two questions about Slavery in the US - Page 5

Felix_Nietsche · #41 09-01-2005, 02:18 PM

You are comparing apples to hand grenades.
The modern Democratic party is much different from the democratic party in the 1960s, 1940s, etc...

Which party does 90% of American Blacks vote for??

jcx · #42 09-01-2005, 02:54 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Question 1: If you were given the power to alter history and make it so that the US never used slavery would you? why or why not?

[/ QUOTE ]

i would not want to hang out w/ anyone who answered no to this question. i truly hope none of my friends would answer that way.

[/ QUOTE ]

Guess we won't be hanging out. History is not always pretty, but it happened for a reason. The fact is, without European/American influence (good and bad, this includes the legacies of colonialism and slavery) the overwhelming majority of todays black Americans would be living in straw huts and burning dung to keep the Tsetse flies away. Ask them if they wish slavery never exisited. By wishing away slavery you deny them their piece of the American dream. And that is rather presumptous of you.

tylerdurden · #43 09-01-2005, 03:26 PM

[ QUOTE ]
By wishing away slavery you deny them their piece of the American dream. And that is rather presumptous of you.

[/ QUOTE ]

Boy, talk about results-oriented thinking. The end always justifies the means, eh?

SheetWise · #44 09-01-2005, 03:27 PM

It was a very different world. I don't think we can understand how slavery was common and accepted. Replace the word "slave" with "indentured servant" and do you feel the same way? They were a little different -- but not enough that we allow either today. It was a world where many people were born in such poverty that they were destined to starve. I think a bigger issue was the way they were treated -- or even the issue of how many people given that kind of power over another person will abuse it.

hurlyburly · #45 09-01-2005, 04:31 PM

Race relations - Much better, as Blacks would not have been repressed due to their previous status and bitterness over the civil war.

economic affects - Immigration did a fair job of providing labor in the north, no doubt many more would have settled in the south if work was available.

role of blacks in America - Did slavery cause racism? I don't know the answer but I think it did. Blacks immigrating from Africa would have been more readily accepted and received greater opportunity as free men rather than property.

Africa and carribean nations - Doubt much would be different in Africa, but I have no idea about the carribean

the South - Better, stronger, richer. The civil war wouldn't have happened.

the North - Ditto.

polictics and the parties - wow, this is the toughest of all. Would the federal govt exist as it does today without the powers it consolidated under Lincoln? Almost inconceivable.

Not sure how the 20th century would have panned out otherwise. WWI and II I believe would have had drastically different outcomes I believe.

sports - ???

Best guesses.

tylerdurden · #46 09-01-2005, 05:01 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Would the federal govt exist as it does today without the powers it consolidated under Lincoln? Almost inconceivable.

[/ QUOTE ]

Best observation in this thread so far. Unfortunately, I disagree. Eventually the bureaucracy would have won out and we'd end up in a similar situation. The Civil War just gave the big government types the excuse they needed to consolodate sooner rather than later.

hurlyburly · #47 09-01-2005, 05:18 PM

That's an odd way of seeing things. So you don't believe immigration would have extended to Africa and only slavery would have brought Africans to the Americas? I say if anyone is being presumptuous here, you are.

hurlyburly · #48 09-01-2005, 05:24 PM

Not sure aobut the Civil War, but I do understand that slavery was a dying industry by that time in any event, and that it was considered "hip" to free your slaves upon death. The movement was spreading, but the Civil War got in the way.

Lincoln was a power hungry dude though, so I bet you are right and he would have found another way to consolidate power away from the states.

hurlyburly · #49 09-01-2005, 05:38 PM

Thanks.

I don't think the states would have rolled over quite so easily without the flashfire of slavery. I can't think of any other issue that could have had the same impact.

tylerdurden · #50 09-01-2005, 06:02 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks.

I don't think the states would have rolled over quite so easily without the flashfire of slavery. I can't think of any other issue that could have had the same impact.

[/ QUOTE ]

It would have been a slower, more gradual process, but with the same result. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]