyewitnesses that said they saw a rocket streak up to the
aircraft and blow a wing off. Anyway, the FBI, NYPD and the NTSB got
together and performed a joint investigation. They pulled as much
of the aircraft out of the water that they could and reassembled it.
They kept leaning toward a mechanical failure in spite of continued
testimony of eyewitnesses to a rocket striking the aircraft including
former US Presidential Press secretary Pierre Salinger. But all of
these were discounted including several accounts that the US Navy was
on maneuvers in the Sound and let a test rocket get away from them.
But this crash went down in the records officially as a mechanical
failure. Who knows what really happened? I don’t.
1793 Earlier
Charlotte Corday had stabbed French revolutionist Jean Paul Marat to
death in his bath tub. At dawn on this day Charlotte went to meet
her maker in two pieces courtesy of the falling blade of a
guillotine.
1959 On this date
one of the most tragic lives in the history of American music comes
to an end. Billie Holliday was born Elinore Fagan in Baltimore in
abject poverty. She worked as a prostitute at the age of 14
encouraged by her mother. She began singing in some smoky dives in
Baltimore. It took a while but she finally was recognized for the
great Jazz vocalist that she was. Her climb to notoriety was steady
and she finally reached stardom but she brought a monkey on her back
with her. That’s right; she was a junkie, a habit that she picked
up while in the gutters of Baltimore. She finally died at the age of
44 from heart failure because of too much drugs. What a tragic life,
yet what a voice.
Born today:
1748
US billionaire John Jacob Astor. He said “A man with a million
dollars is as well off as if her were rich.” Shut up, jackass.
1902
Australian writer Charlotte Snead. She said “If all the rich
people in the world were to divide up their money, there would not be
enough to go around.” Who can argue with that logic?
1917 US comic
Phyllis Diller. She said of Mickey Rooney “He has a hobby of
climbing tall people.” She is funny.
1934 US actor
Donald Sutherland. He said “I did a movie with Tallulah Bankhead
once. She walked into my dressing room by mistake completely nude.
I could not help but stare and she said “What’s the matter
“dahling”, haven’t your ever seen a blond before?”
Died today:
1903 US artist James
McNeil Whistler. Once this exchange took place between Whistler and
a Socialite.
Socialite:
“Mr. Whistler what ever persuaded you to be born in Lowell, Mass?”
Whistler:
“I just wanted to be near my mother.”
1959 Jazz singer
Billie Holliday. She said “Mom and Dad were just kids when they
got married. Dad was 18, Mom was 16 and I was 3.”
1974 US baseball
pitcher “Dizzy” Dean. He said “Fans don’t fail to miss
tomorrow’s game.” Dizzy must have been a relative of Yogi Berra.
2006 US writer
Mickey Spillane. He said “Most actors hate themselves so much that
they can’t wait to play someone else on stage.”
Quotable quotes:
“My
hotel room was so small that when I got a headache the guy next door
had to take the aspirin.”
Henny
Youngman
“Richard Nixon was
a purposeless man, but I had much faith in his cowardice.” Me too.
Jimmy
Breslin
Thanks for
listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
.
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