slavery this...slavery that?
595217
If that is slavery, what is freedom to you? Freedom to not persue anything? Is that what you call freedom?\n\nThe American dream might be elusive, but to those who strive to get it, usually does, or else the concept might have died long ago.\n\nYes, I was indebt, too. But I had the FREEDOM to pay it off. I never displaced any of my responsibility to anyone else, keeping in mind the freedom to do and rise at a greater height than what I could reach, so as NOT to blame a "system" to my short comings.\n\nYou are only a slave if you view yourself as such. But if see yourself as a free man realizing his potential and applying his unbound liberty to rise among the rest, then you are trully a free man.\n\nBut yet, some are too lazy to do something at this freedom. Instead, succumbs to blame, mostly displacing it other than themselves. They are slaves... Slaves to themselves and their weakness, never realizing their potential.
958995
I cannot be responsible for my ancestors' decisions. I can, however, be responsible for myself and make sure that I don't make the same mistakes. Of course, blacks have rights, but they don't have any more right to monetary compensation than the Jewish or Irish who suffered racism in a different context. Slavery is wrong. Period. Sadly, slavery is as old as history itself, but that should only mean that we should always fight against it.
304554
yse, it is. get reay for reality. drafted into slavery to die for 'freedom'. is the bile of irony workin its way up your throat yet? has any of this dawned on you yet? \ni'll have the link of right now's show for you here tmorow.\nheres the link to now but the shows almost over.\nhttp://www.kaos959.com/128.m3u\nhttp://scotthortonshow.com/\nmoney,\nhttp://www.philipdru.com/griffin_stream.html
309233
Didn't know that slavery was classed as an institution??  It divided the whole country and caused a terrible war.  It also made human beings treat others like animals.
604253
Because slavery isn't terrible they just get all itchy about the fact that there not worth as much as we are.LOL.
200055
??? Slavery has existed since the beginning of time. The N. American Slave trade existed for a very short time in comparison to other historical slave periods.\n\nThe United States has done an extraodinary thing in correcting a lot of its wrongs with Affirmative Action, Brown v The Topeka Board of Education, the Voting Rights Act and other measures.\n\nWe have a way to go, but of late we have the likes of the Oprahs, Powells, Woods, and other pioneers that we can point to and say America is overcoming.
216031
why not blend US and Canada history and do the history of the "underground railroad" where slaves escaped from the US into Canada and became free?  \n\nJust a thought.
302435
For those who said no, do you know that for sure?  I found this quote in an article:\n\nHow many Americans are aware that in New Orleans over 3,000 freed slaves owned slaves? The fact is large numbers of free Negroes owned black slaves. \n\nI think the topic needs more research.\n\nHere's another article:\n\nhttp://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a899fdb32fd.htm\n\nIn a society molded by highly skewed and agenda-selective presentations of history, the tightest censorship involves the fact that large numbers of free Negroes owned black slaves; in fact, in numbers disproportionate to their representation in society at large. In 1860 only a small minority of whites owned slaves. According to the U.S. census report for that last year before the Civil War, there were nearly 27 million whites in the country. Some eight million of them lived in the slaveholding states.\nThe census also determined that there were fewer than 385,000 individuals who owned slaves (1). Even if all slaveholders had been white, that would amount to only 1.4 percent of whites in the country (or 4.8 percent of southern whites owning one or more slaves).\n\nIn the rare instances when the ownership of slaves by free Negroes is acknowledged in the history books, justification centers on the claim that black slave masters were simply individuals who purchased the freedom of a spouse or child from a white slaveholder and had been unable to legally manumit them. Although this did indeed happen at times, it is a misrepresentation of the majority of instances, one which is debunked by records of the period on blacks who owned slaves. These include individuals such as Justus Angel and Mistress L. Horry, of Colleton District, South Carolina, who each owned 84 slaves in 1830. In fact, in 1830 a fourth of the free Negro slave masters in South Carolina owned 10 or more slaves; eight owning 30 or more (2).\n\nAccording to federal census reports, on June 1, 1860 there were nearly 4.5 million Negroes in the United States, with fewer than four million of them living in the southern slaveholding states. Of the blacks residing in the South, 261,988 were not slaves. Of this number, 10,689 lived in New Orleans. The country's leading African American historian, Duke University professor John Hope Franklin, records that in New Orleans over 3,000 free Negroes owned slaves, or 28 percent of the free Negroes in that city.\n\nTo return to the census figures quoted above, this 28 percent is certainly impressive when compared to less than 1.4 percent of all American whites and less than 4.8 percent of southern whites. The statistics show that, when free, blacks disproportionately became slave masters.\n\nThe majority of slaveholders, white and black, owned only one to five slaves. More often than not, and contrary to a century and a half of bullwhips-on-tortured-backs propaganda, black and white masters worked and ate alongside their charges; be it in house, field or workshop. The few individuals who owned 50 or more slaves were confined to the top one percent, and have been defined as slave magnates.\n\nIn 1860 there were at least six Negroes in Louisiana who owned 65 or more slaves The largest number, 152 slaves, were owned by the widow C. Richards and her son P.C. Richards, who owned a large sugar cane plantation. Another Negro slave magnate in Louisiana, with over 100 slaves, was Antoine Dubuclet, a sugar planter whose estate was valued at (in 1860 dollars) $264,000 (3). That year, the mean wealth of southern white men was $3,978 (4).\n\nIn Charleston, South Carolina in 1860 125 free Negroes owned slaves; six of them owning 10 or more. Of the $1.5 million in taxable property owned by free Negroes in Charleston, more than $300,000 represented slave holdings (5). In North Carolina 69 free Negroes were slave owners (6).\n\nIn 1860 William Ellison was South Carolina's largest Negro slaveowner. In Black Masters. A Free Family of Color in the Old South, authors Michael P. Johnson
27333
I can not answer the question of factory slaves, but I did a research paper while in college on the subject of slave life in the south (field slave).  I was suprised to learn that it wasn't as bad as I had thought.  (NOTE:  I am NOT saying that it wasn't bad, just not as bad as I thought.)\n\nI would recommend a book called "Twelve Years a Slave" by Solomon Northup (Available from Amazon.com for less than $10.00).  This was, for me, a very easy read on the subject and I believe it to be a true account of his 12 years in slavery.\n\nWhile most people tend to think of the huge cotton plantations with the evil slave owner with hundreds of slaves, many of the slave owners owned less than 10 and worked in the fields along with them.\n\nThe rampant beatings (that go along with the huge plantation version) probably weren't as common as I thought.  You depended on this person for your livelyhood - why would you beat them to death?  I am sure that there were some beatings for escape attempts, disrespect and the like.\n\nI was also suprised to learn that there were instances (by some slave owners) to allow their slaves to make furniture, quilts and other things for other people.  Any money earned could be kept by the slave in order to buy their freedom.  (I am not sure how wide spread this practice was, but it is mentioned in the book I referenced and was also mentioned at a museum gallery I attended a couple of years ago).  Some were even allowed to go to "parties" to work - also getting paid for this.\n\nI am sure I will catch some flack from some people, so let me clarify:  I DO NOT condone slavery, I do not support slavery (and lets face it, it is still around in the world today), and I think that it was one of the darkest periods in our countrys history.  I think it was a product of its time in the US and for those who want to condemn the US for participating think of this:  The US couldn't have had slavery of the African people, if it weren't for the people of Africa selling their own people into bondage.\n\nO.K.  Let the flack come in.
443596
The story is that in the days of slavery many were whipped to force them to work or perform tasks. Thus the skin would be flayed from their backs. If you were a slave who did as he were told you wouldn't be whipped although your companion may be, hence the phrase.
581591
slavery influences a lot of stuff around the world.  you have to remember that slavery is not a new concept.  it's been around way before africans were brought to the west.  let's also not forget that almost 1,000 years before africans saw the west, the Muslims in the east were trading them near what is now the Persian Gulf.\n\nthen before that, you have the Jews being enslaved by the Egypytians.
722712
That's What They Want You To Think. We're All Slaves Around Here!!!! As Long As We Have To Work For Someone Under Their Rules, I Could Never Say We Are Free!!! We're Just Slaves With Privileges.....
888751
slavery still exists. its just in a different form. there are slaves here in america and in other parts of the world. i am surprised u never heard of it. there are woman who come into this country with a promised job as a "maid" and when they get over here their employer takes their passports and keeps their wages. which is slavery.
332080
I am actually doing a report on this. I suggest you go to this website:  \nhttp://cghs.dade.k12.fl.us/slavery/antebellum_slavery/plantation_slave_life/default.htm\n\nIt helped me find out alot about slavery.
12212
Slavery is a result of circumstances, and thus, if the circumstances arise, slavery can easily come back. We're humans, and we can never ever be sure of anything, and thus, anything can happen.
564412
it would have to be african slaves...a very sad part of us history
1022074
The Bible is true and anyone who says it's fiction needs to shut up. And slavery sucks black people have been slaves since 1600 and still we are not treated like fair. Some white people treat us blacks great but most are racists, rednecks, or hillbilles. Now slavery isn't great at all. When blacks were slaves the white people depended on them because they did all the work well they did everything. Now why don't people get a maid or a waiter they aren't slaves and they can quit at anytime.