Comment preview: I wrote a report on slave narratives. I read Frederick Douglas', Harriet Jacob's and W.E.B. DuBois (although DuBois was not a slave himself). Not every slave owner was cruel to their slaves. Although there was a stigma of a man that wasn't stern with his s ....

Comment preview: Africans started the slave trade. What you think white men were venturing into the malaria infested bush to collect slaves?! The african slave trade had existed long before the whiteman came to africa, and was the biggest industry in west africa. There was ....

Comment preview: This is not true at all. Slavery was exactly what it was: slavery. It was brutal and profitable. If you've ever seen the horse documentary Buck, he talks about the fact that traditional training is based on physical abuse of the horses. Those horses are wo ....

Comment preview: This kind of stuff doesn't make me angry so much as uncomfortable. Especially during Black History Month. The bar for being a black historical figure is so low these days it causes Fremdscham. Instead on focusing on achievements made by black americans wh ....

Comment preview: Actually on top of that people think that slavery is only a seveteenth century on plantation thing. Or at least that is the only time it was common enough to matter. The slave trade in Northern and Eastern Africa was alread large before any white Europeans ....

Comment preview: something I have not seen mentioned yet is that watermelon seeds were brought over, grown and consumed by slaves on spaces allotted to them by slave owners(making slaves grow their own food cut down on overall costs). Watermelon is as much slave food as ok ....

Comment preview: I will repost something I [wrote](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1gdaay/did_the_slaves_coming_to_the_new_world_from/cajbxxq) a while back: >But keep in mind that European chattel slavery is a historic phenomenon. >Arab slavery was muc ....

Comment preview: As a quick follow up, it's critical to note the difference between actually owning slaves and being complicit in slavery. The American colonies, even those that appeared to be "free," were institutions that relied on slaves as a major component of their ec ....

Comment preview: The "slavery was different" back then excuse. Yeah sure, if you were a male Jew you were only bound for 7 years, but foreigners and women, and their future offspring were owned for life. So different. Exodus 21:20-21 "When a man strikes his male or femal ....

Comment preview: There are a few things you need to understand about slavery in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. First, slaves were mistreated to an extent, that cannot be argued, but not as badly as what you'd see in America or colonized parts of Africa. Slavery was n ....

Comment preview: > I'm extremely suspicious of this claim, especially because it was often made by Southerners trying to argue that Southern slave labor was more "humane" and "honorable" than the free labor taking place in the North during industrialization. They'd say ....

Comment preview: First, this was a very, regular occurrence. Modern DNA testing has revealed that the average African American is 73.2% African, 24% European, and 0.8% Native American. Given the extremely low intermarriage rates, historically a fraction of a percent, it ca ....

Comment preview: Actually a Black person in any year before the 1600 s would pretty much have been treated like anybody else although they would be somewhat rare in most of Europe (except Spain, Italy, and the near east). In the Americas before the 1600's a Blackman would ....

Comment preview: sorry, but most of this isn't really true. The parts that are essentially true are 1) the general feelings of loyalty at the state level and 2) that most common confederate soldiers were poor and unlikely to own slaves. But this does not mean by any stretc ....

Comment preview: The logic is consistent. I personally enjoy the historical view here: If you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve for only six years. Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom. If he was single when he became your slave ....

Comment preview: Interesting. I'm a US ex muslim. Did you know that during the [Zanj slave rebellion](https://libcom.org/library/zanj-slaves-rebellion-ad-869-883) in Basra/Iraq, 500'000 black slaves rebelled against their muslim owners? Most were killed. This was just one ....

Comment preview: Somewhat frustratingly, we really don't know very much about the ancient slave trade. We know that it existed, but pretty much the only time the sources mention it is when the slaves are prominent or special in some way (eg, courtesans, dancers, etc). We d ....

Comment preview: There is more than one type of slavery. In ancient Athens, conquered people became slaves, but their children were born free. They retired as free people, and it was really more like having your country invaded then being given a job you have to do. Others ....

Comment preview: >I am of the understanding that certain African tribes essentially acted as slave raiders who would attack villages and then sell the slaves to the Europeans who would in turn sell those slaves to the Americas. Is this correct? This is a simplistic but ....

Comment preview: You're trying hard to resist the conclusion that American slavery was an inherently and ineluctably violent institution. It was! Slaves with nonviolent owners still exist as property and can at any moment be transferred to new ownership that is actively ....

Comment preview: [Like you're five] Back when the United States came into existence, the white Europeans who lived here used to buy and sell Africans as slaves. Slave owners knew little if anything about the personal history of the men and women they sold. What their nam ....

Comment preview: Oh cool this non-factual stormfront copy paste getting upvoted again on r/funny, although the rest of the thread isn't much better. /r/badhistory rebuttal [here](http://www.reddit.com/r/badhistory/comments/290ji1/racist_user_comments_on_history_of_black_sl ....

Comment preview: What's even worse is that he has repeatedly [suggested](http://nationalmemo.com/article/strange-true-ron-paul-thinks-american-civil-war-was-unnecessary) that the North could have just *bought* the slaves and freed them, instead of going to war. That's his ....

Comment preview: > Allah allows taking prisoners of war as sex slaves ("Ma malakat aymanukum") in Quran. It doesn't say that the sex slave has to give consent for sexual intercourse. For context, this phrase--literally meaning "what your hand possesses", "what/who you o ....

Comment preview: i'm so fucking sick of this bullshit "but slaves suffered!" attitude. yes. they did. you didn't. *you didn't.* **YOU DID NOT SUFFER. LIKE THEY DID.**. no amount of oppression you claim now will *ever* change the fact that you *have never been, and will nev ....