>Orphans? This is an example of what I am talking about of the difference
>between memorizing facts and thinking about those facts. Large numbers of
>oprhaned black children taken in by their white neighbors? Frankly, I
think
>that what you are looking at are indenture/apprentcie bonds which may have
>been an end run around the aboiliishment of slavery and the reinstitution
of
>involuntary servitude.

        This is a clear example of how two observers can look at the same
set of limited facts and draw contrary conclusions.  What is needed (and
largely impossible to obtain at this late date) is more detailed
examination of the details underlying these summary data points.  It is
quite likely that BOTH views are correct for portions of the populous at
the same time -- some were motivated by personal loyalty and some by
personal greed.  People in real life are like that!  They are rarely
homogenous!!!  It is therefore important to be reluctant to make sweeping
generalizations based on limited information.
        It is interesting to note that several of the most famous bankers
in classical Greece spent their early lives as slaves employed by bankers
who were themselves former slaves.  More recent research seems to suggest
that in many ways ancient  "slavery" was little different from modern
"employment" on a self-contained work site with employer-provided room and
board, with the quality of the employer, working conditions, and the
sustenance varying widely.  The same is likely to have been true in both
the North and South both prior to and after the US Civil War.  Nothing is
ever quite as clear cut and simple as some people try to make it seem.
        REAL LIFE IS USUALLY COMPLEX AND COMPLICATED!  PLEASE DON'T
OVER-SIMPLIFY!!!
                :-)             Bob Shriner

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