This "argument" seems to accept the inferiority of black people.

Put it the other way around. Can you imagine yourself in the 18th or  
19th century as a slave? Can you imagine any of your ancestors in  
that situation. What would your feelings about the subject be if you  
were or your ancestors were? Acceptance? I think not.

And, after your ancestors had been freed, but in the face of a system  
that denied by law your ability to do anything but exist, and you had  
the lovely folks in bedsheets running around at night to worry about,  
do you honestly think you were going to be dumb enough to say that  
"White folks were the bad guys?" Because if you did, you'd have a  
visit from those types and it wouldn't be social.

Danged right your answers would be somewhat circumspect. And that  
stuff wasn't off the radar until when? It was certainly there in the  
1970's. I have had two people offer to kill me in all seriousness.  
One was a KKK member who told me that he'd put a .38 between my eyes  
and that the "Klan had done more for this country than the N-word and  
the hippies put together."

BTW, I had heard that one of the sources of Elizabeth Van Lew's intel  
was a servant woman in Jeff Davis' house who served tea while high  
level matters were discussed. These guys couldn't conceive that their  
own property had enough intelligence to understand what was  being  
said and to report it up the pipeline to Van Lew. Even when it was  
obvious that there were leaks, they couldn't put it together. This  
was the classic example of folks seeing what they wanted to see and  
not seeing a thing. It amazes me that even today folks are not able  
to figure out the con.

Lyle Browning


On Mar 2, 2007, at 9:41 PM, [log in to unmask] wrote:

> I don't disagree with your analysis from a 21st Century  
> perspective, but a
> 18th and 19th century perspective, including that of the slaves,  
> was entirely
> different.  I wonder to what extent slaves accepted their role as  
> human
> property and the reality that their family members could be taken  
> away and sold  to
> another owner?
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