Musings
and History
Quote
of the day:
“I
believed in reincarnation and have believed it ever since I was a
rhinoceros.”
Al
Campbell
I
am afraid that the Republicans are playing into the Democrats plans
by all this playground squabbling. Eventually the Republican will
have to present a united front if they hope to have a remote chance
of defeating the Clinton machine. I do not think that any of the
candidates played a team sport because not once have either of them
said “We” must do this or that...it is always “Me”.
I
am changing the format somewhat today...here is a history lesson
about something that has been carefully researched by myself and
should eliminate any misgivings about what really happened. I think
you will be surprised.
History
of Slavery in America
Here
is a time line of slavery in America:
It
is accepted by the present day scientists that the Native Americans
arrived in North America about 13,000 years ago during the last Ice
Age. It is alleged that they came across from Siberia to Alaska and
then south using the Bering Sea land bridge. This geographical
phenomenon was caused by the enormous amount of sea water that was
frozen in the polar ice caps lowering the sea levels by at least 300
feet, this resulted in the land bridge. However, recent discoveries
in the Chesapeake Bay may prove that North America was being
populated on the east coast during the same time period.
It
was discovered after the Europeans arrived that the Natives commonly
kidnapped and enslaved humans to replace members of their tribes that
had died of a variety of causes, not to mention the wholesale
selling, buying and trading of members of other tribes for profit.
The tribes realized that if there was not at least the same number
births as deaths their tribes would become extinct.
Middle
of the 16th
Century: The Spanish conquistador Coronado explored from Mexico into
what is now California, Arizona (his troops were the first Europeans
to see the Grand Canyon), New Mexico and on into Kansas before
returning to Mexico. They had slaves with them to carry their
necessities.
In
near the same time period the remnants of a Spanish exploratory
expedition in Florida was making its way west headed for Mexico and
home. They were captured by a Native tribe near Mobile, Alabama and
kept for three years as slaves because they had a rudimentary
knowledge of medicine. They eventually escaped and somewhere in
Texas they met a Spanish search party from Mexico headed north and
found their way to Vera Cruz, Mexico and eventually home. What was
the search party looking for? They were not looking for treasure,
they were looking for people to capture and enslave.
In
the 1559-1565 era the Spanish settled Saint Augustine and Pensacola
among several other very small villages especially in the “Big
Bend” area of Florida. All used slaves for the “grunt” work.
1607
The European settlement of Jamestown, Virginia is founded. There is
no documentation but it is believed that the settlers enslaved some
of the Natives and even their own people for periods of time as
punishment for crimes.
1614
English sea Captain John Smith landed at what is now Plymouth,
Massachusetts and conducted a survey in anticipation of starting a
plantation in the area. Smith left his second in command on site and
sailed away on another expedition. His second in command lured about
30 local Natives onto his ship, locked them into the hold and sailed
for a known Spanish slave market on the Mediterranean coast. He
missed his target and landed within sight of a Franciscan monastery.
When he began auctioning off the natives, the monks came down and put
a stop to it. They took some of the Natives under their wing and
began teaching them Christianity, others scattered across the
countryside (see Squanto).
1620
The colony of Plimouth, Massachusetts (their spelling) is
established. It was reported that they also enslaved the Natives,
and anyone else for that matter, as punishment for crimes.
The
leader of the “pilgrims” William Bradford and the chief of the
local Native coalition Massasoit arrived at an agreement whereby if a
Native committed a crime against the Europeans they would be handed
over to Massasoit for trial and punishment and if a pilgrim committed
a crime against the Natives he would be handed over to Bradford for
punishment. Both side realized how important it was to get along.
The Natives believed that the Europeans could unleash an epidemic at
will and had never seen a firearm...the Europeans knew they were
severely outnumbered. The very first documentation of slaves being
imported to this country was about four years later when a Dutch
slave ship stopped by Plimouth and traded slaves for food.
1624-1807
There was a constant flow of settlers from nearly all European
countries and Asia into the North America. There also was a constant
flow of slaves mostly, but not all, from west Africa into the West
Indies to be used on the English and Dutch settlements in the West
Indies. They were also imported to British colonies on the east
coast of North America. This means they were used for the “grunt'
work building the docks, piers and buildings of Philadelphia, Boston,
Norfolk, Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah, et. al. in addition to the
cotton, rice and indigo plantations, etc. It is documented that some
of the African kings of nations on the west cost of Africa became
very wealthy by sending expeditions into the interior and capturing
and selling their fellow Africans to the Dutch, Portuguese and
English slave traders.
In
the mid 17th
century King James II of England authorized the capture and
selling of the Irish into slavery in English and Dutch settlements in
the West Indies, especially sugar plantations. In fact in the span
of a decade in the mid 17th century about 900,000 Irish
were killed or sold into slavery including women and children.
In
1783 the American British colonies won their independence and became
the United States of America via the Treaty of Paris.
After
a careful census showing that there were just as many slaves being
born as were dying, in 1807 the Continental Congress passed a law
outlawing the further importation of slaves into the United States,
but the buying, selling and trading of existing and new born slaves continued
unabated.
As
a result of action by the US Congress in 1830 Native tribes
(Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek and others) on the American east coast were
forced onto lands west of the Mississippi river, mostly Arkansas and
Oklahoma. This travesty is known as the “Trail of Tears”. It is
documented that the tribes brought all their possessions that they
“and their slaves” could carry. They had slaves too, y'all, but
their race was not mentioned.
Not
only that, nearly all the plains tribes bought, sold and traded human
beings, black, white, Latino, Native, Oriental, etc. for centuries.
The largest user/traders that I researched was the Comanche and the
Apache...but it is reasonable to assume that those tribes with
operating silver mines used slaves also in addition to replacing
deceased members of their tribes. This means they were not racists,
they enslaved anybody.
After
a ferocious Civil War, in December of 1865 the 13th
Amendment to the Constitution was passed by Congress outlawing
slavery “in the United States or its possessions”.
Slavery
ended on United States soil after 258 years of European occupation.
The
slave owners were not racists, they did not care what race their
slaves were as long as their will was done. Beside evil as hell,
what label can we put on them?
Thanks
for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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