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Yes to all, but slaves contribution was insignificant compared to the contribution of immigrants of other ethnic backgrounds. If there were no slaves, the work would have been done by someone else.
Well, that's more of a "what if" alternate universe scenario. African slaves were the easiest to use, don't know how easy any other race would have been to manhandle, they were viewed as savages still living in the stone age.
The contribution of black slaves on he railroad was insignificant, there were not enough to go around, the Chinese and Irish were were responsible for a good portion of it. And it was not just blacks who had horrible working conditions. Do you think for a minute that a plantation owner was going to loan out a significant portion of his slaves and not have anyone to work the plantation?
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Originally Posted by Ghostrider275452
Yes to all, but slaves contribution was insignificant compared to the contribution of immigrants of other ethnic backgrounds. If there were no slaves, the work would have been done by someone else.
So you are saying that all the unpaid for work of all black slaves in this country was insignificant...compared to who I might ask?
I agree with you that the Chinese especially (much moreso than the Irish) were primarily the workers who were used for the transcontinental railroad, but blacks and poor whites were primarily the workers for the other millions of miles of railroad lines across this country. There were more lines than the one from the west coast you know.
Also slaves had a hand in building practically every old building you see in DC as well as in Philadelphia and other NE states where they had slavery, which you may not know existed in the north in early America. Unlike southern states though, many NE communities began a process of slowly outlawing slavery over the course of a couple decades after the Revolution. Slaves built many historic areas of NYC as well, there are "African" cemetaries in NYC, one was discovered in the early 2000s after a company started a new construction project and unearthed it.
You should read the biography of Sojourner Truth, who was a slave in NY and only spoke Dutch until she was an adult due to being the slave of a Dutch, New York family. She worked on a small farm, mostly as farm and domestic laborer, not on a plantation. Slavery was also not only relegated to plantation owners. Many small farms used slave labors and many municipalities owned slaves in order to do their public works. Also many mines owned slaves to use for mining. You would see that slaves and poor whites especially, living in very integrated communities in various areas around the country, even in Chicago segregation was not prevalent amongst white Americans, European immigrants, and blacks until after the 1890s when various sorts of "redlining" laws and traditions began.
It is also a myth in early America that those who owned slaves would not work their slaves to death. Slaves were very cheap in the beginning of this country, before the revolution and most slaves had a life expectancy of a little over 20 years. In Virginia especially, they would frequently work slaves to death and just bring in more to replace them. Initially they would use indentured servants from Europe for this kind of work but they usually died quicker than the Africans, some of whome were more used to the swampy conditions of VA while they worked on the tobacco farms. Whites and blacks died at very high rates in VA in the 1600s and all of them were replaced. Black labor replaced white indentured servants over the course of the 1600s so eventually all of the labor was black slaves. Even black people who were originally indentured servants were many times forced into slavery as most couldn't prove their free status. There are court cases about this and books have been written. Black people had a hand in building all the historical buildings in VA, DC, Maryland, NY, SC, NC, GA, FL, LA, and other states up and down the east coast. Without their labor, this country would not be what it was. That does not negate the contributions of Mexicans and Asians on the west coast or Indians before the importation of black slaves in the east or even white business men and indentured servants, but to say that black slave labor was "insignificant" is completely incorrect. Black slaves had more of a hand in the actual building of this country than many other groups of Americans.
I remember you saying your family were immigrants to this country. You should really learn more about our history as I don't think that your comments come from some sort of bigotry or anything but what you believe is totally incorrect and all you need to do is educate yourself more about slave labor in this country and the history of indentured servititude as well.
Yes to all, but slaves contribution was insignificant compared to the contribution of immigrants of other ethnic backgrounds. If there were no slaves, the work would have been done by someone else.
Really?? Then who would have done the work if there were no immigrants of ethnic backgrounds doing the work? And who would have picked the cotton?
It was slaves picking the cotton that made the textile mills in the North rich. Rum was made by sugar cane, picked by slaves. Slaves made a bigger contribution building this nation than you want to give them credit for. I have ancestors in Louisiana who picked sugar cane as slaves, and ancestors in Mississippi who picked cotton as slaves. They didn't get a cent for their labor, their labor that was done by force, labor I don't think slaves really wanted to do. It is NOT insignificant. Slaves built the wealth of the nation, even were counted as wealth by property owners, and yet, never benefited from any of it.
Immigrants might have felled the forests in Minnnesota, worked the mines in Pennsylvania, but let me tell you this. No one wanted to use Black people as paid labor until immigrants started striking and being part of unions. Blacks were also working in the mines and in the steel mills. My grandfather worked in a foundry in Milwaukee. That is his contribution to this country, and he died on the job. Alot of Black people working in the mills from Milwaukee to Buffalo(and in your neck of the woods, Pittsburgh).
Working in the fields for no pay, then being sharecroppers, then working in the factories. Tell me, what is so insignificant about that?
Actually you are totally completely and absolutely WRONG.
Prior to LBJ there were no Black American C.E.Os of Fortune 500 companies, and no Back American Secretary of States, Supreme Court Justices, or National Security Advisors. There were no managers, head coaches, or owners of any major sports franchise or a Black American as Chairman of Chiefs of Staff, or Black American national new anchors, or Presidents of Ivy League universities. Such ideas that Black Americans could ever hold those positions or many others were simply not tolerated by many White Americans. Also the poverty rate for Black Americans was well over 40% in 1960 with about 9 million Black Americans living below the poverty level. After 50 years the number of Black Americans living below the poverty level is about 10 million. So while the population of Black Americans in this country has increased by over 100%. The number of Black Americans living below the poverty level has increased by only 10%.
Also in 1960 only 3% of Black Americans over the age of 25 had obtain a bachelors degree or higher. As of the last census about 19% of Black Americans over the age of 25 had obtain a bachelors degree or higher. So in the last 50 years the population of Black Americans doubled but the percentage of Black Americans with at least a 4 year college has increased by a factor of six.
The idea that Black Americans made more progress prior to LBJ and the Great Society is ludicrous that the only purpose that is serves it to reveal your ignorance and insult your intelligence.
You also talk about integration occurring naturally. Did it ever occur to you that segregation was unnatural that's why it was legally mandated for over 100 years in the first place?
For my grandad, having a masters and being a vetrans, did not afford him any favors in getting a job when he came back from WW2. And he lived in an area where most residents didn't even finish high school at the time (and still have low graduation rates to this day.)
***sure I believe it would have worked itself out on its own without civil rights and affirmative action programs.
Well, that's more of a "what if" alternate universe scenario. African slaves were the easiest to use, don't know how easy any other race would have been to manhandle, they were viewed as savages still living in the stone age.
I don't see how perhaps 6% of the US population could be considered responsible for making America what it is today. And by 6%, I am factoring blacks being only 12% of the overall population and that half of them were working age adults.
And going by the post above, blacks were mostly used for unskilled grunt labor, they weren't desirable or used for skilled factory work. America was built on much more than the unskilled labor of blacks.
And with building quality architecture, that was all the result of immigrant labor. Any fine plasterwork was designed and executed by Italian immigrants.
And what about the great farming regions of the Midwest? No black slaves were used, and in fact those farming communities were very European white in content, as were the cattle and sheep ranchers. In fact, there are whole sections of the US that never used black slaves or black labor.
I don't see how perhaps 6% of the US population could be considered responsible for making America what it is today. And by 6%, I am factoring blacks being only 12% of the overall population and that half of them were working age adults.
And going by the post above, blacks were mostly used for unskilled grunt labor, they weren't desirable or used for skilled factory work. America was built on much more than the unskilled labor of blacks.
And with building quality architecture, that was all the result of immigrant labor. Any fine plasterwork was designed and executed by Italian immigrants.
And what about the great farming regions of the Midwest? No black slaves were used, and in fact those farming communities were very European white in content, as were the cattle and sheep ranchers. In fact, there are whole sections of the US that never used black slaves or black labor.
Census of 1790 (First Census of the U.S. Population): Total population, 3,929,214, Black Population: 757,208 (19.3%) including 59,150 free African Americans.
Census of 1800, U.S. Population: 5,308,483, Black Population: 1,002,037 (18.9%) including 108,435 free African Americans.
Also remember that the Industrial Revolution was not until the mid 1800s and the first African slaves were imported to the Americas in the early 1500s and in English North America from 1619. So yes, African slave labor was intergral in the building of America.
Pick practically any city in America (specifically those East of the Mississippi) and African slave labor was critical in its foundationand building
Memphis: From its beginnings, Memphis has been an important location for markets, exchanges, travel and distribution. Before the Civil War, Memphis' rich delta soil contributed to its economic base ? known as "King Cotton." Unfortunately, slavery was the key piece to this commerce and agri-business. The laborers who farmed the land, built the buildings and roads, and operated households were West Africans captured and traded as slaves.
Washington DC:
Slaves helped build the U.S. Capitol, an irony that was recognized Tuesday with the dedication of a stone marker calling attention to their role in constructing the cherished monument to freedom.
A slave-quarried block of sandstone that once was part of the Capitol was dedicated in the Capitol Visitor Center’s Emancipation Hall.
Slave labor was even used to build the White House so you can give that "unskilled grunt work" nonsense a rest.
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