Jacob, that's nice that Tom Jefferson had some good ideas. Luckily for you guys on FADG I'm here to take over where he left off. If you'd like to build a big statue of me next to Tom's one down on the Mall, I could upload some 3D images and give you a few choice quotes for inscriptions in marble.
He wasn't a bad bloke, but he did have slaves, which shows he wasn't really very enlightened. If he was, he'd have his slaves, but pay them enough so that they wouldn't want to leave. Hmmm, hang on, that wouldn't work. The goods they would produce would be too expensive, so wouldn't sell.
The problem was obviously that the production of people in Niger etc was too high, so the local chief sold them to the market which could make use of them instead of doing the usual, which was put them in soldier uniforms and send them off to defeat neighbouring countries in war, as was done in Europe when the value of human life was low and young males were in large surplus.
I think it was better to be a slave for Jefferson than a slave back home in Niger. Maori slaves in New Zealand had a hell of a time. At least Tom and other slave owners didn't eat their slaves, which happened in New Zealand until the British took over and put a stop to barbarism by introducing modern economic activity, which meant millions of people could be sustained at a high standard of living.
Conscription is just slavery by another name. Lt AWOL and his mates get out of it by having connections to get into the National Guard or other safe sinecures. Regular blokes get put in handcuffs, if they resist, and sent to the front lines, or imprisoned or otherwise tortured. That happened to my father's cousin in living memory [despite having been a war hero in WWI].
Cowardly slave-driving bastards.
Mqurice |
