The Forgotten History of Britain's White Slaves in America

[task0778]

Indentured servants aren't slaves. That's just a myth perpetrated by some people who want to make themselves feel better. If one feels bad when taught history, is it history's fault or do you need to look inside your own psyche to find the cause?

Were you born stupid or did you grow into it

Indentured servants voluntarily signed a contract to work for somebody for a certain number of years. A slave is a sold piece of property that had no say at all in the process until he/she dies. To say they are the same thing is nonsense.

Wrong! Many indentured servants in the UK came from debtors prisons and their signing a contract was hardly "voluntary." It was their way to getting themselves and their families free from economic tyranny.

Many indentured servants did have a choice and an eventual end to their contract, as opposed to a slave who had no choice at all and whose only end to their slavery was death. That's a pretty big difference IMHO.

 

[Slash]

Wrong! Many indentured servants in the UK came from debtors prisons and their signing a contract was hardly "voluntary." It was their way to getting themselves and their families free from economic tyranny.

Wasn't the number in the hundreds according to UK census numbers of who entered that way... Vs. the MILLIONS of slaves?

And I had buddies when I was in the military told by a judge, they'd either get the book thrown at them in a sentencing, or they could join the military as a diversion program and sign a 4 year contract for measly pay forced to do work that they may not want to. So are you saying the US Army is similar to chattel slavery?

But like you said, it was their way of getting themselves out of debt, around a 5-7 year term. For slaves it was how they were going to live in perpetuity unless it was changed. Indentured servants could have kids that were theirs, get paid, have religious freedom, cultural freedom.

 

[Slash]

The Confederacy only lasted for about four years. The flag that flew from the stern of slave ships for 200 years was the Union Jack and later the Stars and Stripes.

Seeing as the slave trade act that banned any US ship from legally transporting slaves was signed into law by George Washington, it didn't take the US as long as you think to ban the slave trade. Granted they had an illegal slave trade, but mostly the south built their slave numbers through stealing babies once the US was a country.

Of course there was a group known as "fire eaters" in the south who felt that owning slaves was a God given right and that the slave trade should be opened. One of them created the confederate battle flag. That would be the only group that ever wanted to get back into the slave trade business in the US.

 

[longknife]

Wrong! Many indentured servants in the UK came from debtors prisons and their signing a contract was hardly "voluntary." It was their way to getting themselves and their families free from economic tyranny.

Wasn't the number in the hundreds according to UK census numbers of who entered that way... Vs. the MILLIONS of slaves?

And I had buddies when I was in the military told by a judge, they'd either get the book thrown at them in a sentencing, or they could join the military as a diversion program and sign a 4 year contract for measly pay forced to do work that they may not want to. So are you saying the US Army is similar to chattel slavery?

But like you said, it was their way of getting themselves out of debt, around a 5-7 year term. For slaves it was how they were going to live in perpetuity unless it was changed. Indentured servants could have kids that were theirs, get paid, have religious freedom, cultural freedom.

Your buddies weren't the only ones - I was one of them. Was on probation for GTA and the judge told me I could either serve out my time in jail - or enlist in the military. Never ever dreamed it would last 23 years.

 

[Scamp]

Of course white people where slaves. We got over it.

 

[Scamp]

The Confederacy only lasted for about four years. The flag that flew from the stern of slave ships for 200 years was the Union Jack and later the Stars and Stripes.

Seeing as the slave trade act that banned any US ship from legally transporting slaves was signed into law by George Washington, it didn't take the US as long as you think to ban the slave trade. Granted they had an illegal slave trade, but mostly the south built their slave numbers through stealing babies once the US was a country.

Of course there was a group known as "fire eaters" in the south who felt that owning slaves was a God given right and that the slave trade should be opened. One of them created the confederate battle flag. That would be the only group that ever wanted to get back into the slave trade business in the US.

Banning the slave trade worked as well as banning drugs. Fast ships from the North still kept going to Africa and bringing slaves back to the US. It was all about money.

 

[Slash]

Banning the slave trade worked as well as banning drugs. Fast ships from the North still kept going to Africa and bringing slaves back to the US. It was all about money.

Not sure where you got your numbers on it's effectiveness. The book Africans in the Old South: Mapping Exceptional Lives Across the Atlantic World makes the case for around 50,000 slaves brought in in the 56 years before slavery was abolished. Considering 4 million slaves before the Civil War, that means that the slave trade was accounting for around 1% of the slave business. Rape/Breeding had the rest. And considering 12.5 million slaves in the atlantic slave trade, that means the illegal slave trade to the US was about 0.4% of that.

It was about money yes, that's why criminals did it.

But what's your point there?