Slave Trade

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Last week, as student of mine came to class wearing a t-shirt that proclaimed her as an ex-slave. Aghast, I asked her at what time she’d been enslaved, to whit she admitted it referenced her ancestors. Quite frankly, this incessant racism inherent in reminiscence of a bygone vexation irritates me, because I know for a fact of the matter that none of my ancestors ever owned a slave and that none of my students and few if any of my fellow citizens were ever in slavery, least of all those born and bred in these United States.

Fact of the matter is that the principle ancestors of most Americans didn’t start the slave trade and weren’t behind bringing it to the Americas. Any idiot with half a brain can Google “West African Slave Trade” and find that out. I quote from Wikipedia…

When slaves first came to America, it wasn’t on account of the British, and they were peppered throughout the Hispanic world. To quote Wikipedia,

The first Europeans to use African slaves in the New World were the Spaniards who sought auxiliaries for their conquest expeditions and laborers on islands such as Cuba and Hispaniola…The first African slaves arrived in Hispaniola in 1501.[53]

Slavery came to replace a different practice among the peoples of sub-saharan Africa. Like the Aztec in the New World, they previously sacrificed war captives to their gods, but the European imperialism created a commercial outlet instead. Again I quote Wikipedia,

The kings of Dahomey sold their war captives into transatlantic slavery, who otherwise would have been killed in a ceremony known as the Annual Customs. As one of West Africa's principal slave states, Dahomey became extremely unpopular with neighbouring peoples.[58][59][60]

Most slaves enslaved by African blacks, regardless of who bought them in the end. According to Wikipedia,

They would actively favor one African group against another to deliberately ignite chaos and continue their slaving activities.[3].”

Ergo, despite accusations of racism, it was blacks who first enslaved other blacks, and not Europeans. Liberals, however, obsessed with race, continue to make mountains out of molehills and perpetuate an offense we did not give against people not alive to be offended. Now, I can’t blame this girl. She only knows what she was taught. Now you know there’s more to it if you only take five minutes to search the internet.

One more thing I want to note: America was the first nation, despite its relatively young age, to abolish slavery, and hundreds of thousands of men died to bring that to pass, and don't you ever forget that the sin of slavery was redeemed in blood, and it's time we let the stain be washed from the nation.