I’m stunned but not surprised at the number of Americans promoting the notion that many slaves were happily indentured, treated nicely by their owners, and benefited from their involuntary servitude.
Do you know what enslaved people couldn’t do? Leave.
Do you know why? Because they didn’t have the freedom to do so.
Creating a counter-narrative to absolve America of the sin of slavery and then instituting that narrative into public education is the very definition of White fragility and privilege.
I don’t give a flying fuck if the enslaver’s behavior ran the spectrum from humanistic to violent rapist; the fact is America kidnapped human beings from another country and forced them to provide free labor.
Suppose I was arrested for snatching a young woman from the street, locking her in my basement, making her clean and cook for me, and using her sexually. Should I be spared a harsh judgment at sentencing because, while enslaved by me, the girl developed and sharpened her culinary skills?
Instead of whitewashing and minimizing slavery’s impact by saying enslaved people learned valuable skills, we should condemn it uniformly, formally apologize for it, and never suggest a positive aspect (and then espouse that positive impact in our textbooks).
Fuck Florida for doing so.
bendingtheneedle 