Civil War History - Secession and PoliticsWas it Slavery, or was it States Rights? Perhaps it was the election of Lincoln? What were the real reasons for Southern Secession and what were the political issues in this time of war? Find your answers here in the Secession and Politics Disussion.
They denounced horrors of slavery...while proudly slaughtering the Indian savage? Neither is right however, that never stopped our leaders from lying, cheating, stealing, and killing the American Indian.
If the Indian were the slave and the Negro the Indian... than I am sure we would have been slaughtering the savage Negro while attempting to free the Indian from their evil masters in the South.
So, does color really have anything to due with it?
Yes, the black man was a slave and the Red man an Indian both seen as an inferior species and neither white.
__________________ Few take the trouble to understand or to view the American scene with perspective. And we Americans love to find ourselves guilty of something. However, it is never I who am guilty, but those other Americans, the past or present government or the other political party. Americans almost never find other countries guilty. It is always ourselves or our fancied influence in other countries. Louis L'amour
As a people, and not different from any global other, we have acted shamefully in the past, since, and presently. So what else is new?
It was and is the nature of the beast. There has never been proof that any color is inferior. And, if you want to get into anthropological discussions, it might be considered that some colors are superior in one area and other colors in another. It becomes moot. We're all on the same planet and must find a way to put these inclinations behind us, if possible.
Ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
I think colour has everything to do with it, and seeing human beings as objects. Skin colour provided a religious like justification that planted the seed of the Manifest Destiny and this philosophy can be traced back to 1492.
If you want cheap labour and more land, the only possible way that you can reconcile this (and relieve guilt) is by devaluing people as individuals, whether those people are Mexican, Black, or Indian. John O'Sullivan further galvanized this ideal in 1845: ..."Manifest Destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions."
Many scientists tried to prove in the 1850's that non-white people were less than human...it was in their interests to do so. But good question Sean.
Ignorance breeds fear. Even though there were abolishionists out there trying to free the negros, we still feared what they would do once freed. Where would they live, what would they do to support their families, would they turn on us, and the list goes on. With the Indians, again it was fear. They feared the white man and his ways, as we feared them and their customes. The unknown is what scared people, and then you get one or two out there who speak out on behalf of the majority and spread that fear. It is a vicious cycle, and unfortunately human nature. It happened in WWII, it happend during Vietnam, it happend after 9/11, and still happens today. We have no control, and that is what scares people into action whether it be good or bad.
In my humble opinion, the white man, in his arrogance, has always presumed that he is the superior of all the races. Couple that with his tunnel vision that HIS religion/religions and HIS customs are never inferior to any other human being on this or any other planet, and we always wind up with bloodshed. And the white man, I believe I'm right in saying this, is always the aggressor first.
Look what we did to the Native Americans when we came to this country. With such a worthy start, we went on a gradual rampage against any other race that we have encountered.
But even during the preceding centuries the white man has always been the predator, it's in his very nature.
The term "We Come in Peace" is a joke. The only way we would have come in peace is if anyone or thing that crossed our path immediately gave away their lands, their food, their women and anything at all of value.
The hypocrisy of the white man is appalling.
__________________ Thea
No one has permission to use any material from any of my posts on any CWT forum, the archives, or any other forum without my express written permission.
Thea... I believe a study of any race will garner the same result. Whether the Native American, Chinese, Arab, Moor etc... White Europeans did nothing different than Native Americans to other Native Americans or Black African Tribesman to other Black African Tribesman. A few decades before the Lakota were driven from the Black Hills they drove out the Kiowa and the Kiowa had driven another tribe out beore that.
The hypocrisy of the Human Being is appaling. The blame game of "it's all somebody's fault" or the far more popular "It's all America's fault" is a result of a downward spiral of the American education system.
It isn't difficult to find references to Native American gatherings where the discussion of a need to rise up and kill all the white people was broked and it was agreed upon as being a necessity... noone ever decided upon how to go about it.
In short as long as people are not content with what they have and can be manipulated into believing that what someone else has is rightfully theirs... things won't change.
"Rome is ruled by those that lurk in shadow." It was an axiom in the time of Caesar and it is no less appropriate today. The more we change the more we stay the same.
__________________ Few take the trouble to understand or to view the American scene with perspective. And we Americans love to find ourselves guilty of something. However, it is never I who am guilty, but those other Americans, the past or present government or the other political party. Americans almost never find other countries guilty. It is always ourselves or our fancied influence in other countries. Louis L'amour
A book has recently been published which contains the memoirs of a slave. A man who was plucked from his home by men of a different colour and taken by ship to a life of toil and terror on another continent.
What makes it particularly interesting is that he was white and from Cornwall, England. And his captors were Arabs. And he was far from unique. I believe that 25,000 white European slaves were held in the city of Algiers alone. You can find a review of this book, which is entitled "White Gold" at http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=2681 (This is one of many reviews, and I have chosen it at random)
It sheds an interesting light on the idea that Caucasians are uniquely guilty in their treatment of other races.
Sadly, covert slavery still exists within our country. The sex slave industry is still booming within the confines of our country. Slavery is occuring at this very moment within our borders. Yet, most Americans due not realize the gravity of the situation.
More importantly, the resources to combat the problem are just not there.
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