Friday

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 Hebrews 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 17^th 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 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 one million. 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 in 1619 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 30 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 natives was a man who was named Tisquantum or Squanto and he ended up being instrumental in the survival of the Pilgrims. Squanto's life is and interesting one and worthy of your investigation.

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 7^th 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 7^th Cavalry. 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.

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.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

.