Pete Vincent wrote: > > Interesting. Are you saying there was __white slavery__ in America? > > Pretty much. although indentured labour was supposed to be paid, and to > terminate upon completion of the debt obligation, in many cases it was > contrived in such a way that it was a life sentence.
According to Wikipedia, indentured labour was __far from__ slavery: It says that most indentured servants were young Europeans under the age of 21, whose service was negotiated by their parents, and usually entered into voluntarily by the servant. Sounds like a sort of apprenticeship. > The main > distinctions between it and true slavery were that 1) children weren't > the property of the employer, to sell out from their parents, and 2) if > a labourer escaped, and got far enough away, he/she could blend in with > the white population and disappear. So it wasn't slavery. > In fact, I rather suspect the > primary reason for using african slaves was the convenient skin marker > that made it impossible for the labour to ever be free of pursuit. No. As skin marker for slaves, a number burned to the forearm would have been sufficient (as in ancient Rome and the nazi camps). The primary reason for using Africans as slaves in America was that: - colonialism is racism - lots of cheap, strong and obedient slaves available in Africa only - PR issue: in "the Land of the Free" (for whites, that is), you can't keep whites as slaves... > See also the "home children" of Canada, shipped out from England, who > were child slave labour, provided with only room and board, and confined > to work, usually as farm labour, for their "guardians" til they were 18. As I said: Apprenticeship, old style. Slavery certainly doesn't end at age 18! > > Methinks the MacGregors would have had the option to return to Europe > > soon. And before being evicted, they would have had the option to get > > rich. ;-} > > I imagine Malcolm can set you straight here, but the answer is generally > no. Getting back to europe was pretty much out of the question, but > making a new life in the new world and having success, was a possibility > if not for the labourers, then at least for their children. The "American dream" is for the individual, not just for their children. So these apprentices could have become rich enough (at least) to buy a ticket and return to Europe. (Various Swiss did that.) Bottom line: Malcolm's claim about them not having an option was wrong. Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
