Paul,
Welcome to the list!! You were one of the persons instruemental in my 
documenting my ancestors in Virginia. This board has a lot of diverse people 
and opinions, and useful informaiton.  When a thread begins it may look one 
way, and change completely by the time it ends. Collectively this is board 
has some of the most educated and informed participants out there.

Keep coming back!!

Anita


>From: Paul Heinegg <[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: Slave Narrative for WPA Project
>Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2007 10:32:17 -0500
>
>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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