Musings and History
Quote of the day:
“I do not believe in reincarnation and have not believed it ever since I was a rhinoceros.”
Al Campbell
Trivia question of the day:
Who played Mr. Potter in "It's A Wonderful Life?" Answer at the end of the blog.
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
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. It was discovered after the Europeans arrived that the Native Americans 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 to get them back across the North Atlantic and home.
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. 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, English and Spanish slave traders. Race meant nothing to them, religion did. They were all Muslim and it was acceptable to enslave any and all non-Muslims.
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 on Barbados. 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. That is why to this day there are natives of Barbados with red curly hair.
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 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. If any tribe discovered that there was more of their people dying than were being born they had no problem with raiding other tribes or anyplace for women to keep from going extinct.
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 that?
Answer to the trivia question:
Lionel Barrymore played Mr. Potter in "It's A Wonderful Life."
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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