Originally posted by Steve
History as I've read it says that many/most of the slaves were provided by other africans who sold them to slavers. I'm not saying they are wholly to blame but it certainly seems that black people have some responsibility for slavery as well.
I't is silly to blame the slave "catchers" for the whole thing, but it is as silly to overlook their role.
There were black slave holders in the US for f* sake.
Besides, there was nothing unusual about the slavery at this time. As matter of fact most of the human history was based on slave labor. No matter what race, what culture, what time. It was simply a time where no matter how hard you worked you just could not feed yourself and your family. So.... you went to war. Either you got some slaves to feed you, or you became a slave to feed your victors.
Like it or not, 99% of human history not only accepted slavery as normal, they relied on it for survival.
I'm not a historian, so correct me if I'm wrong, but the oldest written records date say 3-5,000 BC? Lets "start" a human civilisation at 10,000 BC. The slavery was a principal engine of the economy for 12, 000 - 300 years.
It is ridiculous for the modern TV fed generation to get "outraged" at our ancestors and the things they've done.
We just don't realize how good a life we really have. You go to Safeway and buy a tomato for $0.25. 300 years ago you had to bust your bellybutton for a year to produce one.
Even today, cultures that chose not to modernize and take adventage of the modern technology, are basically starving to death.
We have DirectTV and $50 DVD players, and they are eating the dirt. Why? They simply chose their way of life, and we chose another.
