Right. So instead of blaming the US for slavery, blame the bloody Spanish who were first here with slaves. The bastards!So it was not the American's fault, right?Slave traders --- which existed everywhere --- in Africa, were still not cramming their human commodities into vessels to send them to another continent where the victims would have no connection with the land or the culture. What you're trying to refer to here without saying it, because it's inconvenient, is TransAtlantic slave traders. That --- the bold part --- was what made this particular slavery different from all others. That, and the concept of "slave for life" by simple virtue of one's race. NONE of that was present in previous slavery systems in Africa, Asia, Europe or Native America.
To be transported in chains to a foreign shore that may as well have been another planet, utterly unfamiliar in climate, culture, language, etc, was the ultimate control-freak subjugation of human chattel. Slavery over the millennia of human history derived from the spoils of war, not from cockamamie ideas of "race". That latter idea began with Columbus (who tried to enslave Indians and sent them back to Europe as "specimens") and left the launchpad of reason with the Spanish, French, British and Portuguese merchants dealing in human lives --- in other words, it derives from the greed of profit.
And by the way this part here:
>> This August marked 400 years since the first documented enslaved Africans arrived in the U.S. In 1619, a ship reached the Jamestown settlement in the colony of Virginia, carrying “some 20 and odd Negroes” who were kidnapped from their villages in present-day Angola. <<
... is off by 93 years. The first enslaved Africans were brought to (what is now) the US, South Carolina specifically, in 1526. The happy ending is that this particular group revolted and escaped to live among the Native Americans. Needless to say, the US did not exist in 1526 or 1619, so it's erroneous on that basis as well.
wrong again POGOID ----the slave trade monopolized by Arab slave traders for
MILLENNIA supplied chattel slaves THRUOUT north Africa, and ASIA ---and parts of Europe for MILLENNIA -------true the slaves were rarely kidnapped---but MOSTLY they were purchased from African chieftains FOR MILLENNIA ----some slaves were non Africans------kidnapped by arab slave traders on the high seas or even from the BALKANS-----learn some history-------CHATTEL SLAVES -----with
-----very few if any rights at all-------and SKIN COLOR was a big issue thruout
it was not America's invention. Those people who ENGAGED in the barbaric
use of slavery -----did the barbaric thing that they did
"America", depending on what you mean by that, didn't even exist. The American continents of course did, but land masses don't come up with ideas. Again the TransAtlantic slave trade was capitalism gone wild, treating human beings as commodities and inventing the whole "inferior race" song and dance as justification for it. Such justification was sorely needed, as conscientious contemporaries voiced objections to the practice all the way back to Bartholomé de las Casas in the 1400s.
As in anything else, the fable was invented to excuse away the inhumanity. There were riches to be made in the then-new continents of America, and unscrupulous merchants were more than ready to line their own pockets. Simple as that.
Of course if by "America" we mean "The United States of...." that didn't even come into being until TransAtlantic African slavery was an established institution on the continents for almost three hundred years.
And AGAIN once again AGAIN --- the US did not exist when transAtlantic slaving established. It didn't exist in the 16th century. It didn't exist in the 17th century. It didn't exist until the END of the 18th century. Linear time therefore dictates that the US could not have started the slave trade. Maybe that's why NOBODY CLAIMED IT DID.
JESUS CHRIST ON A BICYCLE