Slavery Was Good for the Black Man
| More news stories on Africa |
|---|
Michael Dingwall, Jamaica Observer (Kingston), August 9, 2008
As we celebrate emancipation and independence, we are being reminded of the horrors of slavery. According to our leaders, academics and others, slavery was the worst institution ever created. However, while it is popular for most to agree with this claim, I beg to disagree. Indeed, contrary to the belief that slavery was bad for us blacks, I believe that slavery was good for us.
Have we ever stopped to consider where we black people, especially those of us in the West, would be right now if it weren’t for the Atlantic Slave Trade? What state do you think black Africa would be in today? Do you think that we would have been better off without slavery? I don’t think so!
When the Europeans went to Africa to buy slaves, what did they find? They found a society and people vastly inferior to theirs. While the Europeans had emerged from their feudal practices, our ancestors in Africa, for the most part, had not developed for many centuries. We did not understand the concept of nation or government. Science and technology (and innovations in these areas) were non-existent in black Africa of the 15th and 16th centuries. Indeed, as a people, we had no sense of self-identity. In many respects, we were uncivilised.
Slavery was our most important contact with modernity. It is through this “most heinous system ever created” that we blacks were able to understand some of the principles of global trade. Our ancestors were introduced to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade between Europe, Africa and the West Indies. Black Africa’s part in the trade was the importation of European technology and the export of slaves. The importation of European technology was important—even though the Africans did not appreciate this importance at first. The export of slaves was also very important, especially for us in the West.
As time went on, we blacks, both in Africa and especially in the Caribbean were, in many ways, being Europeanised and thus civilised. We adopted several aspects of their culture—their systems of government, their technologies, their sense of order and their languages. In doing this, we discarded those aspects of our culture that clearly placed us at a disadvantage—like our lack of sense of self, loyalty to the tribe and our non-participation in modern technology.
Although not a believer in any god myself, the Christianity that came with slavery and European control would be of immense value to us black people. Back in Africa, we were preoccupied with the worship of animals, trees, spirits of the dead—even stones. These primitive religions that we were practising ensured that our ancestors in Africa were backward. The relatively superior Christianity, with its greater sense of order and responsibility would help, in many ways, to pull the black man out of the Stone Age. This could only have happened with slavery.
Our relatively stable societies today, especially in the West, are testaments to the benefits of slavery. While it is true that black Africa has, for the most part, squandered the opportunities that slavery offered in the past, the positive influence of European civilisation cannot be denied. The black nation states of Africa and the Caribbean have given black people a sense of nation, a sense of identity, a sense of order and a sense of purpose—things we never had before.
While we continue to demonstrate our inferiority in the areas of science and technology, through centuries of being exposed to Europe on account of slavery, we blacks are now aware of the need for us to start excelling in these areas.
Those of us who continue to see the millions of blacks who died crossing the Atlantic and the displacement of what we had in Africa as proof that slavery was a bad institution don’t understand the mechanics of human development and evolution. Similar processes had to be endured by countless peoples thoughout history. The development of the human race has always involved the need for change. Slavery was one such means, and like it or not, we blacks are the beneficiaries. It is not for us today to judge the means through which societies have changed in the past.
We blacks were changed, for the better, I might add, on account of slavery. We are a better race today because our ancestors went though slavery. The millions of lives lost were not lost in vain. The Europeans proclaimed the need for us to be civilised through slavery and though this may be hard to understand, they were right. Indeed, based on what is happening in black Africa today—slavery for us in the West was, in many respects, our salvation.
Email Michael Dingwall at michael_a_dingwall@hotmail.com.
(Posted on August 12, 2008)
Comments
The following link is proof of this argument:
http://cofcc.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/africanobamasupporter.jpg
This article should be required reading for every eight grader in the West. Just add a section on Arab participation and it will be even more accurate.
Posted by GetBackJack at 6:52 PM on August 12
If I were this guy, I would start paying someone to start my car for me! (satire)
Posted by idareya at 6:55 PM on August 12
I was surprised, extremely, that this article even made it into publication, let alone that it was written by a black person. That it was published raises questions about whether such articles might be published in the future, whether there is a struggle going on over whether these more open-minded articles should appear, and the biggest question is, what is going on with the relevant interest groups, that an article like this was written and made it into print?
Posted by at 7:02 PM on August 12
This is essentially the thesis of a book published ten years ago and still in print, Keith Richburg’s “Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa.” Mr. Richburg, who is indeed a black man, served as Africa Bureau Chief for the Washington Post in the early 1990’s, and his experiences there led him to conclude that he and other black Americans should be glad and grateful that their ancestors were brought out of Africa, even as slaves.
Posted by Zorba_the_Geek at 7:03 PM on August 12
Let me be the first to say, “You’re Welcome.”
Now, if we could only get these “people” to go back ….
Posted by at 7:06 PM on August 12
Slavery was the first form of welfare.
Think about this. Two groups go to war. One loses. The winner has little to gain and alot to lose by not rounding up the survivors and putting them to the sword. Instead, a place is made for them in the winning culture.
Buying slaves opened the door for blacks to enter a much higher culture than they otherwise might have. But, the situation is much more basic than that. Had their not been an institution of slavery, every slave ancestor of American blacks would have, instead, been exterminated.
Slavery is a type of mercy, not a “horror” as described above. The place of the slave is determined by how decent the culture that enslaved them is and how much of an enemy they were before enslavement. In africa, the slaves lot was grim….but it WAS survival. In America, the slave’s lot was ALWAYS better than he had prior to enslavement, even before the US ended the institution.
White guilt has no basis in fact.
Posted by at 7:13 PM on August 12
According to my experience, all American blacks are aware how much they have profited from slavery. Nevertheless, they don’t admit it, because “the victimization” is such a wonderful pump to suck out undeserved benefits from American society.
Posted by alex at 7:14 PM on August 12
Amen Hallelujah
Posted by at 7:31 PM on August 12
While black slavery was wrong, blacks were hardly the only ones enslaved. It is an institution, a horrible one, that has been going on since the beginning of time and actually still goes on today. However, while the blacks during slave times suffered as did all slaves, blacks today have benefited enormously from slavery as they are much better off in the USA then they would be if they were back in Africa.
Posted by kc at 8:32 PM on August 12
If this were from the USA I would have taken it as intended for a joke.
Posted by my favorite color is not in the rainbow at 8:56 PM on August 12
True enough, but where do whites fit into all this? The answer is that the slavery of blacks was catastrophic for whites. It hurt white society in many way and continues to bear bitter fruit.
Posted by jewamongyou at 9:00 PM on August 12
Anyone can look at blacks in Africa and then look at blacks in the West and clearly see that the descendants of slaves are better off then the blacks still living in Africa. Any black person complaining about persecution and oppression by the white man would quickly concede that he’d rather live under the rule of the whites than move back to Africa.
Posted by at 9:12 PM on August 12
This piece states the patently obvious. Does a single American of African ancestry seriously believe that he (she) would have been better off had their ancestors remained in Africa?.
I see no Afro-American movement demanding repatriation, which speaks volumes.
Posted by john at 9:45 PM on August 12
What they love to tell everybody is how horrible blacks were treated as slaves. But what nobody wants to mention is that if some plantation owner pays $1,800.00 for a slave, does anybody really think that this same plantation owner is going to physically abuse his property, so badly that he wouldn’t be able to get any work out of him.
Blacks were treated very well under their masters. They weren’t tortured or beaten as the historians would like for everybody to believe.
Posted by Gayle Sollenberger at 9:49 PM on August 12
It’s what I’ve been saying for years. Now if only blacks would use their limited intellect to wake up and realize this truth. Then, I’d like them to all leave this continent and return to their jungle.
George Manuelian
Atherton, CA
Posted by George Manuelian at 9:54 PM on August 12
The slave trade was the best thing to happen to black people, unfortunately it was the worst thing to happen to this country. I bet there is a large segment of blacks who also believe this, especially wealthy black athletes and entertainers.But, it’s not something they will ever admit because the issue of slavery is their hammer to continually bludgeon whitey over the head with.
Posted by proudinfidel at 10:08 PM on August 12
To think it took a black man to say all this. My question is, when are the sheeple (whites) going to give themselves permission to point out these obvious facts as well?
Posted by Tim in Indiana at 10:14 PM on August 12
Slavery was good for the Black Man? Absolutely. Who were slaves: Weaker tribes, the ones that gave up, the ones the lost in battle, the ones that had the least power in Africa??
Human evolution short circuited by medical technology and slavery. With no slavery to Brazil (the greatest importer of slaves?) hundreds of thousands of blacks would have just been killed, eaten, or who knows what? Look at the REALITY of how FREE Blacks are treated in Africa today. How would weaker, slaves have been or be treated. The vast majority of the slave seed now have an opprotunity for education, relative safety, the crumbs from the white man’s table, the white man’s daughters, special privliges for employement and handouts, special privileges from government, etc… Life could NOT be better for the Black Man…
BUT the black man has chosen the path of excuses. Much as the White Man does today. Playing the victim not only pays but eases the guilty feelings of laziness and lack of action… blame someone else while coasting through time… and DO NOTHING.
The West even in the evil(?) use of slaves did more to elevate the black man in 200 years far more than the Black Man did for himself in 2000 years.
Sherwood Smith
Posted by Sherwood Smith at 10:55 PM on August 12
In the late 1990’s, I posted an article on freerepublic.com written by an African who said that the reason Africa was a basket case was because the Atlantic slave trade had taken all the best blacks to the New World. This guy seriously believed WE got the best blacks because of slavery.
Incidentally, for posting this piece on freerepublic.com, I was unceremoniously kicked and banned. The first of many.
Posted by sbuffalonative at 11:28 PM on August 12
the truth is the truth, even if noone believes it. a lie is a lie, even if everyone believes it. this is completely true, yet the number of blacks that will admit it,is verrry small!
Posted by albrecht at 11:51 PM on August 12
“Thank god my ancestors got on the boat”
Muhammed Ali after visiting Zaire
Posted by Greek at 12:46 AM on August 13
Dear Lord, this guy sure figured out where his bread gets buttered. Latrice, explain to me why the darker peoples of this planet flock to white, racist nations en masse, and are accepted, provided food, shelter and freedoms they would never have in their native lands? Why? Why is every creed, color, and belief system welcomed, to our nation’s detriment, and yet we are still the most racist nation on earth? What would your life be like in the Sudan, Ruwanda, or Zimbabwe? Have you ever tried to teach a classroom of full of 10th grade blacks and Hispanics? I did it for 10 years. It was an exercise in futility and I quit in June, last semester. For 10 years, I told them they had an advantage, if they could master any number of applied sciences (math, chemistry, calculus, etc.), they would get preference and be set for life. 40% could read at a 5th grade level. Algebra, trig, and calculus were completely out of the question. And yet it’s my responsibility through “No Child Left Behind” to do what God didn’t and make these kids smart enough to learn? And do it in a classroom where the din of these morons is so loud it will make your ears ring. Black classrooms are like black neighborhoods. It just became intolerable. Sorry, it’s just the way it is.
Posted by at 1:09 AM on August 13
This article dares to say what is obvious but forbidden.
We only need to consider an Africa untouched by Europeans. It would still be in the stone age. The Arabs, who’s religion many blacks embrace, would still be enslaving them but with no payoff like blacks have benefited from in the West.
The West however would be infinitely better off.
For that reason alone I condemn my European forbears for going into Africa. A few greedy people have committed the West to the imposition of inferior and violent people who will forever be a drag upon our society.
Posted by Geoff M at 4:15 AM on August 13
This is a remarkable article. Absolutely fascinating. I read it several times. He’s right, of course, about Africa being uncivilized, in just the ways he describes. Such an article will never appear in the MSM in this country. You can bet your sweet bibby on that.
Where he’s wrong is in thinking that black people in this hemisphere are somehow improved. When was the last time the writer left his house in Kingston and took a look around town? You can dress them in woven textiles, change their language to something more “superior”, and give them all the civil engineering infrastructure necessary to maintain a decent standard of life. But it doesn’t seem to help much.
Why would one expect that that it would help. They are hampered by something totally beyond their control, namely an average IQ whose central tendency is much lower than whites.
Posted by Lonely Jew at 5:46 AM on August 13
Duh. Tell us something we or especially blacks dont already know. Blacks in America are all well aware they struck gold but they cant let it show to upset their playing the white system so they continue to bitch and whine about slavery or racism that puts trillions in their pockets in America the Carribeans and Africa. Its all a game. Extortion to the max.
Posted by at 8:11 AM on August 13
Human evolution short circuited by medical technology and slavery. With no slavery to Brazil (the greatest importer of slaves?) hundreds of thousands of blacks would have just been killed, eaten, or who knows what?
In fact, without the whites and our ability to produce food beyond our needs in Africa, there wouldn’t BE that many blacks in or out of Africa.
Posted by Skip at 10:32 AM on August 13
I see no Afro-American movement demanding repatriation, which speaks volumes.—John
Marcus Garvey led one 80 years ago. Don’t forget to celebrate his birthday on the 17th!
Posted by at 10:37 AM on August 13
I emailed this article to as many people as I thought might actually open the link to read it.
As one other poster pointed out, Muhammed Ali did indeed say “Thank God my grandaddy got on that boat” after returning from his title fight in Africa.
The only thing that disturbs me about this piece is that it reiterates the absurd claim about “millions” of slaves dying on the voyage across the Atlantic.
The total number of slaves transported over the decades wasn’t large enough to even imagine that “millions” could perish, and still result in any significant number to arrive alive and able-bodied…besides, slave-traders had a vital and vested interest in keeping their stock-in-trade alive and healthy, so such myths and legends about millions dying on the way over are only that: Bogus myths and legends.
Posted by VigilantAmerican at 10:57 AM on August 13
When we mention “slavery” we can not forget that slavery began thousands of years ago in black Africa and later happened all over the world among every race and culture. However, when you Google the word “slavery” the hits almost exclusively focus upon America’s brief flirtation with it. Our government schools are equally as bad in skewing the facts since they are also engaged in propagandizing white guilt.
The decendents of the slaves who were brought to America live far better lives that they would have had they been born in Africa. The fact that American blacks do not return to mother Africa is proof ot that…
Posted by at 11:01 AM on August 13
I often laugh as I see angry black women driving in cars while yapping on their cell phones. These people hate Whites. The White man that invented pretty much anything and everything with a moving part has been moved to the bottom of the line with regards to the way blacks think.
These angry blacks would kill a White person as soon as look at them, they are always angry, about something.
If I was black I would be thankful and happy to be living in the land of plenty. I would be happy to have a car. I would be happy to have health insurance that was forced to be provided to me by my employer. I would be very happy to have a working cell phone. I would be happy to have a car that works. I can drive!! I would be happy to just have some food to eat.
All of these things are impossible in Africa. I am unhappy.
In Africa there are no automobiles. There is no food. There is no cell phone reception, the Evil White Man has made sure of this.
SO STOP CRYING!
Live it up!
Eat some ribs, drink a couple of 40’s, have some fun! Have you’re men folks go out and kill a couple of crackers. Just for fun.
After that come on back to home and we liberals will just pat you on the back and thank you for wasting a couple of Cracker boys.
Posted by at 11:06 AM on August 13
Another important point that has not been made here is that the so-called “African Diaspora” has been entirely due to whites (and to no other race). This demographic expansion was not achieved through blacks’ own ingenuity or adventurousness or courage or skill or intellect. If not for whites, they would still be in Africa today.
Only a few centuries ago, blacks inhabited just one continent. Within a space of only several centuries, thanks to the white man, they had expanded their hatitat from one continent to three! An explosive increase of their population and area in such a short time!
How they got here, or in what social position, is irrelevant to history. The only important fact is that they did. Now they are here. And they are even now (thanks again to the white man) in the process of expanding into a fourth continent: Europe. All of this has amounted to a free ride that was given them on the backs of others, none of it gained by their own doing.
Surely this is something unique! And deserving of scholars’ attention. I can’t think of anything else like this in the history of the world. In the past, conquering poeoples would invade new territories to find room to expand their own nations or tribes — but never to transplant another people who were unable to do it for themselves.
And now (to make it even more absurd) whites turn around and apologize, grovel, and pay recompense to those who had been transplanted to a better life that they could never have achieved on their own!
Posted by ghw at 1:45 PM on August 13
Although not a believer in any god myself, the Christianity that came with slavery and European control would be of immense value to us black people. Back in Africa, we were preoccupied with the worship of animals, trees, spirits of the dead—even stones. These primitive religions that we were practising ensured that our ancestors in Africa were backward. The relatively superior Christianity, with its greater sense of order and responsibility would help, in many ways, to pull the black man out of the Stone Age.
Hear yeh, hear yeh….the poverty pimps and race-baiters may not like to hear this but it is the truth and most importantly the magic word of responsibility is something that many people today still don’t have in their vocabulary…so let it come out for once and for all…..the institution of slavery was in many ways a blessing in disguise.
Posted by Lisette at 3:59 PM on August 13
You do not know what Africa would have become with out European interference: isolationism worked out well for Asian culture.
Slavery wasn’t bad just because of its widespread violation of human rights but because unlike other enslaved peoples, it included psychological slavery meant to impair a whole race for generations even when slavery had subsided (look up the writings of William Lynch).
I don’t know anyone personally who has gotten sit on their butts and do nothing while the government pays them for slavery. Everyone chooses their own path, but to ignore the fact that some individuals try to block others to make statistics match the mindset is just ridiculous whether you’re talking about any kind of people.
You should read the Iceman Inheritance and broaden your mind, this isn’t an American thing, it’s an unwillingness to accept cultural and physical differences.
Posted by at 4:57 PM on August 13
“In the late 1990’s, I posted an article on freerepublic.com written by an African who said that the reason Africa was a basket case was because the Atlantic slave trade had taken all the best blacks to the New World.”
Posted by sbuffalonative at 11:28 PM on August 12
Actually, that is the official black-power position. So, the enlightened progressive viewpoint. Was, anyway. That was how the head of the university black studies department told it to me anyway when I interviewed him for a diversity project at school. That was our assignment, interview someone ‘making a difference’, something like that.
I’m not surprised they can’t keep their own rhetoric straight. I guess when in doubt just blame the white folks some more. In this case, you and me.
Posted by Mathias at 5:02 PM on August 13
American blacks are civilized?
Posted by at 5:50 PM on August 13
If the out of Africa theory of human evolution is correct, then we are all Africans, in which case the whole idea of discrimination is nonsensical.
However, given that different races did evolve, at least those that left Africa, it is a relief to actually read the obvious from a black man. He is also correct in saying that the best future for blacks in the West would be to adopt Western culture as much as possible. My impression is that most blacks are not intelligent enough to recognize this and prefer to be regarded as a protected class which can attack whites with impunity while being supported by them. It is just too easy, especially for someone who has an IQ of 80.
I do not agree with the nearly universal condemnation of slavery as the worst possible condition for all peoples (after all, it involved all races and was an accepted institution in antiquity). The worst possible condition for whites in America is their current one, in which they are systematically discriminated against, and are being robbed of their own country. The equivalent would be for a black society in Africa to have masses of whites move in and forcibly displace them.
We are being displaced from our own land and are being systematically preyed upon by minorities (murdered, tortured, raped, and are treated much worse than any sane master would treat a slave because we have no value in the eyes of those who prey on us, something not at all the case under the slave system in the American South). The violent crime statistics for the US for one year, when reported accurately, represent more black on white violence than could ever have been inflicted on African slaves brought to this country. Indeed, all such black on white violence is based in racial hatred of whites and is often engaged in for pleasure.
How many white slave owners in the South raped and murdered their slaves for pleasure? For the most part, white Southern slave owners(and remember that freed blacks were also slave owners)not only treated their slaves well, but put considerable effort into bettering their condition and instilling some manner of religious sentiment in them, often teaching them to read, etc. The entire PC history of slavery in the South is a lie and perhaps one of these days, before whites are completely exterminated, that lie will be recognized.
Posted by at 9:20 PM on August 13
I see no Afro-American movement demanding repatriation, which speaks volumes.—John
Marcus Garvey led one 80 years ago. Don’t forget to celebrate his birthday on the 17th!
Posted by at 10:37 AM on August 13
How well did this work out? do you know? and did he (Garvey) go himself?
Posted by Skip at 1:07 AM on August 14
Another black man’s comments on slavery…
“Blacks were not enslaved because they were black but because they were available. Slavery has existed in the world for thousands of years. Whites enslaved other whites in Europe for centuries before the first black was brought to the Western hemisphere. Asians enslaved Europeans. Asians enslaved other Asians. Africans enslaved other Africans, and indeed even today in North Africa, blacks continue to enslave blacks.” — Thomas Sowell.
Posted by at 11:07 AM on August 14
Another black man’s comments on slavery…
“Blacks were not enslaved because they were black but because they were available.”
……………………………..
That makes sense. According to an article on this topic that I was reading during this part year (can’t recall where), the initial slaves and indentured servants sent to the New World were white. During the terrible turmoil of the Religious Wars in Europe and the British Isles, there were a great many displaced persons, orphans, and captives to fill the need for labor. For instance, Oliver Cromwell, after rampaging through Ireland, sent 30,000 Irish orphans into slavery in the West Indies (about 1640). After peace and some degree of normalcy had been restored, after about 1660, the supply of white slaves became scarcer; only then did landowners turn to imported Africans, simply because they were readily available.
Posted by ghw at 4:26 PM on August 14
“According to an article on this topic that I was reading during this part year (can’t recall where), the initial slaves and indentured servants sent to the New World were white.”
As of the mid-seventeenth century, there were more white slaves under Islam than there were African slaves in the entire Western hemisphere.
Posted by Cassiodorus at 5:42 PM on August 14
Don’t kid yourself. It was a colossal error to bring Africans to America to work those monoculture industries.
Posted by Unemployed WASP at 6:59 PM on August 19
I think your argument is based on the flawed premise that European culture was superior to the traditional African culture; I just don’t believe that. Certainly, Europe had institutions that were more elaborate and progress oriented, but I don’t know that “civilization” is that big an advance; whether Christianity is more advanced than Animism and Ancestor Worship is dubious at best.
I think if you look at the state of violence in many African countries you can see the effects of European intervention in that continent. African’s higher level of violence than most of the rest of the world is not due to their lack of civilization, but due, in my opinion, to the injection of civilization and technology into a place that was doing fine without it.
Posted by at 8:35 AM on August 26