The ancestors of a great many of the victimized families live in Africa. That's a neat trick. I wonder what their secret is?? EK -----Original Message----- From: [log in to unmask] To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Fri, 11 May 2007 12:34 PM Subject: Re: Official Opposition Events The implication here is that the "original sin" of slavery rests with Africans, as if that somehow lets everyone else who profited from the enslavement of African peoples off the hook. But framed that way, the argument is silly. Human nature being what it is, its not all that surprising that African peoples bear their share of guilt for the historical thriving of the institution. Every market transaction requires buyers and sellers, and both parties in a transaction expect to benefit from it. If the transaction is morally evil, both are implicated in it. The fact that some African nations participated in slavery and bear share of the historical responsibility for it does not change the fact that, with very rare exceptions, pretty much ALL of the victims of the institution were African or Native American. The ancestors of a great many of the victimized families live in Africa. The forced migration of ten million or so people, a substantial portion of whom were worked to death in Caribbean plantations, is a historical evil. Moreover, slavery still exists in the world, so this particular evil is not yet an artifact of history. Under these circumstances, it is not at all unreasonable to suggest that representatives of those African polities whose citizens are the descendants of people victimized by slavery should be present to bear witness at Jamestown. We should pause to ponder just why slavery is evil. Slavery certainly can involve harsh suffering and physical deprivation. But while those things are awful, it is not primarily in the physical suffering that the evil of slavery resides. Slavery, as Orlando Patterson noted long ago, demands the social death of the slave. As a consequence, slavery, by its nature, strips the slave of autonomy and the capacity for self-definition and self-government. For citizens of the United States of America, slavery is especially problematic. As American thinkers have long understood, the continued survival of the American polity depends upon the continued public commitment of self-governed citizens. The promise of the American polity is ordered liberty--freedom, rightly understood, constrained by right reason. The antithesis of slavery is this fundamental American good: liberty. It is possible, of course, to reconcile slavery with American republican values, by denying the slave's full capacity for self-government. But we know today that this attempt to reconcile slavery with American public ideals is premised on a lie--that racism has no basis in reality. There can be no moral harm in asking slavery's victims to bear witness to its depravity. But there are especially profound reasons for American citizens, of whatever genetic or cultural background, to bear witness as well. The salutary good that comes from so doing is to remind ourselves, collectively and as a people, what it is that we stand for. In condemning slavery, we affirm the deepest and most valued commitments of our public order. All best, Kevin ---- Original message ---- >Date: Fri, 11 May 2007 11:53:45 EDT >From: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re: Official Opposition Events >To: [log in to unmask] > >Why would African heads of state be invited? It was the African tribal >leaders who oversaw the sale of their African brothers into slavery in the first >place. > >J South Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D. Department of History James Madison University ________________________________________________________________________ AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com.