Slavery History Unimagined

Slavery History Unimagined

LIGHTNING STRIKES

There was a day that I finally had a thought to myself, “that is enough.” With all that is going on around me and in this country and time, I needed a little bit more information. I decided to look into slavery in a general sense of the term instead of just sticking with and assuming truth on the information I grew up on and that was given to me. Sometimes the best thing you can do is that you just have to do things for yourself instead of believing what you hear. In other words, don’t always assume the knowledge that is obtained whether in your youth or as an adult is correct or more importantly is complete.

BEGINNING

There is always a beginning to everything so that was where I started. My personal research needed to not only be worldwide but the earliest findings. I found out that worldwide slavery began around 6800 BC as recorded. I am the last person that likes history but I was intrigued by this. As I continued to research I found that it was in Mesopotamia where enemies of war were captured and kept by the conquering country as slaves. And as a notation…there was no context in which neither color nor race was recorded. Now, to me, my own personal non important opinion I felt this was very relevant.

Moving forward I read that in 1700 BC Egyptian pharaohs enslaved the Israelites which is something I already was aware of and was under the impression most people did or do, howeve r, the important realization is that these facts are most often ignored and/or deemed insignificant. WHY?

Continuing on I also obtained the knowledge that pagan Greeks participated in slavery at some point in time as well as Romans. And this next thing was seriously interesting. In the 8th century…the first actual mention of “African slaves”…were sold to ARAB households in a Muslim world that, at the time, spanned from Spain to Persia. Another intriguing bit of information that I myself had never learned or maybe didn’t pay attention to like I’m sure so many others. And again, most likely because I have never been into or interested in history since in my opinion it’s like reliving a horrible experience in your past. Please do not get me wrong. I do believe that history can play an important role when it comes to that oh so powerful quote, “LEARN FROM YOUR PAST” and do not repeat it.

NO WAY!?

After that I had to find out some more. I read that in about 1000 AD slavery was common in England’s rural economy and that even Germany captured slaves. Around 1444 AD Portuguese traders bought a large number of slaves from Africa to Europe. This next fact was the most important thing I read. In around 1526 SPANISH Explorers brought the FIRST AFRICAN slaves to settlements in what would become the US. WHAT??? Also, there was a mention that Native Americans of the Cherokee Nation had African slaves at some point.

RESEARCH FINAL THOUGHTS

Now, this is the information I researched in my growing curiosity of the subject. Any of this can be easily Googled because that is exactly what I did. The knowledge I gained from this exploration is that at one time or another we all were slaves of some sort and that because of this we should not tear each other down but realize that we are all bonded by past, present, and future. I do not understand why race or color matters. We are spoiled, entitled and selfish humans. If we were all identical clones there would still be whining and complaining of boredom. Nothing is ever good enough or just enough in general. We are HUMANS not a color, or a ethnicity. Why do we have to be categorized? Start with food…why Mexican, Asian, Chinese, Greek…etc. Why not just food? I want tacos or enchiladas or salad or chow mein or dolmades (Greek). This line of thinking is what we are accustomed to and what we were taught. But, do we not want to be better and teach our children to be better and make the world better for ALL?