A Grain of Salt | ElbyJames
2 min readJun 5, 2020

--

“The people they stole this country from became ‘Savages.’ The people they stole from other countries became ‘Black,’” the native Americans weren’t the peace-loving, angels historians paint them to be. Yes, those who landed in the New World by accident did commit atrocities to the natives, I’ve never denied that. Calling the natives savages goes a little too far in my book but they were always raiding and pillaging nearby tribes. They stole horses, raped women and took them as slaves, and killed men and boys.

As for the slave trade, it was a terrible time in history but you can’t deny that the “people they stole” were already slaves. Slavery is bad whether it’s in the Bible, in America, or in Africa but their own people enslaved them. They were enslaved as the “spoils of wars and tribal warfare” and for unpaid debts. Their African-masters sold their own people to Europeans which is no secret and I don’t deny that. Today the slave trade continues in Africa:

Africa just recorded the highest rate of modern-day enslavement in the world. Armed conflict, state-sponsored forced labor, and forced marriages were the main causes behind the estimated 9.2 million Africans who live in servitude without the choice to do so, according to the 2018 Global Slavery Index. And despite these practices being widespread, slavery has remained a largely invisible issue, in part, because it disproportionately affects the most marginalized members of society, such as minorities, women, and children.

Africa has the highest rate of enslavement in the world

But of course you will deny this and somehow weave white supremacy into my comment. I expect this because most people don’t know their real history and when they hear it for the first time deny it.

--

--

A Grain of Salt | ElbyJames

ElbyJames is an American disabled combat vet exiled in the UK & a free speech absolutist. He’s an occasional Top Writer