IS JUDGMENT COMING?
LINCOLN THOUGHT YES!
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
This photo was taken at the Philadelphia Monument at Gettysburg. Gettysburg was a three day battle in 1863, ending on July 4th with a loss of approximately 51,000 Americans. Hopefully in this next election, our influence as citizens can direct our leaders back to civil dialogue instead of continuing to demonize their opponents and divide our population against itself.
WHY WE IMPOSED THIS PUNISHMENT ON EACH OTHER
For many it was fought to end slavery a long overdue demonstration of how much #BlackLivesMatter . From the signing of the Constitution forward, it was a hotly contested issue. For others it was fought to sustain the structure of the Union; and some fought for their right to continue the lifestyle and economic system they had grown accustomed to. Although a temporary form of slavery, "indentured servitude," was foundational in the establishment of the colonies, it's application was unjust, with rights and privileges being given or withheld mostly along racial and gender lines. Instead of surrendering ones freedom and enlisting to work for a set number of years with the promise of obtaining land and greater freedoms, the black's and many other nonwhites remained indentured for life. With the addition of the African slave trade many arrived as human chattel, stripped of all rights and privileges.
At that time in history, slave labor was the most exploitable labor resource. Africans vulnerable to neighboring tribes, neighboring Arabs and European Slavers and the slave trade network were the links that chained this supply to the demands of European consumers.
THINKING OUTSIDE OF THE CHAINS
In 1861 there were an estimated 4,000,000 slaves in the United States.
Had the North AND the South spent the 7.5 billion in a combined efforts, to purchase emancipation for each of these 4 million persons, the cost would have been about $1,875.00 for each person and presented a strong gesture that black lives REALLY do matter.
Had the South invested this money into infrastructure, farms, roads, railroads, factories, ports ships, schools, housing, churches, etc, the wealth of the Southern States would have surged beyond the perceived benefits of many years of slave labor and there would have been no devastation of the South.
The purchase price of a human being at that time was incredibly expensive at between $450 and $1,800. Today in Sudan the cost is nearer to $100, or about $10 (in 1860 money). With all the fury about racial injustice; I don't see why black lives being sold into slavery today don't seem to matter to American activists?
Recently, Steve Maman, a Sephardic Jew from Montréal Canada launched a global movement with a GoFundMe page that topped a half-million dollars to pay for the release of Yazidis and Christians from their ISIS captors. In doing so he has created a lifeline for some 2,700 young women and girls estimated to still be in captivity behind Islamic State lines. See Story @ http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4694211,00.html
Purchasing emancipation prior to 1861, at the same cost as the War would have seemed a little spendy, by market standard, but a real bargain in comparison to what actually happened!
But that would have required thinking outside of the chains of suspicion and hatred. Chains that were formed due to our failure to find WORKING COMPROMISE in our representative government. Genuine empathy and problem solving could have freed us, but we chose to punish instead.
As our current drive for ever accelerating profits extracted from cheaper and cheaper labor grows, our willingness to ignore the plight of our fellows also grows. Colonialism had it's exploitative abuses. But it also invested and created stability and infrastructure. Today this is not required.
Has today's GLOBAL COMMUNITY recreated the CONDITIONS that promoted the existence of a GLOBAL SLAVE TRADE? As we continue to move away from the Judeo-Christian Values toward greater and greater social hedonism it is very likely that we may truly become, "OUR BROTHER'S KEEPERS," as they slave to meet our consumer appetites.
For examples, Click the directly link below.
https://plus.google.com/116167242209081966340/posts/Yram6dTfk1h and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG1AwxCx_YA&list=WL&index=34 Click the round photo to the left at the top of this page for more Videos, Posts, and Articles.
some sources
@wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_United_States @www. infoplease.com/spot/slavery1.html
@www. civilwarhome.com/warcosts.htm
Detailed studies of Union and Confederate military casualties are found in Numbers and Losses in the Civil War in America 1861-65 by Thomas L. Livermore (I901) and Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1867-1865 by William F. Fox (1889).
Source: "Historical Times Encyclopedia of the Civil War" Edited by Patricial L. Faust
