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(THE COLLEGE FIX) — For 11 years, Professor Duke Pesta gave quizzes to his students at the beginning of the school year to test their knowledge on basic facts about American history and Western culture.
The most surprising result from his 11-year experiment? Students’ overwhelming belief that slavery began in the United States and was almost exclusively an American phenomenon, he said.
“Most of my students could not tell me anything meaningful about slavery outside of America,” Pesta told The College Fix. “They are convinced that slavery was an American problem that more or less ended with the Civil War, and they are very fuzzy about the history of slavery prior to the Colonial era. Their entire education about slavery was confined to America.”
Those same kids might be surprised that slavery still exists in the world, and that one of the worst (but not only) offending continents is... Africa. Especially the country of Mauritania.
Slavery has existed among all races. Racism exist in all races too. It is the power of the racist, or the power of the enslavers, is what critically effects everything. The racism of the oppressed is basically irrelevant. But people confuse that with it "not existing".
Travelling the world, and also knowing world history, helps get these things in context. Humans ability to mistreat other humans knows no ethnic or racial boundaries. We should concentrate on what those in power have done, but we shouldn't confuse that with thinking only those in power have those tendencies.
Not really. Slavery in the Caribbean varied depending on the island. Your statements regarding slaves not having children is false, as there were scores of people born into slavery in the region and even moved to different islands. This is why there was a distinction between the Creole slaves and the African (born) slaves on numerous islands.
For example, half of Trinidad's slaves came from other islands, particularly from the French Caribbean, while the rest came from Africa. This is due to late development of a slave society on the island. The Spanish, under the cedula de poblacion, allowed other Catholics to bring their slaves to Trinidad. The French came in numbers and these slaves were born in or had their next generations in the Caribbean. Thus, how French-Creole became the lingua franca in Trinidad and remained that way years after being handed to the British. Furthermore, Trinidad was only a plantation/slave-based society for around 50 years, from 1783 until 1834, when slavery was abolished.
Additionally, certain islands never became predominantly slave-based societies, such as the Cayman Islands and the Dominican Republic.
So to state that slavery in the Caribbean was worse than the U.S. is false. Again, it all depends on the island, and really, it makes little sense to compare. Slavery was horrible - period.
Great post, and very informative. True, why fight over which practice of slavery was worse. They're all bad.
I was watching something a few years ago about Harper's Ferry and a black man on the show said he had always thought John Brown was black. That startled me a bit. The most intriguing part about the event was that a crazy (maybe, maybe not) white abolitionist tried to raise a black rebellion.
Especially the way families were destroyed and torn apart.
Plenty of locations in the middle east had the same effect on African slaves who had initially been brought there by Arabic slave traders from Africa. Its just not as well studied. But don't confuse that with it being not present.
Great post, and very informative. True, why fight over which practice of slavery was worse. They're all bad.
Because it allows white racists to scapegoat the evils of European slavery as well as allowing our resident black panther wannabes prop up their victimhood.
I got out of high school in the 70's and likely thought slavery was unique to the US, at the time. No doubt, the same could have been said of those coming out of school in the 60's, 50's, 40's........
Most students have never been are exposed to World History.
I had world history in high school............1966
I was watching something a few years ago about Harper's Ferry and a black man on the show said he had always thought John Brown was black. That startled me a bit. The most intriguing part about the event was that a crazy (maybe, maybe not) white abolitionist tried to raise a black rebellion.
It would have to be a white man doing it then. They had power, and slaves were afraid and had no power.
Those same kids might be surprised that slavery still exists in the world, and that one of the worst (but not only) offending continents is... Africa. Especially the country of Mauritania.
Slavery has existed among all races. Racism exist in all races too. It is the power of the racist, or the power of the enslavers, is what critically effects everything. The racism of the oppressed is basically irrelevant. But people confuse that with it "not existing".
Travelling the world, and also knowing world history, helps get these things in context. Humans ability to mistreat other humans knows no ethnic or racial boundaries. We should concentrate on what those in power have done, but we shouldn't confuse that with thinking only those in power have those tendencies.
India has the largest population of slaves in the world right now. 18 million people, mainly children, are in forced labor.
It would have to be a white man doing it then. They had power, and slaves were afraid and had no power.
Well, not exactly. John Brown was talking with Frederick Douglass, and he told him what he was going to do and wanted Douglass to join him. Douglass said no, not because he was afraid, but because he thought John Brown would fail. Which he did, spectacularly. BUT he got a lot of attention for the abolitionist movement.
And Shields Green, who was a fugitive slave living safely in the north, gave up his freedom to return south to join Brown and ended up hanging for it. He wasn't afraid, either. He was the epitome of courage.
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