Slavery
It Didn't Begin in America
Remember, never feel guilt for things you have not done. Foisting the guilt of slavery on you is a technique of the control freaks.
Like war, slavery appears to have been around at least as long as recorded history, and probably before that. In fact it's related to war; what do you do with all of those POWs?
In my essay entitled “Some Disjointed Thoughts on War” I included a thought experiment concerning what would happen if true anarchy reigned, and I said that I thought you would have thousands of warlords, each king of his tiny domain, and that over time the winners would control more and more until eventually nation states would re-emerge. I would now enlarge that proposition to include the re-emergence of slavery; it would again become a normal part of society.
https://drp314.substack.com/p/some-disjointed-thoughts-on-war
Above economist Thomas Sowell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sowell
In the interview linked below, Sowell explains that slavery is not racist in nature, and is a matter of people enslaving others who are vulnerable. In general it was simply those who were able to capture and enslave others, and it was world wide. The frightening takeaway is that we are surrounded by members of the human race who would enslave us if they could, since I don't think human nature has changed. In fact, human trafficking and slavery are prevalent, but not as official government policy. It was only after long distance travel became common and practical that the enslaving by race came into being.
During the time of the European slave trade, about which we are assured that we as Americans must feel massive guilt, white run slave ships would land in Africa and buy slaves, but it would have been nearly impossible for them to travel into the interior on a slaving mission since the tribes and their chiefs would not allow it. The white European slave traders simply bought them from the Africans.
Whites as well as blacks have been enslaved, as well as people everywhere of every race, and usually the slavers were enslaving those of the same race. In fact Sowell explains that before the Civil War one out of every three people of color in New Orleans were slave owners.
For the sake of political advantage the myth has been promulgated that slavery is and was a race based operation, and that we in America are inherently racist, a useful political tool.
"Blacks were not enslaved because they were black but because they were available. Slavery has existed in the world for thousands of years. Whites enslaved other whites in Europe for centuries before the first black was brought to the Western hemisphere. Asians enslaved Europeans. Asians enslaved other Asians. Africans enslaved other Africans, and indeed even today in North Africa, blacks continue to enslave blacks." ~ Thomas Sowell
There is presently slavery in the world. It's enough to make one despair of the human race, we don't want it to go back to being a recognized institution. There is now human trafficking and slavery being carried out by shadowy, or not so shadowy, criminal organizations. (Carrying a concealed firearm is probably a good idea in case human traffickers try to abduct you or your children.)
In June of 1631 the fishermen of Baltimore, Ireland went out to sea to fish. Upon their return at the end of the day they found most of the villagers gone; they had been captured by Muslim raiders so as to be sold into slavery. This was hardly an isolated incident. Although Muslim raiding and piracy were predominantly in the Mediterranean Sea, Europe, England, Ireland and even Iceland suffered such slaver raids.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Baltimore
https://jddavies.com/2017/02/20/the-barbary-corsair-raid-on-iceland-1627/
Since the impulse to enslave one's fellow man seems to be universal, we must realize that those in power will probably not shy away from turning their citizens from citizens into subjects if they can. (There is a bumper sticker that says, to paraphrase, that armed people are citizens but unarmed people are subjects.) Always those in power will move to put their people under tighter control.
A recipe for doing so was given by Saul Alinsky:
How To Create A Socialist State
by Saul Alinsky
1) Healthcare — Control healthcare and you control the people
2) Poverty — Increase the Poverty level as high as possible, poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing everything for them to live.
3) Debt — Increase the debt to an unsustainable level. That way you are able to increase taxes, and this will produce more poverty.
4) Gun Control — Remove the ability to defend themselves from the Government. That way you are able to create a police state.
5) Welfare — Take control of every aspect of their lives (Food, Housing, and Income).
6) Education — Take control of what people read and listen to — take control of what children learn in school.
Religion — Remove the belief in the God from the Government and schools.
Class Warfare — Divide the people into the wealthy and the poor. This will cause more discontent and it will be easier to take (Tax) the wealthy with the support of the poor.
https://drp314.substack.com/p/saul-alinsky-on-how-to-create-a-socialist
The U.S. Constitutions was written so as to preclude excessive power from being concentrated in one branch of government or person. If we are not careful we wake up some day to find that we have become a nation of slaves. It's not like the nations leaders don't want it.
"An armed republic submits less easily to the rule of one of its citizens than a republic armed by foreign forces. Rome and Sparta were for many centuries well armed and free. The Swiss are well armed and enjoy great freedom. Among other evils caused by being disarmed, it renders you contemptible. It is not reasonable to suppose that one who is armed will obey willingly one who is unarmed; or that any unarmed man will remain safe among armed servants." - Niccolo Machiavelli, "The Prince" (1532)
And if they come to send you to the slave camp:
"What would things been like [in Russia] if during periods of mass arrests people had not simply sat there, paling with terror at every bang on the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but understood they had nothing to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people?" ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Stay Brave, Stay Free
Good overview of reality. History has always "been written by the winners". And the "winners", the ones to whom we handed the metaphorical keys to the city, are the totalitarians we have permitted, (encouraged), to so successfully follow Mr. Alinsky's blueprint.
Your examples did not include the North American pre contact indigenous slave trade. Many tribal groups were widely feared for their slaving ways. Prisoners of war were routinely enslaved. The purpose of much intertribal warfare was specifically to capture slaves. Of course, in Meso-America, the Olmec and Mayan cultures needed large numbers of slaves to build their marvelous temples, pyramids and roads. And the Aztecs needed slaves to placate their bloodthirsty gods.
As you so accurately point out - slavery has always been with us, and has never, (other than for a brief eyeblink of recent history), had anything to do with race.
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don’t do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free. – Ronald Reagan, 1961
Every government regulation is a chink in the armor of self determination and the pursuit of happiness, and every government handout is another breadcrumb leading down the primrose path to enslavement by government.