This Day In History: Today is Juneteenth, an unofficial American holiday that commemorates the freedom of slaves in the South. While African slavery was tragic, there is a lot of misinformation about slavery. The other day Senator Tim Kaine said that the United States created Slavery. Clearly he's never cracked open a Bible or a history book. Slavery has been around for thousands of years, and we are all descendants of slaves. All sorts of people owned slaves. Most of the slaves brought here from Africa were purchased from black slave owners in Africa. One of the very first slave owners in America was Anthony Johnson, a black man from Angola. Thousands of blacks owned slaves in America. Even native Americans owned black slaves. The first slaves in America were white, and the word "Slave" comes from "Slav"...Slavs were white Europeans heavily targeted by Slavers. The white slaves in early America are often labelled "indentured servants" to give them some sense of privilege, but their limited contracts meant they were worked harder, often to the point of death.
"Who wants to be reminded that half—perhaps as many as thirds—of the original American colonists came here, not of their own free will, but kidnapped, shanghaied, impressed, duped, beguiled, and yes, in chains?... we tend to gloss over it... we’d prefer to forget the whole sorry chapter...“(Elaine Kendall, Los Angeles Times, Sept. 1, 1985).
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