North Carolina was the first state to ban the buying and selling of slaves. Meanwhile, Maine was home to a large percentage of North American slave traders. The first European-American slaves in North America were white. They were indentured servants who had run before their seven years of servitude was over, and were therefore sentenced to a lifetime of servitude. Prior to that, of course, many of the Native American tribes held slaves.
It's a interesting but sad thing that all the black prisoners were unjustly imprisoned in the first place and then leased out to do mining jobs and plantation work. This practice started during Reconstruction and didn't end until 1928. A real blight on this countries history.
Actually it was in the Northern California area under Kamala Harris. She was keeping young black men in prison for longer sentences so they would be available as cheap fire fighting labor for the state. Reports of it were suppressed by the MSM during the campaign, but it can still be found if you look. Remember that the Democrats were the party of slavery, and the anti-civil rights campaigners who used the filibuster to derail and delay civil rights and integration. Even Biden referred to the use of the filibuster against civil rights, but he didn't mention the party that used it...if he even realized where he was.
I don't believe it was specifically black prisoners. When I was a child living in rural GA, the "chain gang" (as my mother called them) came by our house every few months to grade the dirt road we lived on. It was a mix of white and black prisoners.
You are missing the point Beth. Black prisoners were convicted and sentenced for things like talking to a white woman, not yielding on the sidewalk, attempting to vote, not saying Yes Sir. White prisoners had been convicted and sentenced for real crimes. The phony crime list for Blacks was thought up by various southern states in retaliation to RECONSTRUCTION LAWS by the federal government. Thousands of Black prisoners forced labor just extended slavery. State-Imposed Forced Labor: History of Prison Labor in the U.S. - End Slavery Now
And you know this for a fact, or you just repeating what you heard? Here is a part of slavery that people never tell. Blacks in Africa were captured by other Blacks, and sold as slaves. Many slave traders and owners in America were Blacks. Less than 2% of Whites ever owned a slave.
It's a documented fact Jim and not something I heard. Slavery amongst African tribes is a different subject entirely. State-Imposed Forced Labor: History of Prison Labor in the U.S. - End Slavery Now
It's documented on an agenda site. Of course, if they were truly concerned with ending slavery now, they would focus on those countries who enslave people now rather than the system of slavery that England, Spain, and Portugal introduced to the American colonies hundreds of years ago, and which the United States. began scaling down as soon as it became a nation, and did away with only eighty years after its formation. One reason why slavery in Africa is a different subject entirely is that it still exists in Africa.
Anyone can document anything. That doesn't make it true. Capturing slaves among African tribes and then selling them as slaves that were brought into America, is not a different subject. How about the documented fact that is being circulated about the Tulsa massacre of 1921 that killed 300 blacks. It turns out that the real fact is, there were 36 people killed and about half of them were Whites. Not trying to attack you Lon, but there are so many "FACTS" that are being thrown around these days to trash White people, and then the "facts" turn out to be propaganda and outright lies.
The U.S. was well on the way to eliminating the slavery the Brits put here by the beginning of the 19th century. If you read the Northwest Ordinance, it essentially eliminated slavery in new states. John C. Calhoun and his cohorts supported a pro-slavery movement and claimed it was good for both the slave and the owner, an absurd proposition. As usual, the Democratic Party made it an election issue in the Presidential election of 1860 when they nominated John Breckinridge at the convention. The northern Democrats wanted Stephen A. Douglas, a moderate, but the Southern Democrats made it an issue and it led to the Civil War. The Southern Democrats then assassinated Lincoln, leaving a southerner in the White House to mismanage the reconstruction. Any way, the Virginia Constitution, which was copied into some of the U.S. Constitution, used the words, "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of PROPERTY" but that was changed when the Declaration of Independence was written to "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" because even at that early date, most of the Continental Congress did not support slavery.
I understand why it occurred but am appaled by the cruelty imposed by white society toward blacks after the so called ENDING of slavery