Yes they played banjos and picked cotton, but what did they do before that?

Question

They lived in jungles filled with disease, extremely lucky to have reached adulthood and even luckier to live beyond 30. Fought and killed each other and became slaves in their own tribes and eventually sold into slavery to play banjos and pick cotton. Which form of slavery would you choose?

Answer 1

Well I guess I won't get the 10 points based on the way you stated your question. But here goes...... Slavery 101.

Technically slavery was a European concept. Not an American one. And not all Europeans accepted the idea of slavery. Europe by the late 1700's had almost completely abolished slavery. The concept became hateful to them, partly because many Europeans had been slaves to captors at one time or another throughout history, partly because of the oppression suffered under the Inquisitions. Although countries such as Russia still had a system of serfdom. It was much like slavery in that both are concepts that stem from greed and the feeling that one is superior to another.

Your idea that Africa was full of disease anymore than other parts of the world is way out in left field. Have you ever heard of the plague? A.K.A. The Black Death? And it wasn't Africans that carried the germs and diseases that killed 65% of the Native American population. It was Europeans. When the Spanish arrived in Florida and Central America the American Indians started dieing in the thousands.

And wars? What about the Spanish Armada's of 1588, 1596 and 1598? How about going back in time? The Greeks, the Romans, the Huns, the Vikings, the Trojan War, the Feudal Wars, England against France, France against Germany, France against Italy... the list is endless. You want to talk about wars? The French Indian War in 1756. The French Revolution, The Scottish fight for Independence. Oliver Cromwell, the War of the Roses, Napoleon. The American Revolution. The War of 1812. The War against Mexico to establish Texas. The Spanish American War, The Irish Republican Army, The U.S. war in the Philippians. You want wars and killing? WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, what did Africa have to do with starting these? You want more wars? Open a history book and read.....

The only credence I can associate to your statement is that slaves that were placed on sugar plantations on tropical islands that carried the sickle-cell trait were immune to malaria, where their European masters were not. And the disease itself would kill many of them at a young age.

Your comment about banjos and cotton insult the intelligent and pacify the bigot. My father played a banjo and he was white. You sound as if you are from the southern U.S. I think slavery is something you should understand if that is so. The wealthy masters that didn't cut and run to South America and Mexico still have slaves. The southern workers. Wage slaves. And if it weren't for cotton pickers where would you get your BVD'S? Don't be so ready to look down on people for what they do to live. We can't all be brain surgeons..... You obviously are not.

My ancestors here in the US once owned slaves. When the Civil War ended they lost fortunes. Which slavery would I choose? The one that says anyone trying to enslave someone else to better themselves around me would die like the dog that they are.

Answer 2

You have a skewed view of what it was like growing up in Africa in the 1700 and 1800s. Disease was not that rampant and many villagers lived to adulthood. Child mortality wasn't any higher there than in Europe.

Tribal warfare did claim lives, but so did our wars. What happened to change their lives the most is some tribes found out they could get rich by selling good looking slaves into the western slave trade. That increased the violence and the warfare beyond the normal levels.

IF a slave lived to reach the USA (about 20% did not), he could expect a long life of hard work and little gain. The second generation of slaves did better because they had more opportunities open to them (house servants, blacksmiths, seamstresses, weavers, etc.) A few of the second generation even managed to buy their freedom. That option was closed up by the 1850s, but earlier generations managed to do it.

Answer 3

Our country should have had more compassion for human beings than to make them slaves, and most in the US were educated. In a tribal jungle land, the people may not have known better.

P.S. I would not pick either--but if I had no choice, I'd probably rather be where I was born than taken captive by a bunch of strangers.

Answer 4

I wouldn't choose ant kind of slavery!! It is immoral and unfathomable to think anyone would choose such a life. Obviously, those who were slaves anywhere in the world worked to fight off the oppression and to be free.

Chow!!

Answer 5

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Answer 6

I hate you alot.

Um, lets see, I would pick being Free.

I enjoy not being owned and slaving for someone else all day long.

Answer 7

This is going to be interesting!

Answer 8

ummm,modern day slavery?

Answer 9

oh dear.
Anyway thanks for the points