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Jul. 21st, 2002 11:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vik_thorPicked up an interesting book at work (B. Dalton) today. The Redneck Manifesto: How Hillbillies, Hicks and White Trash Became America's Scapegoats by Jim Goad
link to Google list of other reviews
Just got it today, and already about 1/3 through it (thanks to taking it to read while doing laundry)
He makes some good points so far.
When Blacks say all Whites owe them, because our ancestors were never enslaved... Let's see... European serfs, working the fields for their lord. Not allowed to own their own land. Not allowed to leave. (sound familiar?)
"But, that type of stuff never happened in the New World, or at least, not in (what became) the USA!"
Hmmm... From your history classes, did you get the impression that Indentured Servitude was good and completely voluntary (sort of like signing up for the Army etc. today? Sign up for a few years, learn skills, get free passage to the New World, at at the end of term, get some land to call your own), while Slavery (of Africans) was BAD, and with extended descriptions of the Middle Passage.
Well, lets just say that not all of the indentures were voluntary (and let's not mention being Transported for stealing, shall we... Being Transported to the NewWorld was a step below death sentence. Being Transported for stealling a schilling (a bit less than a day's wage) and being Indentured for 7 years.
Kidnapping, shanghied.
Oliver Cromwell sent political enemies and prisoners to Barbados. Lets see... Irish, Catholics, etc. from Great Britain, being shipped to tropical climate...
African slaves were treated better, because they WERE for life. Indentures being basically Temp-Slaves. Compare to, say, car you own outright, and expect to have until it can't go no more to a rental you're only gonna have awhile, and don't even have to worry about gettig deposit back....
and so on and so forth.....
It's a Rant, but it does make you think.
link to Google list of other reviews
Just got it today, and already about 1/3 through it (thanks to taking it to read while doing laundry)
He makes some good points so far.
When Blacks say all Whites owe them, because our ancestors were never enslaved... Let's see... European serfs, working the fields for their lord. Not allowed to own their own land. Not allowed to leave. (sound familiar?)
"But, that type of stuff never happened in the New World, or at least, not in (what became) the USA!"
Hmmm... From your history classes, did you get the impression that Indentured Servitude was good and completely voluntary (sort of like signing up for the Army etc. today? Sign up for a few years, learn skills, get free passage to the New World, at at the end of term, get some land to call your own), while Slavery (of Africans) was BAD, and with extended descriptions of the Middle Passage.
Well, lets just say that not all of the indentures were voluntary (and let's not mention being Transported for stealing, shall we... Being Transported to the NewWorld was a step below death sentence. Being Transported for stealling a schilling (a bit less than a day's wage) and being Indentured for 7 years.
Kidnapping, shanghied.
Oliver Cromwell sent political enemies and prisoners to Barbados. Lets see... Irish, Catholics, etc. from Great Britain, being shipped to tropical climate...
African slaves were treated better, because they WERE for life. Indentures being basically Temp-Slaves. Compare to, say, car you own outright, and expect to have until it can't go no more to a rental you're only gonna have awhile, and don't even have to worry about gettig deposit back....
and so on and so forth.....
It's a Rant, but it does make you think.
