Slave Breeding; Fact or Fiction

[timewalker]

Blue:

Thanks for the sites. I will have to check them out. I fully admit that this is not an area I know much about. Most of what I know I learned here on the forum.

I guess I have some reading to do.

[larry_cockerham]

Originally Posted by ole

Excellent questions Blue, and I expected some of them. Other than the stories about Forrest and his trading days, I have no idea, but I can assure you that nothing was taken from a 20th or 21st perspective.I suppose it could be, but the author was rather convincing that it was because of his trading.I don't suppose that you would be surprised that I disagree. Aristocrats, of any stripe, invent their own rules. Every year the planters borrowed money from norther financiers and paid it back when they harvested. And they had the nads to resent having to do so. In an atmosphere like that, there is nothing impossible.In my cobwebbed mind, there is no question that those planters whose land was playing out were selling slaves down the river. The question is, were some raising slaves as a profit center?A little of this, a little of that. I do see, or think I do, some truth to the supposition. I could be trying to bunt when a man is on first and there are two outs. But I also think that the aristocrat is predictable. Flip him over and you know where he's going to land.

But these are my thoughts. And, I ramble.

ole

Probably the most insight as to Forrest's time in Memphis is in Andrew Wyeth's account if I remember correctly. Forrest got himself elected to a couple of terms as Memphis alderman. That tells me two things. He had money. He had friends. He was no Rhodes scholar (although Rhodes college is in Memphis). You gotta remember that he was in Memphis, not Boston. His reputation for kindness and at least fairness in his business ventures was not all smokescreen, if at all. He, during the long war, exhibited many human and humane traits when at rest or between bouts of trying to kill folks.

[larry_cockerham]

Originally Posted by ole

Had to back to see where I'd mistyped that -- get aging fingers on the wrong home key and you get ike. But I see now that it wasn't my aging fingers playing tricks.

ole

It was your fingers, down in one of the newcomer posts. Slide the right hand to the left one key and ol becomes ik. The e sneaked out of the left hand in the right place. Who's on first?