Formal Apology for Connecticut’s History of Slavery Passes House

Meanwhile in Connecticut, the state is considering subjecting the Catholic Church to a state not way too different from slavery.

It is contradictory to apologize for something you didn’t do then turn around and say that the victims who weren’t victims can’t get reparations. It’s just a simple fact of life that remuneration is the natural consequence of the recognition of wrongdoing.

Great. Now when can we expect Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton to apologize for all the crime that is ocurring by the black people. How come every white person is blamed for slavery but we cannot blame every black person for the horrible crimes that are committed by their people across this nation? Why is it that I cannot go to Oakland, CA without being attacked by black people? Or Detroit?

At first glance this seems to be a typical pandering measure to keep blacks under control; however it may point out the ugly truth about slavery in America.
Blacks didn`t swim here from Gabon, Niger, or the Congo. They were shipped like sardines on YANKEE OWNED, YANKEE CREWED, YANKEE INSURED, slave ships. The triangular trade made Boston rich. Faniuel Hall where the Sons of Liberty planned their conspiracies was built with slave trade money. John Hancock`s father made the Hancocks the richest family in America north of Mount Vernon. This money came form slaving.
The Yankees had just as much blood on their hypocrit hands as we southenors did. If the clowns at Hartford bring this to light at last, maybe it will be more than just a black vote hustle.
Charles B. Tiffany
Kissimmee, Florida

Whites make a fool of themselves like this because they always think that “racist” is something the other guy is. If you called any of these individuals “racist,” based, say, on their choice of neighborhood, they would be outraged. Yet they have no problem declaring their ancestors or whites in general racist. Pathetic.

“Voice vote is followed by self-congratulatory applause.”

Really hilarious.

They’re apologizing for doing nothing wrong to people who haven’t a legitimate grievance.

My laugh for the day.

Who cares what black folks think? Aren’t their enough upstanding citizens already concerned with them? But if you did care, wouldn’t this seem just a little big phony and hollow to them? It’s only 160 years too late.

There is no question that slavery is an abomination. So were 19th Century sweat shops and childhood labor.

But the happy reality which emerges from our history of black slavery is that the descendants of those slaves now enjoy the highest standard of living of any black Africans in the world, and by a huge factor.

I doubt that many would elect to be returned to Africa, even at taxpayer expense, though certainly a good many taxpayers would find that an appealing proposition.

Certainly, if the question could be put to a vote American blacks would find themselves on their way back to the Dark Continent forthwith.

They are an enormous burden borne by whites and other minority races, who may someday tire of their lack of productivity, their criminality, their chronic indolence, and their clear hatred of the society that has nurtured, supported, and subsidized them.

The evidence suggests strongly that they simply have no place in a modern civilization.

I am surprised that there are so many living slave holders left to apologize. And even more surprised that there are any former slaves alive to apologize to!!!!

Life expectancy in this country is amazing!

Connecticut as with the rest of New England, is a region of strange dualities. Example: Let’s formally apologize for slavery on one hand, but ensure our suburbs remain as white as possible on the other.
White liberals in Connecticut are great at lip-service about race, but don’t try to put those blacks and other non-whites in “their” suburban communities, neighborhoods or backyards.

I actually love New England’s history, forests, seasons, mountains, customs, and folkways. But its liberal entrenchment and politics I purely despise.

GNW

At first glance this seems to be a typical pandering measure to keep blacks under control; however it may point out the ugly truth about slavery in America.
Blacks didn`t swim here from Gabon, Niger, or the Congo. They were shipped like sardines on YANKEE OWNED, YANKEE CREWED, YANKEE INSURED, slave ships. The triangular trade made Boston rich. Faniuel Hall where the Sons of Liberty planned their conspiracies was built with slave trade money. John Hancock`s father made the Hancocks the richest family in America north of Mount Vernon. This money came form slaving.
The Yankees had just as much blood on their hypocrit hands as we southenors did. If the clowns at Hartford bring this to light at last, maybe it will be more than just a black vote hustle.
Charles B. Tiffany
Kissimmee, Florida

The above is exactly the rationale afromarxists like obama take the wealth of the industrialists to redistribute to the exploited ones. Once you grant the ‘guilt rationale’ you are in a losing battle for the moral highground.

Traditionalists and socalled republicans and libertarians will only impact the political process when they adopt the alinsky and gramsci methods of thought control social control power control.

Expecting fair play among ethnics is like altruism, a fatal europoid trait.

How about Congress apologizing for a history of STUPIDITY. At least it would be an opinion based on something real.

Whites apologizing for slavery? Shouldn’t blacks be thankful for all the Connecticut boys who died ending it?

Wow, I didn`t know I as aiding the afro-marxists whoever the heck they are. I also failed to understand how my brainwashed head was manipulated to aid in Obama`s plan to redistribute the wealth. I understand now, I think. By the time Obama took over Bush and his band of blood sucking big business pals had already redistributed my IRAS, home value, and about 40% of all the money I`d saved in 35 years of working to keep people from getting what most well merited.
I wrote my slave trading post hoping to shut up and shame about 25 million officious loud mouthed rude and arrogant Yankees. The people who may crude jokes about how my Scots-Irish kin make dates at family reunions and treat blacks like dog pound pit bull curs.
Since Obama does not have a single gene of an African American unless it came from his mother`s side, he is more likely to be the descendent of slave traders than slaves. I indirectly may have been insulting him. If being something called an altruistic fatal europoid is a bad thing I confess that I am one.However on my long list of character flaws it probably doesn`t rank any worse than about half way down.
Charles B. Tiffany
Kissimmee, Florida

It’s just a simple fact of life that remuneration is the natural consequence of the recognition of wrongdoing.

It is also the accepted and invited way of dealing with blacks. No matter the complaint, blacks can be bought off, even the muslim converts can be bought off.

I am surprised that there are so many living slave holders left to apologize. And even more surprised that there are any former slaves alive to apologize to!!!!

I think that at least two congressmen are old enough to have OWNED slaves, that would be Kennedy and Specter to name just two.

After a 75-minute debate, the House declared its intentions on a voice vote.

{snip}

The measure passed resoundingly, and legislators broke into applause.

They then went to the hair dressers for a touch up, manicure and out to eat with a favorite prostitute.

Business as usual.

Slavery is perhaps the lowest form of industry, no wonder it prevailed so well amongst blacks. While it is well known that slavery existed in one form or another in all ancient cultures, it is blacks we think of when we think of slave. What else would a non progressive culture export if not their own captured brethren? The Romans also had slaves…but notice the difference in teatment of the intelligent slaves that were used as tutors for children of nobility as opposed to others that lacked cultivation. The orient and western cultures had various industries which products elevated and maintained higher culture(Social Evolution). These products were traded and sold, creating more expanding social evolutian across various cultures. The black mans offer in this process, was his captured brethren that he kept bound as animals and sold without moral qualm to any puchaser, he pimped out his race to the more accomplished races stupid enough to take the bait…which WE unfortunately did to our perpetual consternation! I despise cruelty as a way of life in any of its forms concerning any peoples or animals, but we humans have brains and free choice. It is my observation that people reap what they have sown. We should all be sorry for the fact that we imported blacks here under the circumstances that transpired, no doubt we debased ourselves by this immoral choice and have suffered ever since. By going with the harlot we infected ourselves with a plight, a black plague. The black slavers prostituted their race to us and we complied, we surely owe appology formost to ourselves amongst others.

What? I thought CT went for Obama? Didn’t that soothe the wounded consciences of CT’s liberals? I guess it wasn’t enough to elect a marxist who is transferring money from Whites to the “downtrodden.”

Since slavery began with the blacks in Africa thousands of years before they ever saw their first white man when are the black African tribes going to formally apologize to one another for enslaving one another. Black on black slavery continues in Africa continues to this day, however, the news media (with the exception of the BBC website) refuses to report it.

I suppose American politicians will also eventually formally apologize to the Red Chinese slaves for utilizing communist slave labor to manufacture the Western products that American corporations used to pay the American middle-class to manufacture…

How utterly irrelevant these politicians are becoming. They haven’t a clue about the issues, TODAY, that they need to address concerning those they are supposed to represent. It’s nothing but delusion to think that the two party system of this nation will ever “fix” anything in the United States.

It is easy to talk about the abomination that slavery was from a 21st century viewpoint; however, it is necessary to look at it from the 17th century viewpoint. Slavery was an extension of the concept of “manifest destiny” which was accepted by both the religions and secular governments of the day. Back then, it was also seen as a way to “christianize” heathens and bring them to “salvation”. As wrong as that was, THAT’S THE WAY IT WAS.

Some of our black friends on this blog might be interested to know that THEIR OWN PEOPLE “sold” them into slavery. During tribal conflicts the conquered quite often were “sold” into slavery by the victors. There is a black professor that is a docent at one of the embarkation points in Africa. American blacks who take the tour are shocked when she tells them that THEIR OWN PEOPLE sold their ancestors into slavery.
Another aspect to slavery is that “blacks” were quite often the LARGEST and MOST SUCCESSFUL slave “traders”. The movie “Amistad”, which chronicled the successful bid for freedom by slaves off a mutinied ship left out one important fact. As it was based on a true story, after gaining his freedom, the principle character “Cinque”, made many trips back to Africa to procure slaves. He ended up being one of the most successful black “slave traders” at that time.
Alex Haley’s inaccurate depiction of the “slave trade” has done MORE to poison “race relations” between the various races and blacks than any other medium. His depiction of the “white european” chasing and capturing slaves was DEAD WRONG. Slave procurement was done through tribal elders.
Persons of color (blacks) please check these thing out for yourselves. You will find that these things are TRUE.

It is a fact that “indentured servants” (whites who agreed to work for a period of time to pay off their passage to the “new world”) were treated MUCH WORSE than slaves. Slaves were considered “too valuable” to be put in “dangerous situations”. As the indentured servant’s servitude was for a certain period of time, many more were available, they were given the most dangerous work.
By 18th century standards, most slaves had it pretty good (for their situation.
Another stereotype with no basis in fact is the picture of the southern antebellum mansion with the owner sipping pina coladas while his “slaves” worked the fields. More often than not, the slave owner was IN THE FIELDS along with his charges; life was difficult for all at that time. It is easy to judge slavery and life in general by 21st century terms. Such a judgement does nothing to advance the TRUTH.
Fact: there were MORE slaves (and slave traders) in the NORTH than in the south.
Fact: lincoln’s “emancipation proclamation” only applied to the southern states that seceded. It did NOT apply to the northern states.
Check it out for yourselves.

Would the outcome have been the same had it been a secret ballot?

I am so glad that Yankees, (God’s gift to mankind), have finally found it in themselves to apologize about SOMETHING. Since an apology presumes that they recognize something they did was wrong, I guess we can all agree that they are not perfect. Having not only brought slaves to America on their ships and made huge profits on their transport, they then turned around and prospered even more on slave picked cotton right up to and during the Civil War. Naturally, they used this cotton in their mills to produce those wonderful blue uniforms worn by Yankee liberators as they destroyed the evil Southerner who presumed to ALSO make money on the enterprise of slavery. It is still to be seen whether or not this act of contrition on the part of the Yankees will also result in a transfer of Yankee money to the “victims” (whoever they are). God knows the South has already paid the price.

In the 17th and 18th Centuries, many of these white indentured servants did not come voluntarily. They were often kidnapped off the streets of Great Britain and other European countries, and sold at auctions in the American colonies, just like kidnapped Africans were. A good book about this subject is “White Cargo.”

What would happen if a filmmaker like Oliver Stone or Steven Spielberg, had the courage to stand to up to conventional historians by making a movie about colonial era kidnapped white indentured servants? Perhaps, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ewan Magregor, Russel Crowe, Elijah Wood, or Zac Ephron could play the part of a white person kidnapped by these impressement gangs.

Or what if a courageous filmmaker also had the courage to make a historically accurate movie about pre-Civil War American slavery in which the master, himself is a free black man, who works in the fields just as hard, along with his slaves? Would the filmmaker making such a movie, have to be black to get away with it, just as Mel Brooks got away with making “The Producers” a production that made audiences laugh at Hitler, because of his being Jewish?

Blacks and the Original Position

The idea that blacks are owed an apology, never mind reparations, is based on poor legal and moral reasoning. It includes the false presumption that blacks had a legal right to be here, and that therefore enslaving them was wrong. They did not. Immigration policy up until 1965 was very restricted, and there is no constitutional right to open immigration. That is rather a congressional matter. Nor would Northern whites have ever accepted black immigration en masse in colonial times or after the Revolution. There was no practical or legal possibility of blacks becoming Americans other than through slavery when slavery was in force.

Where blacks have to start their reasoning process is rather from their “original position.” That is, moral and legal harm depends on what condition a person or people were in in the original state, before alleged immoral acts occurred. For blacks this was not as residents of colonial America and the United States, but as residents of Africa. In other words, their true options were not between slavery and civil liberty, but between being free in Africa and enslaved in the U.S., to undergo centuries of slavery and segregation before they could achieve civil rights. The question to ask is, if they had the choice, which life would they choose for their enslaved ancestors?

If they choose a free life in Africa, neither they nor their predecessors would ever have lived here. Any grounds for complaint about being enslaved here simply would not arise. They would be African still, not Americans seeking apologies or reparations.

If they choose life in America even if it means accepting slavery as the only way to live here, then they also relinquish their and their ancestors’ claims to any apology or reparations from the start. They have accepted that slavery was the only way they and their ancestors could become American.

Restoring blacks to their original position, in turn, would mean they return to Africa, with some kind of reparations for their ancestors if enslavement was immoral or illegal at the time in their original societies. Considering that civil rights were most likely poorly established in Africa during the era of slavery, it would be hard to argue reparations are due. Any right of reparations would in turn require returning to Africa; staying here would indicate a willingness to accept slavery for their ancestors insofar as it provided eventual American citizenship for themselves.

Seen practically, as opposed to theoretically, ahistorically, and unrealistically, the choices for blacks surrounding slavery are very limited. They cannot, if blacks and others want to be honest, be based in possibilities and circumstances that were non-existent. Simply put, the vast majority of blacks would not be here were it not for slavery. As a result, white guilt, apologetics, and reparations should also not exist. The pathetic prostrations of the Connecticut state legislature and numerous other bodies around the United States before the idol of infamy we know as slavery are more a symptom of grave moral illness than of moral rectitude and precision, assuming we put all mention of the influence of systematic political propaganda aside. Whites may owe American blacks the rights they would accord any human beings, but they do not owe apologies or reparations for the institution of slavery. Slavery was the unfortunate means by which most blacks were able to become Americans. Slavery, not civil rights, was their only ticket to citizenship.

Please replace the first sentence of “Blacks and the Original Position” with this if you don’t mind: The idea that blacks are owed an apology, never mind reparations, for slavery is based on poor legal and moral reasoning.

I added the words “for slavery.” Thanks if you can do this.
Separatist

Great North Woods.

I believe you’re right. I am a little too young to remember, but wasn’t it Boston that really went nuts during the bussing integration period in the 70’s?

I am a African Ameriacn Male i find your comments ridcoules and ignorent. Must of you i am sure have no understanding of the pschological and social damage of 200 years of slavery and another 100 of organzied racisam on a stolen people. That built this country from the ground up by force it makes no sense that you would feel any right to critzize our comment at all for a simple sorry for the actions of the past. What you dont understand is that its not for us many blacks are not walking around on a daily dissing whites and crying about slavery we respect and understand are past and use it to better ourselves. We hope not only for our people to move forward but for this nation to move foward this country we built right next to you whites the same blood is mixed in this nation. You must understand this…. Monte Butler SouthCentral L.A. 17 years old

“I am a African Ameriacn Male”

Dear ‘African Ameriacn Male’:

I have found the majority of this site’s comments to be very thoughtful. In no way do I think they are ‘redicuous’. You are 17, huh? You challange Whites to empathize with Blacks over the history of slavery. How has it affected you? What challanges are you having to overcome in such a racist society?

Here’s one for you. This country was built by Whites…no if’s and’s or but’s. Yet, today, we play down our own heritage even apologize for it and exaggerate the contributions of non-whites. I guess this makes the minorities feel better. If you took Blacks and whatever they contributed out of the equation of the history of the country, my bet is we would be much better off. Blacks take way more that they give.

I was alive during the Root’s movie in a 50% Black high school. It was a nightmare. The stupidity of the movie and the historical lies did nothing more than to strain already strained race relations. I remember even before the movie Blacks line up and down the halls throwing oranges back and forth as white student were going to class. I used to really hate them but I am comforted by the fact that most, if not all, are either dead or in jail. Of course it’s somehow the White man’s fault. I for one have had enough of the apologies, the celebration mediocre performance of Blacks that displaced a better qualified White, the lack of accountability, the handouts and especially the sense of entitlement from Blacks just for breathing and reproducing.

Most of the Whites you are addressing have been around a lot longer than 17 years and have experienced a lot of negative interactions with Blacks. Not all experiences are bad but enough to know that there are common denominators that seem to be ignored. Most of the people on this site prefer their own kind.

Perhaps Blacks should empathize with Whites which is something totally unheard. You know Whites are always going to be the heavy. Hey I got one, how come we are not called European Americans? Oh, I forgot, we don’t deserve it.

I could say a lot more and I do apologize for the ramble but you did strike a nerve.

The world is on fire and all the average White can do is worry about what Britney is doing.