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American Chattel Slavery Might Be Uniquely Cruel in World History (lemmy.world)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Uniquely cruel, and perpetuated by a country and espouses to be perfect dedicated christians.

The founders themselves were sadistic, slave owners

George Washington - owned slaves his entire life. Only freed them upon his death.

Thomas Jefferson - claimed to be founding the most free country. Refused to give up slaves. He also rapes his slaves

James Madison - Had slaves. Refused to ever free them. Refused to restrict slavery

James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, the list goes on.

Americas foundations were built on the backs of slaves. American soil is drenched in the blood of americas victims

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Shout out to John Adams and his boy.

[–] Shiggles 26 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Horrifying? Absolutely. Unique? I ask you to look at Caribbean sugar plantations, Brazil, the Belgian Congo, like c’mon. “Others were doing it too” is no excuse but you gotta reach a little further for your circlejerk man.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

The Belgian Congo also came to my mind. They were teaching Christianity, too, at the same time as they were cutting people's hands off. I read someone not that long ago who was talking about his firsthand observations of some of the results and how Christianity tied in with it. It wasn’t good.

Regardless of all that, it's not a contest. US slavery and this particular instance of trying to brainwash people into support of it can be horrifying and the founding fathers can be hellbound for their support for it, without any kind of reference to what anyone else in the world was doing.

Right is right. Wrong is wrong. "Best" or "worst" or "look at what these other people were doing" is rarely relevant, in my eyes.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Brazil is Americas??

Edit: But, yes, same deal. The racialized element of the forced labor system is what I’m referring to. The social concept of race is modern. sustained, large scale, intercontinental?migrations are required. And it was this forced labor system, mostly in the tropics.. depending how you measure…

The uniquely cruel aspect to chattel slavery in the continental US was the breeding programs.
Incidentally

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

This does not seem to be true. A quick Wikipedia check confirms he was a slave owner and owned 3 plantations, but the part about deliberate evangelization for control and its widespread adoption I cannot find anywhere.

Also, this is not even a book, as is evident by reading the cover. The actual book is to be found here: https://docsouth.unc.edu/church/jones/summary.html

Christianity also was used by African Americans for their own emancipation, see for example the AME, and many slave owners opposed its spread along slaves This is of course not in support of Christianity or slavery, but the issue isn't this simple.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

What a bizarrely pedantic complaint, given that the actual book was titled:

The Religious Instruction of the Negroes in the United States - Published by Thomas Purse, 1842.

And the purpose of religion is indoctrination, moral abnegation, and subjugation. The Abrahamic cults in particular are a monstrous evil.