[CTRL] THE LEGITIMACY OF SLAVERY in Nigeria - by Joseph Sobran

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http://www.uexpress.com/ups/opinion/column/js/text/1999/06/js9906152413.html THE LEGITIMACY OF SLAVERY | Joseph Sobran | June 15, 1999 WASHINGTON -- Conventional textbook history teaches that white Europeans created slavery and imposed it on black Africa. This myth is designed to make white Americans feel so guilty that they will give up their own rights in the name of "civil rights." Whites did acquire African slaves and maintained the slave trade. But the institution pre-existed the white man's relations with Africa. In fact, even after slavery had been abolished in white civilization, the European colonial powers had great difficulty in eradicating it in Africa, where it stubbornly persisted among the natives. As in ancient Greece and Rome, slavery was built into the economic life of African tribes, who knew little (and cared less) about Abraham Lincoln. In his 1921 book, "Among the Ibos of Nigeria," G.T. Basden noted that Nigerian tribes acquired slaves by four methods: "capture in war, kidnapping, purchase and pawning." Captives taken in war "were either killed and eaten, or sold as slaves, or set aside to serve as human sacrifices." Anyone venturing out of his own village risked being ambushed, enslaved and maybe devoured. (It's hard to imagine Robert E. Lee eating his slaves.) Children were often taken in midnight raids on villages. Raised as the slaves of other tribes, they usually grew up without knowing where they were born or who their parents were. Moreover, slaves were often mutilated, blinded or crippled to prevent flight. Sometimes, Basden relates, people pawned their children into slavery to satisfy even trivial debts. Theoretically this was temporary, but it rarely worked out that way: "A child thus disposed of is, in fact, seldom redeemed. None of his kin would be sufficiently interested or unselfish to subscribe the money for such a purpose. It follows that a child so pawned remains a slave for life, and any offspring born to him are slaves from birth." Did the slaves revolt? Rarely. Basden affirms: "I have never met a slave who hankered after or even expressed a desire for freedom. Indeed, in instances where the possibility of freedom has been suggested to young men they have indignantly refused to consider the proposal. On one occasion I talked at length on 'liberty,' and on all the advantages that liberty bestows upon a man, to a young fellow with whom I was closely acquainted. "He listened attentively until I had finished and then quietly remarked, 'What has N---- (his master) done to me that I should seek my liberty? I never knew my parents. I do not even know where I was born. All the love and affection I have ever experienced have come from N----. He has been father and mother to me; he has clothed, fed and educated me. Why should I forsake my benefactor and by so acting repudiate all he has done for me? Why, he is my father!'" When a slave regards his master as his benefactor and virtual father, abolitionism hasn't got much of a toehold. And the Nigerian tribes thought a slave should be grateful to his master. They didn't look kindly on the runaway slave, whom they regarded as robbing his master, not reclaiming his own rights. Even an escaped slave, Basden says, would become "an outcast without home, farm or any means of subsistence. He is not likely to meet with sympathy, for the natives would not recognize him as a freeman but would stigmatize him as a presumptuous renegade, flaunting a liberty which was not his by right. ... (T)he stigma of slavery cannot be obliterated." In the Nigerian cultures, slavery was regarded as completely legitimate -- even by the slaves themselves. It was totally indigenous and had nothing to do with the white man -- though in pre-Christian Europe, white men enslaved other white men and held most of the same attitudes as the Nigerians. In the modern world, state slavery has replaced chattel slavery, and this is widely accepted as legitimate. Through two world wars, young men (and their parents) acknowledged the right of the state to demand that they give their lives in combat. Even now, many are grateful dependents of the state, their kindly master, while the state's right to confiscate the fruits of our labor through taxation is seldom challenged. Maybe Aristotle had a point when he said that most men are slaves by nature.     The Two Great Commandments -- Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy  neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. -- Matthew 22:36 - 40 The Golden Rule -- Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. Matthew 7:12 The Apostles' Creed. -- I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified; died, and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day He arose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religion but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We shall not fight alone. God presides over the destinies of nations. The battle is not to the strong alone. Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, ALMIGHTY GOD! Give me liberty or give me death!" -- Patrick Henry  "Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people." -- George Bernard Shaw Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of man and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who, that is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric? -- George Washington, President of the United States in his Farewell Address to the United States in 1796. Bard Visit me at: The Center for Exposing Corruption in the Federal Government http://www.xld.com/public/center/center.htm Federal Government defined: ....a benefit/subsidy protection racket!