View original postYou're surprised that a middle-aged man from Texas in the early 1960s, infamous for his profane speech would use that term in a private conversation?

View original postNor does it make sense to single out America for an aberration imposed on it externally, before there was even such a thing as America. IIRC, the article references the slave population of Virgina, but the colonial legislature in Virginia actually outlawed slavery at one point, before being over-ridden by the crown. Britain rightfully deserves a lot of the credit for stamping out the slave trade worldwide, but they were not only the ones who imposed it upon the American colonies, they also profited by it long after it had fallen out of fashion in the British Isles. Thomas Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence cited that imposition of slavery among the enumerated grievances against the crown, before it was excised for obvious political reasons. The entire plantation system was not particularly profitable for the plantation owners, despite their superficially lavish lifestyle (one detail that is generally overlooked but accurrate in 12 Years A Slave, is the apparent tight finanical constraints under which both Benedict Cumerbatch's benevolent planter, and Michael Fassbender's walking shitstain suffer), as they were in perpetual debt to British merchants & bankers. Though slavery is the major issue behind secession, the actual political crises that raised the idea in the South originated from tariffs. The South was vehemently opposed to tariffs, because their planter class survived on maintaining a trade relationship with England. Absent that, or facing reciprocal tariffs on cotton, they faced financial ruin. Among the issues contributing to George Washington's manumission of his slaves (and dedication to the cause of independence) was his discovery of how he was being victimized when he married into that class, and took over Mount Vernon from his wife's family. He switched to more profitable, less labor intensive food crops and weaned the plantation off the whole cycle, but was left with a large number of excess slaves with insufficient labor to offset their upkeep, whom he lacked the right to dispose of by the unwritten rules of society, or the inhumanity to liquidate as superfluous assets.

View original postThe point is that slavery was as much an affliction on the US as a sin committed by it, and was not remotely unique to this country. Nor is the mistreatment of ethnic minorities, or numerous other (legitimate) grievances of black Americans.

View original postWhich were these? Where, in Europe or North America, was mining or manufacturing done in any significant quantity by actual slaves (as opposed to low-paid white people) in the last 400 years?