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thanks
Paul Finkelman
President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law
and Public Policy
Albany Law School
80 New Scotland Avenue
Albany, New York 12208-3494
518-445-3386
[log in to unmask]
>>> [log in to unmask] 6/11/2007 2:08:04 PM >>>
Paul,
I thank you covered all the bases with this one.
Anita
>From: Paul Finkelman <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
> <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Madison's slaves (and black descendants?)
>Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2007 13:42:37 -0400
>
>Of course, with the except of a few Quakers here and there, no one
(except
>the slaves themselves) before about 1750 ever asked the question of
"why is
>this justified." Slavery existed everywhere in the ancient world and
in
>most of Africa and the Middle East and Southern Europe (including
Spain) in
>the late 1400s. The first slaves in the transatlantic slave trade
were
>Carib Indians brough back to Spain.
>
>Most southern whites accepted most or all of the following
justifications
>for slavery. For an easy read on this I (self-servingly) recommend my
>little book Defending Slavery: Proslavey Thought in the Old South
(Bedford
>Books).
>
>Here are the major proslavery arguments and justifications:
>
>1) people captured in war can be killed (on Geneva Convention on POWs
at
>that time) and thus it is more humane to allow them to live as slaves.
>This is true for soldiers, but also captured towns. This was a common
>justification in Rome, Greece, Carthage, Egypt, the ancient middle
east and
>Sub-sahara Africa
>2) people who cannot pay their debts can be enslaved or they can give
away
>a child or even a wife as a slave. Common in Rome, Asia and Africa.
Debt
>slavery (illegel of course) is found in India and other parts of Asia
to
>today)
>3) in a world with no jails or prisons, slavery is an acceptable form
of
>punishment, since the only alternative is to execute the person.
>4) ethnic enemies are always enslaveable, and again it is more humane
than
>killing them.
>5) Europeans argued that slavery was a way to spread Christianity *
those
>"lucky" Africans got to become Chrisitans!
>6) They are not Moslems so it is ok to enslave the infidel * common
>throughout North African and Middle East.
>7) I bought the slave from someone else and it is not *my* problem
how the
>person became a slave
>) this person was born a slave and that is the law
>and most importantly for the US context
>9) Cotton is King and without slaves the American economy will
collapse
>10) slavery allows for democracy because it elevates all white voters
and
>removes the lowest classes from the political process.
>11) God ordains slavery. The Bible supports it
>12) God made black people be slaves * the story of Noah and Cannan
(the
>curse of Ham)
>13) Africans and African-Americans cannot live as free people among us
*
>Jefferson said they are "pests on society" * and so we *must* keep
them as
>slaves.
>
>Paul Finkelman
>
>Paul Finkelman
>President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law
> and Public Policy
>Albany Law School
>80 New Scotland Avenue
>Albany, New York 12208-3494
>
>518-445-3386
>[log in to unmask]
>
> >>> [log in to unmask] 6/11/2007 12:45:23 PM >>>
>I don't understand the justification for slavery, whether it was
European
>or
>African slaves. It is pure and simple a means of taking from one group
for
>the economic benefit of another. Those who owned slaves are now
facing the
>God they claimed to worship. These learned men had to have known that
>slavery was immoral, and enslaving another human being was not
something
>that any God sanctioned. To bring suffering to another living creature
is
>an
>abomination (IMHO). All we can do is look back and continue to learn
from
>those past mistakes.
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