We Didn't Invent Slavery

[Keith Broaders]

Slavery has existed on our planet ever since man began to cultivate the earth over 5,000 years ago.

In the Old Testament, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob owned slaves and the Egyptian Pharoahs benefitted greatly from slave labor.

Long before Columbus arrived in the New World the the Incas, Aztecs and  Iroquois all had slaves so did the Comanchees, Cherokees and the Seminoles.

Early in the 17th Century European traders began selling African slaves to the plantation owners in the Western Hemisphere.

In order to maximize their profit the colonists established an economic system that depended heavily on slave labor.

For nearly 250 years the southern states benefitted from slavery. They used the Bible and the Constitution to justify the continuation of this unholy practice . From their pulpits the Christian pastors taught their congregations that the white race was superior to all others and that white men were superior and that the descndents of non white people amd Afrwere less than human.

The Constitution that was written by rich white men that clained that iheir goal was to was to create a government  that would promote liberty, equality and justice, but the government they created didn't believe that black and btown people had any of the same rights that God had granted to white people.

In the Declaration of Independence, the delegates at the Second Continental Congress affirmed that all men were created equal, but the men who met in Philadelphia in 1787 to amend the Articles of Confederation beleived that non white men twere less than human and were not entitled to be treated equally.