Slavery In America

Let's start off with the fact that slavery fell upon Africans in great measure.  And, that it was a horrendous state of affairs for those made slaves.  That's true wherever and upon whosoever this institution found root.

But, where does America fit into this sordid story.  Let's start with a few numbers.  The greatest number of African slaves were sent to Brazil with something over 4 million slaves shipped there to harvest sugar cane, tobacco, and other crops.

The next big destination in terms of the destination of African slaves were countries in the Caribbean.  And, then lastly comes America, the destination for less than 1 million slaves.

These numbers do not give America any bragging rights.  The employment of slaves is quite dreadful.  And, while 1 million people is but a fraction of the Africans sent to Brazil as well as to the Caribbean, it's still a very big number.

The fight to eliminate African slavery was long and hard.  Credit must be given to the British for being among the earliest to seek to put an end to slavery,  Their efforts began at the start of the 19th century.  And, these first efforts were designed to end the trading of slaves.  They put the first nails in the into the sale of humans.  At that time, there could also be heard individuals in the U.S. calling for an end to his practice.  Among them was president Thomas Jefferson who was among the people holding slaves.  And, then in 1886, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

As terrible as its history of slavery was, it was the U.S. which first voted in a black president.  Today, we have black legislators, blacks in the judiciary and through out the fabric of our nation.  In writing this I do not wish to absolve the U.S. of its past practices regarding slavery.  However, I think it only fair to point out that the U.S. was far from a leader of this practice.  I would further point out that the U.S. ended this practice at great cost in life and treasure.  And, finally, the U.S. did not engage in the subjugation of peoples in Africa through colonialism as did so many European countries.

True we had decades of Jim Crow but our progress in race relations since then can be matched by no other country with a similar distribution of ethnicities.  It is appropriate to acknowledge the past practices of our predecessors with regard to their mistreatment of African Americans, but it is equally appropriate to commend the progress we have made in race relations.