Neil,

I think that the bitterness will remain for quite some time - certainly for 
the lifetimes of those victimized by those lapses in morality including the 
Jim Crow era. To point out that Africans committed sins against their own 
people does not limit the immorality of those who took advantage of the 
actions of the Africans. If we had been the moral nation we pretend to be, 
we would not have allowed slavery to continue via the constitution and state 
laws. We could have saved the lives all all who died in the Civil War, not 
to mention the untold lives cut short by slavery itself. As long as black 
folks continue to run into roadblocks in tracing their ancestory because of 
the effects of slavery, bitterness is fueled. It is no different than the 
bitterness expressed by those trying to research their own families who run 
into roadblocks because of courthouses burned during the Civil War, or those 
who make note of their ancestors who died in that unnecessary conflict. 
Bitterness is often shown on this list when folks continue to mis-name the 
Civil War as something it never was - an "aggression" by those who were 
morally in the right in wanting to see the end of enslavement for life. 
There is plenty of bitterness to go around - and it will continue as long as 
the pages of our history are stained with blood.

Anne

Anne Pemberton
[log in to unmask]
http://www.erols.com/apembert
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "macbd1" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 5:46 PM
Subject: Re: Richmond and VA slave Traders, plus Africa


> Anne, I don't understand why you speak with such an admonishing and 
> argumentative tone.  I actually agree with much of what you say: "It is 
> 'not' my intent to belittle subsequent evils within countries where slaves 
> were taken (nor to challenge historians' choice of research matters, 
> added), with the vastly greater (enslavement) numbers being to other than 
> British colonial America and its subsequent United States where slavery 
> finally was ended with great loss of military lives."  My point from the 
> beginning is simply that the magnitude of African enslavement of Africans 
> was orders of magnitude greater (number of enslaved and sold) than what 
> occurred in the British colonies of America -- and that African 
> atrocities, if not genocide of their own people, included horrendous evils 
> far beyond that of British colonial America.  Freedom for all men, even 
> all living creatures, is such a self-evident need and right since the 
> beginning of time, not something new in 1776, and one does not need to be 
> Christian or even religious to make such a declaration.  Mankind 
> throughout the ages and the world (that includes Africa for my point) has 
> certainly fallen short of their ideals but hopefully is improving, and may 
> continue without bitterness toward each other for the shortcomings of our 
> ancestors and predecessors in our racial lineages.
>
> Neil McDonald
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Anne Pemberton" <[log in to unmask]>
>
>>
>> Neil,
>>
>> People will study whatever parts of history interest them. Putting the 
>> name of an unknown African on a rock at Poquoson would not be correct, 
>> inasmuch as the slaves came in initially at Jamestown.
>>
>> But, if you want to make the point that Africans enslaved Africans before 
>> the British came to the idea, go ahead and write a book or two and make 
>> your case. In the meantime, those interested in naming the AMERICANS who 
>> were complicit in this long chain of immorality, should not be 
>> challenged. The CHRISTIANS and those who cheered for and/or signed the 
>> Declaration of Independence were promising a NEW way of living, an 
>> attempt at true freedom for man, and then a decade later turned their 
>> backs on those brought here as slaves.
>>
>> How can men claim morality when they profess their love of their own 
>> freedom and deny that self-same freedom to their neighbors and workers?
>>
>> Anne
>
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