I found this on the Baha'i website, quoting James M. McPherson, "For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War"
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"Experience in the South reinforced the antislavery sentiments of many soldiers. One Pennsylvanian Union soldier spoke to a slave woman whose husband was whipped and was appalled by what she had to tell him about slavery. He stated, “I thought I had hated slavery as much as possible before I came here, but here, where I can see some of its workings, I am more than ever convinced of the cruelty and inhumanity of the system.”
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This book was published around 25 years ago and really comes through with a thought provoking exploration of the reasons that the North & the South both fought so hard, both sides feeling convicted to their cause! This article gives a nod of gratitude to the White men who fought for the North, and especially the 350,000 White soldiers who died fighting to end slavery. I don't think there's anything wrong with recognizing this fact of history, nor do I find it strange to talk about. As Americans, we know we didn't get it all right in the decades that followed, but we had to start somewhere, as imperfect as that may be. Have you ever looked into when other countries abolished slavery, if they had that Peculiar Institution?
I have. I've watched many videos and read many books about it, and it's shocking! Many Black African nations didn't abolish slavery until 1940 - 1980! WTH? First, it's shocking that Blacks owned other Blacks. Secondly, it's shocking that some of these nations waiting until the mid-twentieth century to bring it to an end! So many people don't have the slightest clue about the Trans-Saharan slave trade, otherwise known as the Arab slave trade. It was absolutely brutal & violent, a direct assault on everything decent! All slavery is wrong, but this form was particularly vile. It went on for over 1,300 years, and although there are major discrepancies about the number of slaves carried off into bondage by the Arabs, 12-14 million is probably the correct. amount. And every male slave purchased was castrated, often in the most primitive and gory manner, stone-cold sober in almost every case. A few fortunate slaves may have had access to opium or hashish beforehand, but they would be the fortunate ones. There is not enough hashish or opium in the world, however, that would make this amateur surgery a pain free experience! That is why so many one time slave owning Arab countries don't have a sizeable Black population today. I don't want to compare atrocities and crimes against humanity, which is what slavery is, but it's worth researching this complex topic to put the issue of slavery in North America and the Transatlantic slave trade into perspective. It's disingenuous to single out Whites for the shameful things perpetrated in the past, as if they were solely the inventions of White race, without viewing things in their context. But that's where things have ended up for many people of the Woke yoke. White people didn't invent slavery, and White people weren't the only ones who enslaved Africans. I hate slavery & racism like any other sane & decent person, and it makes me sick to my stomach to think about. Enslaving another human being as my property, whether I treat him kindly or have him castrated & treat him like an animal, is rotten to the core. It is very much morally wrong. Although the entire institution of slavery is complex & convoluted, everyone should agree that carrying people away from Africa - whether these poor souls were sold to Europeans & Arabs by their fellow Africans or they were stolen - is a crime against humanity.
For more in-depth specifics, read Minister Louis Farrakhan's "The Secret Relationship Between Blacks & Jews," for it will explain a lot of the nuances involved. How many people even know how big of a role the Jews played in the slave trade? Dr. Thomas Sowell & Dr. Tony Martin both explain the ramifications of slavery in their books, and I recommend reading these authors works. Tony Martin was a professor when he assigned his students portions of Minister Farrakhan's book, and his critics came out of the woodwork to smear him for it! I'm sure it was the JDL, ADL, and SPLC that attacked him, labeling him an antisemite and trying to ruin his career by making him persona non grata at every university in the west.
So let me get this straight, if some of the slaving ships & companies were Jewish-owned and someone writes about this fact, then they are an antisemite? Additionally, if American Jews owned more slaves per capita than Whites did, whether for a brief period or a majority of the time - and this is a fact - and then someone writes about it, they are anti semitic also? I could be wrong, but I don't believe a well-respected Black Professor at an accredited college is going to give his students an assignment designed to incite hate, bitterness, and resentment against Jewish people. The "go-to"accusation of antisemitism is old & tired, and it's almost weightless, having been overused. And it is even used against Jews who stray too far from the narrative.
There is much more to learn about this topic, such as the capture of White Europeans by Muslim raiders to be used for slave labor, the Irish slaves, and the Slavs of Eastern Europe (where the word "slave" originates from).
I've got a book by Ernest Sevier Cox, an unabashed White separatist who ironically was a close friend of Marcus Garvey, even helping him obtain the "Black Starr" ship to take former slaves & their descendants back to Africa to be repatriated. There's a lot more to that story, and some Black folks turned their backs on Garvey because he cozied up to Cox, forming an alliance with the racist (an oversimplification on my part). I guess they were of one accord on wanting to get Black people out of America & the Caribbean, but I cannot imagine their "friendship" went deeper than that.
The "Autobiography of Malcolm X" is a great book, though not directly related to this topic, it's important to be familiar with it nonetheless.
Here are some other books I've read, including some un politically correct titles & authors that have been buried by the censors & book burners. You know the book burners, the usual cast of characters who will stop at nothing to interfere with information that goes against their narrative. I must mention that many of the names & dates that Farrakhan & Martin wrote about are contested, not just by Jews but mainstream historians as well. To be fair they made some mistakes, so the best thing to do would be to refute the old "facts" with the latest & greatest facts in an open dialogue, am I correct? But no, they don't do that. They just call them anti semites or bigots and then show the people something new & shiny so they forget or get confused. It's par for the course with them.
"Let My People Go: Marcus Garvey and the Back to Africa Movement" by Earnest Sevier Cox
"They Were White and They Were Slaves: The Untold History of the Enslavement of Whites in Early America" by Michael A Hoffman II
"Slave Life in Georgia" by John Brown
"Barbarian Cruelty: An Eyewitness Account of White Slavery Under the Moors" by F. Brooks
"White Slavery in the Barbary States" by C. Sumner
"Ain't Nobody: A Slavery Aftermath" by R.A. Condry
"The Irish Slaves: Slavery, Indenture, and Contract Labor Among Irish Immigrants" R. Akamatsu
"The Secret Relationship Between Blacks & Jews" by Minister Louis Farrakhan
"Propaganda" by Edward Bernays
"Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" by F. Douglass
"The Moors in Spain" by S. Lane-Poole
"A Southern View of the Invasion of the Southern States" by S. A'Court Ashe
"Message to the People" by M. Garvey
"The Booker T. Washington Collection: 8 Classic Works" by B.T. Washington
The Booker T. Washington collection is one of the most inspiring things I've ever read, especially Washington's "Sowing and Reaping" What an amazing collection of anecdotes and parables! His kindness to all people of every race, color, and creed is without parallel. He makes it a point to encourage fellow Blacks to extend a helping hand to whoever needs it, whether it be a Black man or a White man. And one of his most profound sayings is:
"One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him."
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The biggest thing I take away from all these books is the absolute necessity of EDUCATION, always reading & learning. Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, broaden your mind, take care of your family, and work towards Unity and not division.
Today, more than ever, we have a parenting problem & an education problem. I just heard that two young Black kids aged 14 were shot and killed yesterday in Chicago. When the local news came around, they were unable to find either of the kid's parents to talk with! How can two children get shot in the streets (allegedly while attempting to steal a car) and no one can track down either of their mothers or fathers?! Why were they out stealing cars? 54 children this year have been shot to death in Chicago and 537 people have been shot in total so far in Chicago 2023!! My God people, this is an epidemic that should be on the front page of every newspaper with a national emergency called! Where the hell is BLM? Chicago is 1/3 Black, 1/3 White, and 1/3 Hispanic, yet the majority of those shot & killed every year are Black. As are the majority of the shooters. How in the hell is this acceptable in a first-world country? There are more murders in Chicago than in many parts of Cartel-controlled Mexico! How is this not priority number one for Black leaders & role models in America? When I was a kid there was a plethora of the "Just Say No" to gangs & drugs, Black actors and musicians trying to get the Bloods and Crips to stop shooting up the neighborhood and selling dope...there was a real effort to mentor to young Black men in inner cities. Chris Rock even had a comedy skit showing people how to behave when getting pulled over, which sadly may be needed today.
I had a back-and-forth with some Black dude whom I didn't know on Twitter, just responding to the video of the 17-year-old kid beating the ROTC recruiter's ass in the classroom. The Black dude on Twitter said he had every right to beat the b*tches ass since she spilled coffee on him. I responded by saying the young man should have removed himself from the situation until he was able to make better decisions and control his impulses. But nope, the guy on Twitter and a few of his friends went on & on about how the kid can't let her diss him like that, respect blah blah blah. For what? His reputation in Ms. Smith's social studies class? His five minutes of internet fame that show him beating a SMALL WOMAN'S ass and then stomping on her phone, beating her to the ground twice?! This protecting your reputation stuff is for the birds! My final response was, "This kid just sealed his school-to-prison fate. Don't blame me, don't blame colonialism, don't blame racism. He can't control his emotions or impulses then the state will control them for him." Over & over the angry Black dude on Twitter just kept posting a "Who Gives a Fuck" meme. BLM? He doesn't give a fuck about them. As my White co-racialists took a knee for George Floyd, I was the only one saying "George Floyd should not have died in police custody, that was tragic. But George Floyd is NOT a hero. Erecting a 700-pound statue of him in NJ does nothing to quell the storm. What about the Black woman who was pregnant while George Floyd and his cohorts robbed her home? How do you think she would feel seeing a 700-pound statue of him, and his face all over murals?" But critical thinking skills are too much for most Americans, a complicated analysis is just too much. So instead of Dr. Ben Carson, Thomas Sowell, or Larry Elder, they put up a statue of a dude who bailed on all his kids, was selling fentanyl on the streets, and allegedly tried to pass a fake $20? That doesn't mean he deserved to die in custody or doesn't deserve to be loved unconditionally as a child of God. But dying in police custody from a fentanyl overdose with a deranged cop's knee on his neck doesn't make him a hero either. People, set the bar higher, please! There are plenty of good, successful Black men and women that could be exalted, wake up! You can't say Black lives matter only when a cop shoots a Black person, because that's a fucking simple one and an easy stand to take.
Let's try a little more honesty, love, and support here.
Angry about dead Palestinian children, well 54 American children were shot in just Chicago this year. Check the other big cities and let's work for some change!