I just joined this discussion (and discussion group), so I may be missing 
the point. What did African American slaves' ability to overthrow their 
oppressors say about the institution of slavery? As Douglas Deal pointed out 
and as John Brown's raid and the Civil War proved, it was no easy task.

How can we still be discussing whether or not African Americans accepted 
their situation and the level of their mistreatment? It reminds me of that 
fellow in New York State who kidnapped young women and held them for years 
in his basement where he continually raped them. On being captured he saw no 
wrong in what he had done and explained how well he fed and treated them and 
how much they came to accept their life.

The recent apology by Virginia lawmakers is a great stride forward in 
acknowledging the horrible effects of slavery on African Americans, but it 
says nothing about the men and the civilization that perpertrated it.

Throughout history men have raped, subjected to forced labor, and terribly 
mistreated other people they considered their fellow human beings. However, 
slavery in the U.S. was something all together different.

White men, including supposedly brilliant leaders, owned other human beings 
that they degraded to such a low level that they were considered 
property--like a horse, a cow, a chair, a table! What sort of human beings 
would still be doing this in a supposedly civilized country in the 
nineteenth century? If the country that was doing this did not happen to be 
our own, we would call them uncivilized barbarians.

The U.S. mint plans a new $1 coin with George Washington's image on the 
front. Is this the sort of person we want our children to emulate? He may 
have never told a lie, but after a battle with an Indian tribe in the French 
and Indian War, he wrote of the Indians, "They are human in form only" 
[James W. Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me]. Washington illegally shuttled 
his slaves from Philadelphia to Mount Vernon so he would not have to manumit 
any of them and he still held them at his death, sixteen years after 
acknowledging the evil of slavery. His will freed them but only after the 
death of his wife.

Which white men who had the moral fortitude to free their slaves during 
their lifetimes do we acknowledge as great men? How many average Americans 
can name any? How many historians can name any?
Paul

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