I totally agree with you on the fact that some African tribes were used by European slave traders to do the dirty work
Apparently you don't. Because that's not what I said. These African tribal rulers were not "used" by the Europeans.
The Europeans merely bought slaves that would have been killed (or locally enslaved) anyway...
These tribes were constantly at war, just as were American Indian tribes. This had been their status for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
So Colin Powell should probably thank his lucky stars that his ancestors were sold into slavery instead of killed outright by the warlike neighbors.
And btw... that's not meant as an excuse for ANYONE to buy and sell slaves, because that's clearly inexcusable, just as modern day slavery in Sudan is reprehensible.
But since we're seeing few reports of such slavery being discussed in even our modern news media, I hardly can see where anyone has the right to preach about the human condition and mindset of 200 to 300 hundred years ago. If we accept it as "normal", or not newsworthy now, why should anyone believe that our ancestors thought it was abnormal then?
And it completely ignores the slavery that has existed in Europe. The very term "slave" is derived from "Slav", who were dragged into bondage by the Ottoman Turks.
Heck.. the entire Hebrew nation was in Egytian Slavery.. Should the Jews forever require Egypt to repay them for the bondage they were subjected to thousands of years ago?
Take a moment and educate yourself on the history of slavery from this link I bookmarked some time ago when having this debate with others:
fordham.edu
Hawk |
