[log in to unmask] wrote:
> I continue to hypothesize that Black Africans were conditioned for slavery  
> by their culture in Africa inasmuch as slavery was an accepted possibility for  
> all Black Africans prior to the first one ever coming to the American  
> colonies.  Otherwise, how can you account for so  many 
> strong and able men and women submitting passively for the most part to  such a 
> terrible conditions and for so many generations?
>  
> Arguably, today's US welfare system is nothing more than a continuation of  
> the manifestations of that conditioning.
>  
> I can't see myself or any of my ancestors living in that manner.   Perhaps 
> that's the reason they bravely sought freedom in the new world and made  America 
> the greatest, and most humanitarian, country in the history of  mankind.
>  
>
>   

Indeed, African notions about slavery could have shaped the expectations 
and behavior of those  transported to the Americas. But by the 1820s or 
1830s, the vast majority of slaves in the US had been born here, not in 
Africa and had been forging a new culture that was African American. 
Among the components of that culture was a vigorous embrace of 
evangelical Christianity, which (some thought) offered rewards in an 
afterlife to those believers who suffered harsh treatment in this life. 
(Maybe this was part of the "conditioning" mentioned by J. South...?)

Naturally, one must show respect for one's own ancestors. It is both 
inspiring and comforting to suppose they (if Europeans) were brave 
freedom seekers who would not have tolerated being enslaved. Just who 
was threatening to enslave them on these shores is not obvious. But, for 
the sake of argument, let's grant that they would not have allowed 
anyone to enslave them. That was a kind of conditioning too, I 
guess--the kind that made them uncomfortable with the thought of 
becoming anyone's slaves but quite content with being or supporting 
slave owners. Slavery itself was a massive welfare system... for the 
owners, not the slaves (just ask yourselves who was supported without 
having to work). For many generations, it diligently channeled the 
wealth created by the poorest laborers to the richest "dependents" in 
the South. A very special kind of freedom it was, this gargantuan tax on 
the unfree.


Doug Deal
History/SUNY Oswego