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CNN panelist calls out VP Harris over 'completely made up' Florida slavery curriculum claim

  

Category:  News & Politics

Via:  vic-eldred  •  last year  •  121 comments

By:   Hanna Panreck (Fox News)

CNN panelist calls out VP Harris over 'completely made up' Florida slavery curriculum claim
Scott Jennings called out Kamala Harris on Sunday over her remarks in Jacksonville, Florida, saying her claim about the new curriculum was "completely made up."

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T


CNN political commentator Scott Jennings called out Vice President Harris on Sunday over her claim that Florida's middle school curriculum included lessons on how enslaved people "benefited from slavery."

CNN "State of the Union" host Dana Bash asked the panelists about how Democrats have been calling for Harris to "get out there more."

"What is amazing to me [is] that how little Kamala Harris apparently has to do that she can read something on Twitter one day and be on the airplane the next to make something literally out of nothing. This is a completely made-up deal. I looked at the standards, I even looked at an analysis of the standards, in every instance where the word slavery or slave was used, I even read the statement of the African-American scholars that wrote the standards - not [Florida Gov.] Ron DeSantis, but the scholars," he said.

"Everybody involved in this says this is completely a fabricated issue and yet look at how quickly Kamala Harris jumped on it. So, the fact that this is her best moment, a fabricated matter, is pretty ridiculous," Jennings continued.

SCOTT-JENNINGS-KAMALA-HARRIS.jpg

CNN's Scott Jennings criticized VP Harris on Sunday over her Florida curriculum claim.(Screenshot / CNN)

Harris delivered remarks in Jacksonville, Florida, on Saturday.

"Just yesterday in the state of Florida, they decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery. They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, and we will not stand for it," Harris said, referencing new curriculum approved by the Florida Department of Education on Wednesday that includes the history of slavery in the U.S.

The new curriculum states, "Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit."

Karen Finney, a CNN political commentator, praised Harris' remarks, calling it a "stellar moment."

Vice President Kamala Harris rails against Florida's new Black history curriculum during a speech in Jacksonville, Florida, on July 21, 2023.(Fox News)

"It was a stellar moment, and I think she did something that she has done often in the last couple of years, which is in a moment when something needed to be said, she got out there and said it, and really channeled what people were feeling. I mean, the idea that we would literally have a conversation - I have to laugh, it is so disgusting that there were personal benefits of any kind to slaves. It is like saying women, we're happy when we couldn't vote and we couldn't have our own banking accounts. It is just ridiculous," Finney said.

Ashley Allison, another panelist and CNN commentator, reacted to Harris' remarks and responded to Jennings.

Harris-Slavery.jpg

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at Coppin State University in Baltimore on July 14, 2023.(Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images)

"I'm glad she spoke on the issue - just because Black people write it doesn't mean it's going to be accurate. We can disagree with Black people as well. I think what the bigger picture is that this is happening in Florida. This is happening in a Florida where you have a governor who has an anti-woke bill, who has a 'don't say gay' bill, who wants to ban DEI programs, who wants to ban Rosa Parks," she said.

"I think at this panel we could all agree that slaves did not benefit from slavery. Even if the citation said, 'Well, they might have gotten …" they didn't have a choice, so that is not a benefit. Slaves did not have the freedom to choose, like Ron DeSantis said, maybe they could have become a blacksmith. Not when they didn't have the choice to become a blacksmith. And so that was what Kamala Harris was saying. And I hope in this moment when we have such a contentious political environment that we could all agree that slavery was not a good thing and slaves did not benefit. And then we could move on. But the problem is, the governor who is the second in the polls for the Republican nomination won't do that," Allison continued.


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Vic Eldred
Professor Principal
1  seeder  Vic Eldred    last year

It may just qualify as the Bull Shit story of the week.

 
 
 
Just Jim NC TttH
Professor Principal
1.1  Just Jim NC TttH  replied to  Vic Eldred @1    last year

Wilted Word Salad Harris is full of 'em 

 
 
 
SteevieGee
Professor Silent
1.2  SteevieGee  replied to  Vic Eldred @1    last year
It may just qualify as the Bull Shit story of the week.

It may at that.  I've read a few articles on this.  Turns out, that when pressed on the issue, Fla's Board of Education provided a list of 16 slaves who benefited from learning "highly specialized trades" while enslaved.  Turns out none of them were trained as slaves and were either never slaves or learned the trades after becoming free.  Learning to cut sugar cane is not a "highly specialized trade".

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
1.2.1  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  SteevieGee @1.2    last year

“While less well-known than other facets of institutional slavery, hiring out of the enslaved was a common and long-standing arrangement throughout the nearly 250-year existence of race-based slavery in Virginia. Enslavers commonly hired out enslaved individuals for a set fee and time period. This allowed enslavers the flexibility to allot enslaved labor to a wide variety of tasks, which contributed to slavery’s viability. It also fit with Virginia’s increasingly diversified economy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, being adaptable to rural and urban settings as well as commercial and industrial sectors. All ranks of white society engaged in hiring enslaved people, including many who could not afford to purchase enslaved laborers. On a yearly basis, hiring out affected thousands of enslaved men, women, and children, who were separated from their families and communities and who had to endure and adapt to new living and working conditions. For many enslaved African Americans in Virginia, being hired out was a more common experience than being sold, and one that could occur at multiple points in their lives, causing repeated disruption.”

“In 1839 almost half (42%) of the free blacks in Cincinnati, Ohio, had bought their freedom 1 and were striving to create new lives while searching for and purchasing their own relatives.”

How do you think that they got the money!

 
 
 
Nerm_L
Professor Expert
1.2.2  Nerm_L  replied to  SteevieGee @1.2    last year
It may at that.  I've read a few articles on this.  Turns out, that when pressed on the issue, Fla's Board of Education provided a list of 16 slaves who benefited from learning "highly specialized trades" while enslaved.  Turns out none of them were trained as slaves and were either never slaves or learned the trades after becoming free.  Learning to cut sugar cane is not a "highly specialized trade".

How did freed slaves make a living?  If slaves were so stupid and helpless then why didn't Black people just die from starvation after emancipation?

 
 
 
SteevieGee
Professor Silent
1.2.3  SteevieGee  replied to  Nerm_L @1.2.2    last year

I don't doubt that slaves were taught stuff.  They were sometimes taught things if their owners needed stuff done or if their owners could make money from them.  They weren't allowed to chose what they learned or did nor were they ever paid for it.  The vast majority were just picking cotton and sugar cane or were house servants and sex dolls for their owners.

To say, or even imply that slavery was good for the slaves in this country is a lie.

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
1.2.4  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  SteevieGee @1.2.3    last year
To say, or even imply that slavery was good for the slaves in this country is a lie.

Who here has done that?

The jockeying did not go unnoticed, for between the two principals were the hired slaves themselves, who understood best that a slave with two masters was a contradiction neither law nor custom could readily accommodate. Such knowledge opened up for them frequent opportunities to shape their work and family lives, to bring white people into conflict with each other, and to destabilize the system that trapped them.

Rule number one of labor relations is that disgruntled workers can be a detriment to productivity, and many masters who hired or hired out enslaved people recognized this. As a result, hired slaves might be granted certain advantages and autonomy that wouldn’t otherwise have otherwise been available to them

In 19 th century Virginia, iron works, grain production, coal and gold mining and tobacco factories boomed, creating a demand for skilled workers. Slave hiring proved to be an economical and efficient way for these businesses to quickly fill positions and by the middle of the century, they “had to compete to engage enough slave workers each year,” Oast explained.

In some cases, this gave enslaved workers the opportunity to leverage their value as laborers and assert their autonomy. Where there was a high demand for workers, skilled slaves were often able to influence hiring decisions, and according to Oast, “sometimes urban slaves were even permitted to make their own hiring arrangements without the involvement of their owners, a practice called self-hire."

To appeal to these workers, hirers of slaves would pay cash bonuses directly to them for labor performed beyond assigned duties and allow them free time outside of work hours. In addition, Oast described how rather than provide room, board and clothing to their enslaved workers, many tobacco manufacturers instead gave them a stipend, allowing them to make their own purchasing decisions, and for some, opt to live in communities among free Blacks.

Such forms of compensation gave enslaved workers a degree of independence and economic power that undermined some of the paternalistic social structure of slavery.

Some here prefer simple to more complex history.

 
 
 
SteevieGee
Professor Silent
1.2.5  SteevieGee  replied to  Nerm_L @1.2.2    last year
How did freed slaves make a living?  If slaves were so stupid and helpless then why didn't Black people just die from starvation after emancipation?

I think its abhorrent that you would think that black people would "just die from starvation" without the help of their benevolent white masters.   That's about the most racist thing I've ever seen on here.

 
 
 
Just Jim NC TttH
Professor Principal
1.2.6  Just Jim NC TttH  replied to  SteevieGee @1.2.5    last year

I believe it was a tongue in cheek commentary. And it began with being let go and not having a means to support themselves.

 
 
 
Nerm_L
Professor Expert
1.2.7  Nerm_L  replied to  SteevieGee @1.2.3    last year
To say, or even imply that slavery was good for the slaves in this country is a lie.

Who the fuck said slavery was good?  You know, pointing out that slaves learned useful skills as slaves really is a story of strength in adversity.

But apparently that's not what Kamala Harris wants.  Harris wants to use the history of slavery to convince us that Black people are stupid and helpless.  Without a white slave master, Black slaves could do absolutely nothing for themselves.  Harris is trying to convince us that Black people are dependent upon white people because Black people can't learn.  That's a bullshit argument but that's a typical argument made by Democrats.

 
 
 
CB
Professor Principal
1.2.8  CB  replied to  Nerm_L @1.2.2    last year

Your question belies the fact that slaves were not dumb-asses waiting for white "instruction" to begin with. Before slavery (250 years of it according a quote 1.2.1), black people were free and thinkers. Moreover, after slavery blacks and other minorities when back to being public figures and public servants in law and politics. It is clear then that white conservatives STIMIED and "chilled" black advancement through enslaving them as public policy and legal statues. A side-effect being that of course blacks and other minorities learned what they were forced to whether they liked the "career path/s" are not!

 
 
 
CB
Professor Principal
1.2.9  CB  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @1.2.4    last year

So what? What you are describing is this: In any given system, be it oppression or liberty, there are trade-offs in which two things can occur at the same time. The fact that some masters were not 'hardcases' (strict) and certainly recognized that owning slaves did not always mean being cruel and usual with punishments and austerity does not by any stretch of the imagination equate to a slave being treated as equal, equitable, or at liberty to act. Indeed, all slaves were IDENTIFIED first and foremost as property. . . "specialized property" even of their owner/s on paper.

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
1.2.10  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  CB @1.2.8    last year
It is clear then that white conservatives STIMIED and "chilled" black advancement through enslaving them as public policy and legal statues.

Exactly,  you never saw Black advancements chilled in the progressive Northeast, UpperMidwest or West Coast.  That was only done by Southern Dems (conservatives) and tolerated by progressive Dems that wanted their votes.

 
 
 
CB
Professor Principal
1.2.11  CB  replied to  Nerm_L @1.2.7    last year

Kamala Harris is pointing out the offense that some conservatives would approach the topic of what a slave knew and how s/he acquired specified learning could be used to spin a tale of white slaveowners as benefactors. Slave owners were in fact owners of people as chattel. The difference between human chattel and other chattel black chattel was kept less than whites but more entertaining and teachable than other beasts on the plantation.

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
1.2.12  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  CB @1.2.9    last year
So what?

So more evidence that learning a needed skill and being hired out had some advantages over being a field slave.

In any given system, be it oppression or liberty, there are trade-offs

Completely agree, almost every decision is a matter of trad-offs.

 
 
 
CB
Professor Principal
1.2.13  CB  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @1.2.10    last year

What is your point? We are discussing chattel slavery and its "benefits" to blacks (if any). What does what other people do and their motivations for acting have to do with that one topic?

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
1.2.14  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  CB @1.2.11    last year

What does this have to do with Florida’s new learning standards?  Do you really think that she read them or compared to other states before going on attack?

 
 
 
CB
Professor Principal
1.2.15  CB  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @1.2.12    last year

In which case, as I asked you before (somewhere else) though I will frame the question differently here: How come your ancestors did not choose to enter slavery so they could be taught "a needed skill" beyond field hands? 

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
1.2.16  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  CB @1.2.15    last year

How come your ancestors did not choose to enter slavery so they could be taught "a needed skill" beyond field hands? 

Bold talk and a silly, irrelevant question.  No one would normally choose to enter slavery and my ancestors were fortunate that their leaders didn’t sell them into slavery.

 
 
 
CB
Professor Principal
1.2.17  CB  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @1.2.14    last year

Kamala Harris picks up on the conservatives offense intended to mitigate the effects of chattel slavery as some sort of beneficial program for chattel slaves. It was not! Slaves were property and any benefit they derived from servitude was because they were human and educatable, which means they never should have been property of their owners in the first place! Trying to get out from under the curse of slavery in the southern states by putting a positive SPIN on this is ridiculous.  All we have to do is look at the hard fact that southern slave owners didn't give up their VALUABLE PROPERTY without a long and bloody civil war. Proof that slave owners were not then and not now (living supporters of the "Lost Cause of the Confederacy") black benefactors.

Ask her, not me. I don't think that long about what a sitting VP does with his/her time in preparation to make speeches.

 
 
 
CB
Professor Principal
1.2.18  CB  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @1.2.16    last year

Then stop defending or responding about the positives of a negative field of experiences. We all make do with harsh realities. As for what "leaders" do if you imply that Africans should not have sold their brethren to whites you are correct. That does not mitigate the fact that whites bringing blacks to this country to do menial labors and make this nation the envy of the time (still so to a large degree owing to many non-whites presence here) was counterproductive to the standard whites set for themselves even in the period.

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
1.2.19  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  CB @1.2.17    last year
Kamala Harris picks up on the conservatives offense intended to mitigate the effects of chattel slavery as some sort of beneficial program for chattel slaves.

Which of these Florida standards says that?

If she really cared about improving the standards, she would praise what she sees as an improvement and suggest alternatives were she see’s fault.  Her response was just typical attack dog politics practiced by both Parties.

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
1.2.20  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  CB @1.2.18    last year
Then stop defending or responding about the positives of a negative field of experiences.

Again you leave me clueless.  Please cite my explicit words if you want me to understand your point.

 
 
 
CB
Professor Principal
1.2.21  CB  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @1.2.19    last year

You know what offense we are writing about here! I won't be digressing to explain it again. And, now you're expressing some process thing or another. That has nothing to do with the standard written to be taught which is offensively tone-deaf

 
 
 
CB
Professor Principal
1.2.22  CB  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @1.2.20    last year

You have been going on about this for two articles now. If you don't know what you mean to achieve by doing what you are doing; then, why do it so wholeheartedly?

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
1.2.23  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  CB @1.2.22    last year

I find that a conversation is improved if the participants understand what each other is saying.  

I wrote nothing about mitigation of the fact that whites bringing blacks to this country to do menial labor.  Again, I have a hard time understanding your point since you don’t reference what you specifically disagree with in my comments.

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
1.2.24  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  CB @1.2.21    last year
You know what offense we are writing about here!

I don’t know and you remain reluctant to provide specifics, ever. 

I won't be digressing to explain it again

You can’t do what your unable to do.

And, now you're expressing some process thing or another.

Would you like a clarification?

That has nothing to do with the standard written to be taught which is offensively tone-deaf

Tone deaf?  That wasn’t Kamala’s critique.

 
 
 
cjcold
Professor Quiet
1.3  cjcold  replied to  Vic Eldred @1    last year

Why CNN keeps the far-right fool Scott Jennings around is a mystery.

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
1.3.1  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  cjcold @1.3    last year

Exactly, what a fool. It's hard to believe but in addition to CNN he provides content to LA Times, USA Today and NPR.  Unexplainably, Harvard has him as an Adjunct Lecturer at their School of Government.  Go figure.

 
 
 
Snuffy
Professor Participates
2  Snuffy    last year

It is rather amazing when even CNN won't carry the water for a partisan point of view.

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
2.1  JohnRussell  replied to  Snuffy @2    last year

Scott Jennings is a 100% Republican mouthpiece on CNN. He will support the GOP nominee, no matter who it is. (Hint). 

 
 
 
Vic Eldred
Professor Principal
2.1.1  seeder  Vic Eldred  replied to  JohnRussell @2.1    last year

How about the substance of what he said?

 
 
 
Jeremy Retired in NC
Professor Expert
2.1.2  Jeremy Retired in NC  replied to  Vic Eldred @2.1.1    last year

It's evident the commenter dismissed it all out of hand strictly on the narrow mindedness of who said it not what was said.

 
 
 
SteevieGee
Professor Silent
2.2  SteevieGee  replied to  Snuffy @2    last year
It is rather amazing when even CNN won't carry the water for a partisan point of view.

I find it interesting that, while the headline says CNN, the article is from Fox.

 
 
 
Just Jim NC TttH
Professor Principal
2.2.1  Just Jim NC TttH  replied to  SteevieGee @2.2    last year

It's a FOX news story ABOUT a CNN panelist

 
 
 
Sean Treacy
Professor Principal
3  Sean Treacy    last year

As usual, Harris taking advantage of her low information voters to keep them enraged and feeling oppressed, knowing left wing media will swallow whatever swill she puts out there and her supporters won’t ever think for themselves 

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
3.1  JohnRussell  replied to  Sean Treacy @3    last year

The inclusion of questionable material into a teaching curriculum calls the whole thing into question. Thats just the way it is. 

 
 
 
Sean Treacy
Professor Principal
3.1.1  Sean Treacy  replied to  JohnRussell @3.1    last year

The inclusion of questionable material into a teaching curriculum calls the whole thing into question

after all your defenses of the 1619 project and their demonstrably made up facts and claims, that’s your new position?  

your position is basically arguing that truth is bad, lies are fine

 
 
 
bugsy
Professor Participates
3.2  bugsy  replied to  Sean Treacy @3    last year

She also repeated the lie that the Parent Protection act is the "don't say gay" bill.

This dumbass with bend over for anyone who will listen to her bullshit.

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
4  JohnRussell    last year

Harris didnt make anything up. If someone says she made something up they are lying. 

I suppose one could argue why complain about a few questionable portions of a curriculum that otherwise looks somewhat ordinary. 

One could also argue why the suggestion that slavery benefited slaves was put into the standards at all. 

There was also the bit about including violence done by blacks during a race riot over voting rights. 

And I noticed that there will be a teaching that the civil war was started due to "states rights" , and sectionalism, as well as slavery. That is garbage too. We should not be teaching kids that the civil war began as a dispute over "states rights". That is a totally disingenuous and misleading viewpoint. 

 
 
 
Just Jim NC TttH
Professor Principal
4.1  Just Jim NC TttH  replied to  JohnRussell @4    last year
We should not be teaching kids that the civil war began as a dispute over "states rights". That is a totally disingenuous and misleading viewpoint.

So slavery wasn't viewed as a state's right? THAT is delusional. If I remember correctly, the south's majority of economy was based on agricultural activity where the north was more into the manufacturing sector. To abolish slavery, at the time, would have killed the south.

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
4.1.1  JohnRussell  replied to  Just Jim NC TttH @4.1    last year

The "states right" was the right to continue owning slaves. Period, end of story. Yes there were aspects to the claiming of these "rights" that effected more than simple slaveholding,  but the desire and need to maintain slavery was behind all of it. 

Anything else is just excuse making. 

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.1.2  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  JohnRussell @4.1.1    last year

Yes, you are both right.

 
 
 
Just Jim NC TttH
Professor Principal
4.1.3  Just Jim NC TttH  replied to  JohnRussell @4.1.1    last year
The "states right" was the right to continue owning slaves.

Because it would negatively affect the economy of the southern states. PERIOD

 
 
 
Tessylo
Professor Principal
4.1.4  Tessylo  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @4.1.2    last year

No, John is correct, not jim,

 
 
 
Just Jim NC TttH
Professor Principal
4.1.5  Just Jim NC TttH  replied to  Tessylo @4.1.4    last year

You read it. We are BOTH correct. Where did you learn history? Or it would seem you didn't actually.

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
4.1.6  JohnRussell  replied to  Just Jim NC TttH @4.1.3    last year
"When you go back and you look at the actual documents, many people have said since then that it was about states' rights, but really the only significant state right that people were arguing about in 1860 was the right to own what was known as slave property — property and slaves unimpeded — and to be able to travel with that property anywhere that you wanted to. So it's clear that this was really about slavery in almost every significant way, but we've sort of pushed that to the side because of course we want to believe that our country is a country that's always stood for freedom. And ... certainly it's difficult for some Southern Americans to accept that their ancestors fought a war on behalf of slavery. And I think that Northerners really, for the cause of national reconciliation, decided to push that aside — decided to accept Southerners' denials or demurrals."

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.1.7  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  Tessylo @4.1.4    last year

Thanks for following me and providing the final, definitive arbitration on this issue.

 
 
 
Tessylo
Professor Principal
4.1.8  Tessylo  replied to  Just Jim NC TttH @4.1.5    last year

No, actually you are never correct.

You may have the last word, for now.

 
 
 
Just Jim NC TttH
Professor Principal
4.1.9  Just Jim NC TttH  replied to  JohnRussell @4.1.6    last year

That's right. Because getting rid of slavery would have killed the economy of the south. They wanted to keep the status quo.

 
 
 
Tessylo
Professor Principal
4.1.10  Tessylo  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @4.1.7    last year

I don't follow you.  I'm not interested.  I had my say.  Now go away.

 
 
 
Tessylo
Professor Principal
4.1.11  Tessylo  replied to  Just Jim NC TttH @4.1.9    last year

No.

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.1.12  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  Tessylo @4.1.10    last year

You seem to frequently reply to the same small group of folks, hence, following,

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.1.13  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  Tessylo @4.1.11    last year

No what?

 
 
 
Tessylo
Professor Principal
4.1.14  Tessylo  replied to  Just Jim NC TttH @4.1.5    last year

Just because whatshisname said you were both correct doesn't mean you were both correct.

John was correct, not you.

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.1.15  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  Tessylo @4.1.14    last year

Please articulate what Jim was incorrect about, if you can.

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
4.1.16  JohnRussell  replied to  Tessylo @4.1.14    last year

Yep. 

 
 
 
bugsy
Professor Participates
4.1.17  bugsy  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @4.1.15    last year
if you can.

Not this

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.2  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  JohnRussell @4    last year

Sectionalism  grew out of our colonies and then states placing their interests of a region over those of a country as a whole. Throughout American history, there has been this tenson.  Slavery being the most significant.  The North no longer needed slavery, either in their region or profits from slave shipping, loans for slave purchases, ect.  The South with large areas of cotton, rice and still tobacco so no other way to exist.  

You have problems with complicated narratives, most history is complicated.

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
4.2.1  JohnRussell  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @4.2    last year

Read the damn declarations of secession. 

They are almost entirely based on complaints that the north was impinging on slavery. 

Read the speeches of the secession commissioners which were prominent people sent from the original seceding states to try and convince border states to join the confederacy. It all relates to slavery. 

Kids should not be taught of any other cause of the civil war that was not directly related to the desire of the south to maintain slavery. End of story. 

 
 
 
Tessylo
Professor Principal
4.2.2  Tessylo  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @4.2    last year

You and certain others have problems with the truth and like to re-write/whitewash history.

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.2.3  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  Tessylo @4.2.2    last year

[deleted]

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.2.4  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  JohnRussell @4.2.1    last year

I’ve read those damn documents.

They are almost entirely based on complaints that the north was impinging on slavery. 

Yes and I agreed with you on that ad nauseam, 

Perhaps you don’t understand the definition of sectionalism.

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
4.2.5  JohnRussell  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @4.2    last year
 In a poll by the Pew Research Center1 about the main causes of the Civil War, 48 percent of Americans said it was mostly about states’ rights and just 38 percent said it was fought over slavery. Among people younger than 30, 60 percent believed states’ rights was the chief cause. Even teachers regularly debate this issue. So, what are “states’ rights” and what do they have to do with the Civil War? In the early days of the United States, leaders argued over whether there should be a strong central government or one that exercised less control over the states. The 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1791, created a balance. It simply said the federal government has only those powers granted to it in the Constitution, and all other decisions belong to the states. Examples of federal powers include declaring war and coining money. States’ rights include managing elections, setting traffic laws and building roads and schools.

-

Before the Civil War, states also had the right to decide if slavery would be legal or not. After the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, Southern states feared the system of slavery— which brought them tremendous wealth and power—would be undone. This was the only significant “state right” that was being debated at the time. They accused free states (in the north and west) of interfering with their rights on a number of fronts: by banning enslavers from bringing enslaved people into their states for temporary stays; by refusing to cooperate in the capture and return of runaways; by allowing anti-slavery speeches and events; and by permitting Black men to vote in some places. Southern states were enraged by what they perceived as a threat to their way of life, and accused Northern and Western states of defying the Constitution.

-

They called upon national law to limit the actions of free states, which was essentially at odds with a states’ rights position. When the 11 states seceded from the Union in 1860, they published statements with their reasons. The following quotes from the “Declaration of Causes of Seceding States” shows that slavery was a main concern: Mississippi: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery—the greatest material interest of the world.” Louisiana: “The people of the slave holding States are bound together by the same necessity and determination to preserve African slavery.” Texas: “The servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind.”

-

Several states specifically mentioned the election of Abraham Lincoln and his support for abolition as a main reason for secession. Alabama claimed this was “nothing less than an open declaration of war.” Others claimed that slave labor was essential to their economies. Mississippi went so far as to say that agricultural work in the hot South depended on slavery because “none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun.” When the new Confederate States wrote their constitution, it made slavery a national rather than a local concern: “No bill…or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed.”

-

Since the Civil War, some have attempted to reframe the main cause of the conflict by focusing on states’ rights or other issues, such as taxes and tariffs. This may be because it’s painful to accept the truth that millions fought to uphold a cruel and inhuman system. It may be because people want to believe the best about their state or region. Or it may be due to prejudice. The historical evidence makes it clear, however, that the Civil War was fought mainly over the issue of slavery, and that the Confederate cause was the continuation of white supremacy.

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
4.2.6  JohnRussell  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @4.2.4    last year

Stating that the war was over anything other than slavery is disingenuous, and should not be included in what is taught to children. 

 
 
 
Just Jim NC TttH
Professor Principal
4.2.7  Just Jim NC TttH  replied to  JohnRussell @4.2.6    last year

That's correct. Don't know why you keep beating that dead horse. The states wanted to preserve the perceived right to own slaves. It was about slavery but not just for the sake of slavery. It was partially for economic survival.

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
4.2.8  JohnRussell  replied to  Just Jim NC TttH @4.2.7    last year

You are one beating a dead horse. The cause of the civil war was the south's desire to continue owning slaves. 

 
 
 
1stwarrior
Professor Participates
4.2.9  1stwarrior  replied to  JohnRussell @4.2.8    last year

John - read what Jim responded and, please, learn how to respond to what is said, not what you perceive.

"The states wanted to preserve the perceived right to own slaves. It was about slavery but not just for the sake of slavery. It was partially for economic survival."

The Civil War was not the result of the South's DESIRE to continue owning slaves - it was about who got to make that decision of having that right.

 
 
 
Just Jim NC TttH
Professor Principal
4.2.10  Just Jim NC TttH  replied to  JohnRussell @4.2.8    last year

That's what I said and have been saying. Can you not discern that from my words?

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.2.11  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  JohnRussell @4.2.8    last year

No shit!

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
4.2.12  JohnRussell  replied to  1stwarrior @4.2.9    last year

Ok, here you go. 

qz.com   /378533/for-the-last-time-the-american-civil-war-was-not-about-states-rights

For the last time, the American Civil War was not about states’ rights

Jake Flanagin 11-14 minutes   4/8/2015


This week marks the 150th anniversary of Robert E. Lee’s surrender to the Union—an occasion for celebration, or mourning, depending on which side of the Mason-Dixon line you fall on.

In this way, the historiography of the Civil War is somewhat   unique. Rarely in human history has a conflict’s losing side been lent such considerable say in how the textbooks remember it. As such, American social studies curricula have long been hobbled by one of the most pervasive myths in US history: that the Civil War was fought to preserve (or undermine) the spectral concept of “states’ rights.”

It’s a self-delusion some use to justify neo-Confederate pride: stars-and-bars bumper stickers, or  remnants of Confederate iconography woven into some of today’s state flags . “It’s about Southern pride,” they insist. “It’s about heritage”—forgetting, intentionally perhaps, that slavery and its decade-spanning echoes are very much a part of the collective American heritage. Confederate denialism, in the form of states’ rights advocacy, permits sentimentalists to keep their questionable imagery without having to address its unsavory associations.

Just how pervasive are these Confederate mythologies?  An informal survey   conducted in 2011 by James W. Loewen, published by the Southern Poverty Law Center, found that 55% to 75% of American teachers—“regardless of region or race”—cite states’ rights as the chief reason for Southern secession. This attitude is also reflected in   a Pew Research Center poll  from that same year, which found that nearly half (48%) of all Americans agreed: the Civil War was fought over states’ rights. Only 38% of those surveyed attribute the conflict to slavery.

So-called states’ rights

No one seems to be able to agree on which specific Southern rights were in danger, but that’s really beside the point. The fact is, Southern states seceded  in spite   of states’ rights, and the Confederacy’s founding documents offer plenty of proof.

In its constitution , Confederate leaders explicitly provided for the federal protection of slaveholding:

“In all such territory the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected by Congress and by the Territorial government; and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territories shall have the right to take to such Territory any slaves lawfully held by them in any of the States or Territories of the Confederate States.”

It’s a provision that clashes jarringly with neo-Confederate mythos—how could the South secede to preserve states’ rights if its own constitution mandated legal, federally protected slavery across state borders?

South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union. On Dec. 24, 1860, its government issued a “Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union.” In it, South Carolinian leaders aired objections to laws in Northern states—specifically, those that sprung from the case of Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842), in which the US Supreme Court ruled that state authorities could not be forced to help return fugitive slaves to the South. Ensuing individual state legislation in New England would double down on that very ruling, expressly forbidding state officials from enforcing the federal   Fugitive Slave Acts , or the use of state jails to detain fugitive slaves.

In effect, South Carolina seceded because the federal government would not overturn abolitionist policies in Northern states. South Carolina seceded because the federal government would not violate a state’s right to abstain from slavery and its concomitant policies.

Taxes and tariffs

Another strain of Confederate apologia asserts secession inspired by high taxes, in the form of heavy tariffs. Once again, the neo-Confederates are wrong, and South Carolinian history proves it. The state first raised the threat of secession in 1831 and 1833, events known collectively as the Nullification Crisis. South Carolina declared the federal tariffs of 1828 and 1832 unconstitutional, and therefore null within state borders. No other state government backed the move, president Jackson threatened force, and South Carolina abandoned the idea.

No matter! A Virginian slaveholder wrote a new tariff in 1857, which was passed and generally well-received by Southern members of Congress as it stipulated a record-low rate. Thus, at the time of war, Southerners had no real reason to complain (with regards to tariffs): a plantation owner in Louisiana could export his cotton to Europe at the lowest tariff rate instituted since 1816.

Counting states, taking sides

It isn’t entirely inaccurate, however, to say that the war was fought over money. Most human conflicts are, in some way. In this case, the money issue centered around potential losses Southern titans of agribusiness would experience if slavery was abolished at the federal level. Federally mandated emancipation would require a majority of free states in the US Senate—something Southern lawmakers fought tooth-and-nail to impede.

As a result, the number of free and slave-states was kept equal until 1846, when the count reached 15 and 14, respectively. This imbalance exacerbated tensions between North and South significantly, reducing Southern leaders to a culture of extreme paranoia. Secession, in this sense, was very much a preemptive move.

The Southern aristocracy feared the impending election of Abraham Lincoln would ultimately bring about nationwide emancipation. He and his supporters were known, after all, as “black Republicans,” a term purposefully designed to conjure an image of radical abolitionism. Lincoln’s famous “House Divided” speech of 1858 only aggravated tensions, clarifying the divide between an abolitionist North and a slave-dependent South:

“A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new—North as well as South.”

Neo-Confederates regard the material of this speech as “proof” of Lincoln’s priority of concerns: preservation of the Union above abolition of slavery. They may be correct. But at the time of its delivery, Southern leaders heard these words and thought one thing: Lincoln aims to abolish slavery at the federal level. Lincoln aims to destroy our way of life.

Declaring a Confederacy

So, as this preemptive secession commenced, Southern state governments issued declarations of secession that placed the preservation of slavery front and center.  Mississippi’s   is perhaps the most infamous—though also among the most pragmatic. It generally concerns the preservation of the South’s slave-dependent export-economy. “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery—the greatest material interest of the world,” it reads. “Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth.”

The declaration of secession for Texas is perhaps the most dogmatic. On Feb. 2, 1861, state leaders published a defense of slavery that amounted to little more than  a bizarre, quasi-eugenic treatise for white supremacy . “Texas abandoned her separate national existence and consented to become one of the Confederated States to promote her welfare, insure domestic tranquility [sic] and secure more substantially the blessings of peace and liberty to her people,” it begins, before taking a wildly offensive turn, even by the standards of the day:

“We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable.”

Of all the state governments that published “declarations of the causes of secession” like these (some published shorter “ordinances of secession”), none mentioned the ostensible injustices of America’s tariff system. None complained of high taxes, or even states’ rights in a general sense. All, however, passionately pontificated on the necessity of preserving an institution of slavery; and that no such preservation could be maintained within the Union as it was then organized. Ironically, secession, and the creation of a Confederacy was the only conceivable way of maintaining the status quo.

Northern racists, Southern racists

In a last-ditch effort to deny the integrality of slavery to Southern secession, a contemporary Confederate sympathizer will inevitably raise the issue of the Corwin amendment. Proposed in the US Senate by William H. Seward of New York and in the House by Thomas Corwin of Ohio in 1861, it was intended to lure seceded states back into the Union (and convince border states to remain) by promising to protect slaveholders from federal interference. Its reference is meant to convey a fallacious argument: that the impetus for secession could not have been the preservation of slavery because a few Northern politicians were willing to forgo abolition to keep the Union intact.

The Corwin amendment was never actually implemented. Only three states—Ohio, Illinois, and Maryland—ratified it. But its mere proposal indicates that the North, like the South, was no ideological monolith. There were men who fought for the Union that believed in the institution of slavery, who believed blacks to be inherently inferior to whites. Likewise, there were men who fought for the Confederacy that never owned slaves (the vast majority, in fact), who didn’t wish to, and who believed in the inherent equality of all men.

But while the Civil War was fought, on the ground, by these ordinary men of diverse opinions, it was not a conflict of their own engineering. Southern secession was not a guerrilla insurgency nor a populist rebellion as the neo-Confederate romantics prefer to believe. It was a conflict between two well-heeled establishments: one that depended—economically and spiritually—on the continued enslavement of black people, and another that did not. Extant racism among Northerners does not extinguish this fact.

Ultimately, the debate over motives for Southern secession trivializes the true shame of antebellum America: the existence of an institution of slavery all together. Which is why the effort to debunk Civil War myths must avoid becoming an exercise in elevating the morality of white Northerners. That too is beside the point. As history inarguably demonstrates, life for free African Americans in the postbellum North was subject to just as many miseries and injustices as in the South. And although one region outpaced the other in the formal abolition of slavery, neither was immune to the informal perpetuation of inequities established by slave-trade.

Obscuring Civil War history in hollow romance, refusing to recognize the true heritage of the Confederacy—these are just two of its many manifestations.
 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
4.2.13  JohnRussell  replied to  JohnRussell @4.2.12    last year
In its constitutionConfederate leaders explicitly provided for the federal protection of slaveholding:

“In all such territory the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected by Congress and by the Territorial government; and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territories shall have the right to take to such Territory any slaves lawfully held by them in any of the States or Territories of the Confederate States.”

It’s a provision that clashes jarringly with neo-Confederate mythos—how could the South secede to preserve states’ rights if its own constitution mandated legal, federally protected slavery across state borders?

The only reason I continue on with this is because so many people continue with delusion about this. Why? That is up to them to explain. 

 
 
 
Tessylo
Professor Principal
4.2.14  Tessylo  replied to  JohnRussell @4.2.8    last year

You are correct, as usual!

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.2.15  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  JohnRussell @4.2.8    last year

We can all read online the framework for instructing K-12 on AA history and some are very unhappy with several words in two Standards out of several hundred.  What other states have their equivalent on line?  Have you reviewed Illinois, CA, NY?

 
 
 
Tessylo
Professor Principal
4.2.16  Tessylo  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @4.2.15    last year

Deflection

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.2.17  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  Tessylo @4.2.16    last year

Exactly, well said.  No one good reason for us to evaluate their work or for them to share with racist states.

 
 
 
Tessylo
Professor Principal
4.2.18  Tessylo  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @4.2.17    last year

This is about Florida.

Hence, deflecting

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.2.19  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  Tessylo @4.2.16    last year

Have you ever used comparative analysis to judge the adequacy of one system (Florida) by crosswalking with others?

No deflection.

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
4.2.20  JohnRussell  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @4.2.15    last year

If and when they become news I will look at them. 

Your whole schtick is bringing up irrelevancies. 

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.2.21  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  JohnRussell @4.2.20    last year
If and when they become news I will look at them

Exactly, one way to avoiding this hyperbolic condemnation is to not become news, not be transparent,  Perhaps that’s Illinois’ strategy.

Your whole schtick is bringing up irrelevancies.

There is nothing irrelevant about complaining the accuracy and comprehensiveness with how other states have done.

I’m sorry that I can’t help you or others understand that.

 
 
 
bugsy
Professor Participates
4.2.22  bugsy  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @4.2.15    last year

California curriculum does not teach their kids that the Cherokee nation owned black slaves.

 
 
 
bugsy
Professor Participates
4.2.23  bugsy  replied to  Tessylo @4.2.18    last year

Nothing but P, D and D with a lot of delusion added

 
 
 
bugsy
Professor Participates
4.2.24  bugsy  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @4.2.21    last year

Thank you Drinker for always stating the truth on here. It is a breath of fresh air compared the the left's warped interpretation of the facts.

 
 
 
Tessylo
Professor Principal
4.2.25  Tessylo  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @4.2.19    last year

Yes deflection.

 
 
 
Tessylo
Professor Principal
4.2.26  Tessylo  replied to  bugsy @4.2.23    last year

Looking in the mirror [Deleted?]

[Refer to other members by their screen names, or not at all.]

 
 
 
Tessylo
Professor Principal
4.2.27  Tessylo  replied to  bugsy @4.2.24    last year

Neither you nor your little buddy have ever stated the truth or supplied a fact like John does on a daily basis.

 
 
 
Tessylo
Professor Principal
4.2.28  Tessylo  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @4.2.21    last year

It's not possible for you to educate me on anything.  You or your little buddy.

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.2.29  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  Tessylo @4.2.28    last year
It's not possible for you to educate me on anything. 

No doubt as learning requires active participation and an open mind on both sides.

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.2.30  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  Tessylo @4.2.28    last year
You or your little buddy.

If you like referring to bugsy as my little buddy, I’ll refer to you as my big buddy.  Now I know the feeling isn’t mutual, but you will always be big in my eyes.

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.2.31  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  Tessylo @4.2.25    last year

What is comparative analysis?

Comparative analysis is a way to look at two or more similar things to see how they are different and what they have in common. 

It is used in many ways and fields to help people understand the similarities and differences between products better. It can help businesses make good decisions about key issues.

 
 
 
charger 383
Professor Silent
4.2.32  charger 383  replied to  Just Jim NC TttH @4.2.7    last year

As usual it was mostly about money

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.2.33  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  charger 383 @4.2.32    last year
it was mostly about money

Very sad, to make this a Party fundraising opportunity instead of an open, honest comparative discussion on the best ways to correct historical deficiencies in AA education across the country.

 
 
 
charger 383
Professor Silent
4.2.34  charger 383  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @4.2    last year

If having slaves had been profitable for the north the ones making the money would have squashed opposition to having slaves,  

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.2.35  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  charger 383 @4.2.34    last year

It was profitable for the North for many years.  The North built the ships that brought the slaves across the Atlantic, they maned the ships, and insured the ships.  They loaned money to the South to buy the slaves and made rum from slave labor on sugar cane.  By the early 1800’s those profits were dwindling so it was easier for the North to accept the abolitionist argument and with few Blacks in their population, they were less concerned about emancipation.

 
 
 
CB
Professor Principal
4.2.36  CB  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @4.2.35    last year

Incredible isn't it? To consider that were it still good for this capitalist economy. . .we might never have gotten rid of slavery!  That it was not "repentant" and "regretful" whites along with abolitionists whose judgement improved to the point where the right thing to do was to eliminate slavery.

Imagine. . . if slavery was still legal in this country, then we would not have this standard of "benefits" for former slaves that will be taught in Florida and VP Harris speaking out about an outrage. Because slaves did not have the benefit of freedom and that would have been the priority!  /s

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.2.37  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  CB @4.2.36    last year
Incredible isn't it?

Not really, it was an example of human social evolution.

To consider that were it still good for this capitalist economy. . .we might would never have gotten rid of slavery! 

No, social evolution would have likely ended it here but unfortunately not yet in many parts of the world (North Korea, China, Eritrea, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Tajikistan, UAE, Russia, Afghanistan, Kuwait, etc.).

Imagine. . . if slavery was still legal in this country, then we would not have this standard of "benefits" for former slaves that will be taught in Florida and VP Harris speaking out about an outrage.

You mean imagine if there weren’t over 350,000 dead Union soldiers and over 280,000 thousand wounded Union soldiers to right the wrong?

 
 
 
MonsterMash
Sophomore Quiet
4.2.38  MonsterMash  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @4.2.30    last year
but you will always be big in my eyes.

A big what?

 
 
 
CB
Professor Principal
4.2.39  CB  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @4.2.37    last year

4.2.35 was irrelevant when you wrote it. Because "social evolution" was already in motion in this world to end slavery, eh? Ending slavery of the caliber it was in the colonies was a "win-win" for the world!

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.2.40  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  CB @4.2.39    last year
was irrelevant when you wrote it. Because "social evolution" was already in motion in this world to end slavery, eh?

How so? Of course it was in motion when I wrote that comment some minutes ago.

Ending slavery of the caliber it was in the colonies was a "win-win" for the world!

Caliber, ending for the world?  Whatever do you mean?

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.2.41  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  MonsterMash @4.2.38    last year

Because you had to be a big shot, didn't you
You had to open up your mouth
You had to be a big shot, didn't you
All your friends were so knocked out
You had to have the last word, last night
You know what everything's about
You had to have a white hot spotlight
You had to be a big shot last night

 
 
 
CB
Professor Principal
4.2.42  CB  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @4.2.40    last year

Slavery was worse in the "America" version than in some other places in the world.

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.2.43  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  CB @4.2.42    last year

Slavery was worse in the "America" version than in some other places in the world.

Between 60 - 70% of the 10 to 16 million Africans who arrived in the New World went to Brazil or the Caribbean.  About 6% landed in what is now the US. Yet by 1860, around two thirds of all the slaves lived in the US South.
The size of the Black population in the Caribbean rose dramatically in the 17th century.  Work and living conditions on the sugar plantation were brutal. The hours were long, especially at harvest time. Then the heat was made worse by the use of the boiling house.   The slave death rate there was very high in comparison to America due to overwork, poor nutrition, work conditions, brutality and disease. Many plantation owners preferred to import new slaves rather than providing the means and conditions for the survival of their existing slaves.  

Death rates among slaves in the Caribbean were one-third higher than in the US South, and suicide appears to have been much more common. 

In the Caribbean, and Brazil, the slave death rate was so high and the birthrate so low that slavery constantly required more slaves from Africa.  

In the Caribbean, slaves were 80 - 90% of the island's population and each plantation was much larger than in the South.  The Europeans lived in fee of a rebellion, so treatment was much harsher to keep the slaves very controlled.  

In the South, plantation owners lived on their plantations and slaves dealt with them regularly. Most placed plantation management, supply purchasing, and supervision in the hands of senior slaves.  In the Caribbean, absentee ownership common and the owners relied on paid managers..

The Caribbean Slave Code was the first in the New World.  It identified Africans as non-human not fit to be governed by the same laws as Christians. 

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
4.2.44  JohnRussell  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @4.2.43    last year

American slaves were lucky. 

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.2.45  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  JohnRussell @4.2.44    last year

I’m generally not one to argue, but I have to disagree with you there, JR,

 
 
 
CB
Professor Principal
4.2.46  CB  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @4.2.43    last year

I did say "some other places," but that does not by any stretch excuse the atrocities of the United States, Drinker! BTW, who are you quoting? I see no citation of any kind. ;)

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.2.47  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  CB @4.2.46    last year
but that does not by any stretch excuse the atrocities of the United States

Of course not, who would think that it does?

BTW, who are you quoting

I don’t remember.  I did a little research back in my News Vine days and drew from that.

 
 
 
CB
Professor Principal
4.2.48  CB  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @4.2.47    last year

Well, a sampling of your comment put into a search engine yielded the result above. :)

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.2.49  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  CB @4.2.48    last year

Was there a date?  Maybe borrowed from the same data source I used.  Do you question the info?

 
 
 
CB
Professor Principal
4.2.50  CB  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @4.2.49    last year

I have no clear understanding of this level of questioning. Let's get back on topic, please.

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.2.51  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  CB @4.2.50    last year

Go for it.

 
 
 
CB
Professor Principal
4.2.52  CB  replied to  Drinker of the Wry @4.2.51    last year

On second thought, it may be helpful to reproduce what you wrote at 4.2.43   here with a larger context. Some sentences I have put in red lettering .

Historical Context: American Slavery in Comparative Perspective

by Steven Mintz

Of the 10 to 16 million Africans who survived the voyage to the New World, over one-third landed in Brazil and between 60 and 70 percent ended up in Brazil or the sugar colonies of the Caribbean. Only 6 percent arrived in what is now the United States.
Yet by 1860, approximately two thirds of all New World slaves lived in the American South .

For a long time it was widely assumed that southern slavery was harsher and crueler than slavery in Latin America, where the Catholic church insisted that slaves had a right to marry, to seek relief from a cruel master, and to purchase their freedom. Spanish and Portuguese colonists were thought to be less tainted by racial prejudice than North Americans and Latin American slavery was believed to be less subject to the pressures of a competitive capitalist economy.

In practice, neither the Church nor the courts offered much protection to Latin American slaves. Access to freedom was greater in Latin America, but in many cases masters freed sick, elderly, crippled, or simply unneeded slaves in order to relieve themselves of financial responsibilities.

Death rates among slaves in the Caribbean were one-third higher than in the South, and suicide appears to have been much more common. Unlike slaves in the South, West Indian slaves were expected to produce their own food in their "free time," and care for the elderly and the infirm.

The largest difference between slavery in the South and in Latin America was demographic. The slave population in Brazil and the West Indies had a lower proportion of female slaves, a much lower birthrate, and a higher proportion of recent arrivals from Africa. In striking contrast, southern slaves had an equal sex ratio, a high birthrate, and a predominantly American-born population.

Slavery in the United States was especially distinctive in the ability of the slave population to increase its numbers by natural reproduction. In the Caribbean, Dutch Guiana, and Brazil, the slave death rate was so high and the birthrate so low that slaves could not sustain their population without imports from Africa. The average number of children born to an early nineteenth-century southern slave woman was 9.2—twice as many as in the West Indies.

In the West Indies, slaves constituted 80 to 90 percent of the population, while in the South only about a third of the population was enslaved. Plantation size also differed widely. In the Caribbean, slaves were held on much larger units, with many plantations holding 150 slaves or more. In the American South, in contrast, only one slaveholder held as many as a thousand slaves, and just 125 had over 250 slaves. Half of all slaves in the United States worked on units of twenty or fewer slaves; three-quarters had fewer than fifty.

These demographic differences had important social implications. In the American South, slaveholders lived on their plantations and slaves dealt with their owners regularly. Most planters placed plantation management, supply purchasing, and supervision in the hands of black drivers and foremen, and at least two-thirds of all slaves worked under the supervision of black drivers. Absentee ownership was far more common in the West Indies, where planters relied heavily on paid managers and on a distinct class of free blacks and mulattos to serve as intermediaries with the slave population.

Another important difference between Latin America and the United States involved conceptions of race. In Spanish and Portuguese America, an intricate system of racial classification emerged. Compared with the British and French, the Spanish and Portuguese were much more tolerant of racial mixing—an attitude encouraged by a shortage of European women—and recognized a wide range of racial gradations, including black, mestizo, quadroon, and octoroon. The American South, in contrast, adopted a two-category system of race in which any person with a black mother was automatically considered to be black.

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.2.53  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  CB @4.2.52    last year

Good job CB, you aren’t anything if not helpful.

 
 
 
CB
Professor Principal
4.3  CB  replied to  JohnRussell @4    last year

Actually, the mention of states rights or how the southerners' perceived fighting back against what they called "northern aggression) over their human property (rights) does not bother me. But, this notion that the southern slave owners meant to benefit slaves for such a time when they might/would gain freedom is offensive. The southerners' waged a civil war (and parts of it continue even now) to keep the status quo. That is an outrage!

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
4.3.1  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  CB @4.3    last year
But, this notion that the southern slave owners meant to benefit slaves for such a time when they might/would gain freedom is offensive.

Which standard expressed that notion?  Please provide the nomenclature.

to keep the status quo. That is an outrage!

Exactly, so unlike most of human history!

 
 
 
Sean Treacy
Professor Principal
5  Sean Treacy    last year

If you want to understand liberals attitude towards teaching kids, this is the type of America hating idiot they want in charge of propagandizing children. The founder of the 1619 project on the A. Bomb:

They dropped the bomb when they knew surrender
was coming because they'd spent all this money developing it and to prove it was worth it.

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
5.1  JohnRussell  replied to  Sean Treacy @5    last year

Not going to waste my time looking at the Federalist article. 

Plenty of people have the opinion that dropping  the atomic bomb on Japan was not necessary. I dont agree, but it is hardly a controversial position. 

The bomb was dropped because it was Truman's duty as commander in chief to shorten the war and save American lives. Yes, many people died at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but those unfortunate souls were a very small part of the tens of millions of civilians who died during WW2. 

 
 
 
Ronin2
Professor Quiet
5.1.1  Ronin2  replied to  JohnRussell @5.1    last year
Not going to waste my time looking at the Federalist article. 

Can't refute it so ignore it. Typical.

Plenty of people have the opinion that dropping  the atomic bomb on Japan was not necessary. I dont agree, but it is hardly a controversial position. 

BS. Japan was preparing for a full scale invasion. Had 2 grand fathers (and their brothers) that fought in WWII. None of them wanted to invade Japan; and the 3 that served in the Pacific knew the order was coming. The two that served in Europe were being prepped for deployment to the Pacific. Japan wasn't going to surrender. They were going to make the war so costly to the US that we would allow them a negotiated peace- instead of unconditional surrender.

The bomb was dropped because it was Truman's duty as commander in chief to shorten the war and save American lives.

You are finally correct about something. Invading and occupying Japan would have been very costly. 

You want to argue that the second bomb didn't need to be dropped- I am willing to have that discussion. We dropped that bomb to try and force Japan to unconditionally surrender before Russia entered the war. Not that Russia was in any condition to help with a full invasion of Japan; but they wanted to reclaim lost territory to Japan in Manchuria. Truman wanted to prevent Russia from getting any spoils from declaring war. He failed.

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
5.1.2  JohnRussell  replied to  Ronin2 @5.1.1    last year

The bomb was going to be used, for a number of reasons. First and foremost President Truman believed it would shorten the war, and it did. There was also the understanding that an invasion of Japan would involve the deaths of thousands of American soldiers, the cost and time of creating the bomb, and "revenge" for the mistreatment of allied troops who were held as pow's by the Japanese, such as the Bataan Death March.  

 
 
 
Snuffy
Professor Participates
5.1.3  Snuffy  replied to  JohnRussell @5.1.2    last year
There was also the understanding that an invasion of Japan would involve the deaths of thousands of American soldiers

Actually your numbers are low.  

By late July, the JCS was forecasting 500,000 casualties at the high end and 100,000 at the low end. In late July 1945, the War Department provided an estimate that the entire Downfall operations would cause between 1.7 to 4 million U.S. casualties, including 400-800,000 U.S. dead, and 5 to 10 million Japanese dead. 

H-057-1: Operations Downfall and Ketsugo – November 1945 (navy.mil)

 
 
 
Sean Treacy
Professor Principal
5.1.4  Sean Treacy  replied to  JohnRussell @5.1    last year

I linked to the federalist because it contains a copy of  nikole Hannah Jones tweet, and she  often deletes tweets after she gets embarrassed.

her position is not just that it wasn’t necessary, it was that America knew Japan was surrendering and used it just to show they could. It’s absolute indefensible nonsense with no historical basis. Just another anti American conspiracy theory by a grifter who has made a career by spreading them.

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
5.1.5  Drinker of the Wry  replied to  Sean Treacy @5.1.4    last year

She also sees “insidious racism” in the Western media coverage of the Russian War on Ukraine.  Perhaps it’s because Russian ethnic man minorities are dying in greater numbers proportional to Russian Tartars.  Ukrainians need to inflict casualties on an ethnic neutral basis.

 
 

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