If we could do without the reconstruction phase it might be better. I think desegregation and integration matters helped a great deal. Just look at the attitude toward race from people's grandparents and great grandparents to where it is today. It changed. Also it helped prevent the situation that exists in much of the north where people aren't aware they are racist at all. They believe blacks should have all the same rights as anyone else, but they don't want them as neighbors, have crazy stereotypes and things like that.
once you factor that slaves had no prospect of bettering their lives maybe you wouldn't say such insulting things like they had poor work ethic.
I think that is what Weslinder is saying. I don't think he is insulting people who were slaves but just stating the fact that slaves weren't as productive as other laborers since their labor is forced.
Yes because they were slaves. I don't consider that an insult but a fact due to that they were kept in servitude.
i think to say someone who was forced to work in a field for over twelve hours a day for 6 days a week and say others would have been better under other circumstances is an insult. if you say, because of slavery they were poor workers that's fine. but that's not what he said.
They didn't buy into the Protestant work ethic... he said NOTHING wrong.. you are once again looking for bullsh&t. Why did they not buy into the Protestant work ethic? Probably because they were SLAVES and received no benefit to working hard! Your immediate reach is the exact reason people can't or won't talk openly about the subject of race.
I think that is reading more into what Weslinder wrote than he may have intended. Its a fact that slaves were not as productive as free Americans and historically the Protestant work ethic is cited as one reason why Americans were productive. To me it seems obvious that the difference is that slaves well, were slaves. I can't speak directly for Weslinder and I hope he chimes in again but I don't see that as saying if another group of people held in a condition of servitude would be more productive. Also he adds Which tells me that he is looking at the fact that blacks were held in slavery as likely being the factor that black slaves weren't as productive as free Americans.
weslinder has a dubious posting history on slavery and the south. i ignored another instance when he used some slaves misguided loyalty in defending the south in the civil war to suggest slavery wasn't that bad. I wish i could find the thread to cite it but from his posting history on the subject i'm not willing to give him the benefit. he didn't say they didn't buy into the work ethic because of slavery so please stop putting words in his mouth and let him defend his statement he's one of these guys who is still fighting the civil war
I think it's just wrong to criticize slaves for having bad work ethic when they didn't exactly have the best working conditions or incentives to work hard. I'm pretty sure most people would be less productive under such conditions, "Protestant work ethic" or not.
People here do realize that it took about another 100 years after the Civil War for passage of the Civil Rights Act, right? And it would have worked out better if we had let slavery end without intercession? Within the lifetime of many posters on this board we still had separate facilities. So the free market would have solved slavery?
Idk where this perception that enslaved Africans were lazy is coming from. Quite a few of these Africans have been removed from their graves and alot of them had literally been worked to death. Worked so hard that their muscles were torn away from the bone......nobody here has worked that damn hard.
I am not expert on the work ethic of slaves but it makes no sense to work an expensive slave to death. Like weslinder said the heat is extreme and can kill you easily. When a kid dies on the football field from heat stroke did the coach work him to death? Torn muscles and tendons are not uncommon among laborers. My friends ripped his bicep and went back to work 2 weeks later ( in severe pain) because he needed the cash like most people.
Not all enslaved Africans were worked to death..but some were. During the early years of slavery in the Americas, it cheaper to import new Africans. This made the lives of those already there even more expendable. In the 1600-1700s the life expectancy for a male slave brought to the Americas was about 25 (give or take a few years) females lived slightly longer with a life expectancy of around 28 years. I'm a well aware that injuries happen with work (some Africans actually injured themselves intentionally to avoid working for their master.....this led to other punishments) I'm saying that some of these individuals were work so hard that they often died as a result. Lets not even get started on the medical experimentation quite a few had to endure...
What is the definition of worked to death? Died while working? Why would a rich business owner overwork his extremely expensive property?
