You are making the classic mistake of viewing history through the moral lens of today. Prior to the British abolishing slavery in the 1820's, slavery was very common, ESPECIALLY in Africa and the rest of the Muslim world. Indeed, the vast majority of slaves shipped to North America were captured and sold to Europeans by coastal black sla…
You are making the classic mistake of viewing history through the moral lens of today. Prior to the British abolishing slavery in the 1820's, slavery was very common, ESPECIALLY in Africa and the rest of the Muslim world. Indeed, the vast majority of slaves shipped to North America were captured and sold to Europeans by coastal black slavers who went to the interior where whites did not dare go to capture slaves who they sold to Europeans and Arabs.
Again, it is a mistake to apply modern moral thinking to people two and three hundred years ago. When the African slave trade started it was common among the uneducated whites to believe that blacks were lower on the evolutionary ladder and incapable of fitting into a civilized society. As dead wrong as that belief was, it was still a dominant belief. Before you condemn them, walk a mile in their shoes as the saying goes.
The same applied to Native Americans, who lived a Stone Age existence when Europeans first came to the New World. They certainly did not deserve some of the treatment that came their way, especially the atrocity that was the Trail of Tears, but they have been almost granted sainthood by 21st century activists. I have a smattering of Cherokee blood, and even they and the Seneca, who were viewed as members of the Five Civilized Tribes, were bloody barbarians. The two nations would send young warriors to freaking RUN up and down the Warrior's Path from the southern mountains up into what is now New York state to make war, slaughtering each other, and TAKING YOUNG GIRLS AND BOYS TO BE SLAVES! The Plains tribes were far worse, for their women specialized in torturing captives taken by their warriors.
You are making the classic mistake of viewing history through the moral lens of today. Prior to the British abolishing slavery in the 1820's, slavery was very common, ESPECIALLY in Africa and the rest of the Muslim world. Indeed, the vast majority of slaves shipped to North America were captured and sold to Europeans by coastal black slavers who went to the interior where whites did not dare go to capture slaves who they sold to Europeans and Arabs.
Again, it is a mistake to apply modern moral thinking to people two and three hundred years ago. When the African slave trade started it was common among the uneducated whites to believe that blacks were lower on the evolutionary ladder and incapable of fitting into a civilized society. As dead wrong as that belief was, it was still a dominant belief. Before you condemn them, walk a mile in their shoes as the saying goes.
The same applied to Native Americans, who lived a Stone Age existence when Europeans first came to the New World. They certainly did not deserve some of the treatment that came their way, especially the atrocity that was the Trail of Tears, but they have been almost granted sainthood by 21st century activists. I have a smattering of Cherokee blood, and even they and the Seneca, who were viewed as members of the Five Civilized Tribes, were bloody barbarians. The two nations would send young warriors to freaking RUN up and down the Warrior's Path from the southern mountains up into what is now New York state to make war, slaughtering each other, and TAKING YOUNG GIRLS AND BOYS TO BE SLAVES! The Plains tribes were far worse, for their women specialized in torturing captives taken by their warriors.
Trying to moralize history is a fool's errand.