Juneteenth & the Forgotten History of Slavery

White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain's White Slaves in America

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. Senator Tim Kaine once remarked 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).

Brazil was actually THE hotbed of slavery in the Americas. During the Atlantic slave trade era, Brazil received more African slaves than any other country. Even before the slave trade, members of one tribe would enslave captured members of another.

It has been recently discovered that a million or more European Christians were enslaved by Muslims in North Africa between 1530 and 1780 - a far greater number than had ever been estimated before. 

The book "The Renegade History of the United States" tells of a lesser known side of slavery: "Contrary to what popular images of emancipation tell us, when given the opportunity to leave the plantation, most slaves stayed...By contrast, only 9 percent left immediately after emancipation. Again and again, the ex-slaves told of regret when freedom came."

Oh, and both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris ancestors were slaveholders.

When Blacks Owned Slaves, by Calvin Dill Wilson 1905
https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2017/02/when-blacks-owned-slaves-by-calvin-dill.html

See also: A History of White Slavery by Charles Sumner 1853 and When the Irish were Slaves, article in The Month 1890

When Europeans Were Slaves: Research Suggests White Slavery Was Much More Common Than Previously Believed

See also Bible Defense of Slavery and other Southern books on CDrom - Join my Facebook Group - For a list of all of my digital books and books on disk click here

The Forgotten History of Britain's White Slaves in America