In a message dated 4/16/01 1:30:15 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:


> >On the eve of the civil war there were about 260,000 free blacks in the
> South and >about 240,000 in the North.  They were obviously making a living
> and surviving; >some were property owners; some substantial property
> owners.  Most were poor.  >And, I will bet that almost all of them were
> happy to be free and not ready to >trade it for bondage.
>

Yes, and some even owned slaves as did a few blacks in Fredericksburg did,
but we seem to over look that fact. Slavery was a way of life in Africa. Some
of the African slaves sold to trader before the 1800s were sold by black
Africans to European traders. After the British stopped their slave trade
they enforced a "no slave trade " policy off the coast of Africa...making it
harder for Africans to sell slaves to Europeans. Owning slaves seem to be an
accepted act world wide. While by our standards of today we would be
horrified. The period of Jefferson was the start of a transition period in
the concept of owning another human. Within a few years the British outlawed
slave trade, yet the Spanish kept slaves until the mid 1800, Brazil had
slaves until the late 1800s. We can always "Monday morning quarterback."
Judging by today standards will often create interpretation of history that
will only be discarded when someone else applies they standards.

Wm Buser
Fredericksburg Va.

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