td, we have been through this. White indentured servitude was not the same as Negro chattel slavery.
Children from the streets of London pre dated blacks arriving on America's shores and working in the tobacco fields. By the way. Helped out a neighbor once planting tobacco when I lived in southern Ontario's tobacco belt. His people hadn't arrived yet and the crop had to be transplanted. It's hell on earth. And that's in this century with modern equipment. OMG it was unreal. I worked day and night to help him. My husband came home from work and hit the fields with us. You bet people died in the fields back then to produce a crop. I had beer after a long day.

those poor souls didn't. Honest. It's horrible.
OK back to white cargo. When you are eight years old and picked up off the streets and jammed onto a ship you are not an indentured servant mmmmmmmkay?
Now those poor urchins were just the tip of the iceberg Jake. Cromwell bloody well shipped off something like one third of the population of Ireland to become slaves in the *cough* new world.
Now Jake what you have to remember is I am not excusing black slavery whatsoever. Not at all. Look. The Brits got their hands on the John Deeres in their time and went wild out of Africa.
Think about it. It wasn't racism to choose a strapping black young man and pay way more money over a scrawny white Irish man who'd give you lip and couldn't work near as hard.
It just made sense that if you could afford the black you would damn well buy him. John Deere baby for the fields.
As disgusting as that sounds, that was the bloody truth of it.
Now to excuse themselves of course they had to somehow make themselves believe that the black was less than them. I want to bazooka barf at this part of our history.
But Jake we also have to embrace the better part of our souls and rise up and celebrate that compared to many on this little planet of ours, we recognized that slavery was evil and we put an end to it with many lives lost on many a battlefield.
I've been to Gettysburg Jake. My dad bless his soul was the penultimate "learn something when you travel" dad. Other kids were going to Disney. My dad took me to places like Gettysburg oh and dragged me all around DC many times.
I watched Arlington sadly grow in the sixties when I was a kid because every year we came back up the coast, we'd go to the Kennedy graves.
I digressed there. Fond memories of climbing the Needle with my pop too.
You ever been there? It's awesome. Washington is like living and breathing history. It:s unreal.
Ok back to slavery. When I bring up the white slaves from the Brits please don't ever think I am in any way excusing the horrors of black slavery.
Not at all. I just want to see both included in history. And most importantly to have a true discussion on slavery not only as it happened then but as it is happening today.
I think that unless we get down and dirty and lay it all on the line we will never move forward.