History - when people who were not there talk like they were

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This article caught my attention and really annoyed me. I could not believe my eyes!

The book is titled The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism, and the following paragraph is about a complaint regarding a review.

At the core of the reviewer's complaint is that the book's author, Cornell history professor Edward Baptist, carefully and methodically shows that the roots of American capitalism are in the kidnapping, rape, murder and forced labor of Africans. But as this is unequivocally irrefutable, the reviewer couldn't fault it, so instead he took issue with the fact that Baptist didn't consider that because they were treated as property, the slaves must have gotten a better deal (because property rights solve all problems!): "Slave owners surely had a vested interest in keeping their 'hands' ever fitter and stronger to pick more cotton. Some of the rise in productivity could have come from better treatment."

In the reviewer's eyes, slavery gives workers a better deal than employment, because employees can be discarded but slaves -- as property -- must be tended and mended.

Here's the article link:

http://boingboing.net/2014/09/06/econom ... cas-e.html

Clearly this person is using deductive reasoning to justify his belief slavery isn't as evil as people say but in reality, he was never there so how would he even begin to understand what kind of lives slaves had? I just can't believe he would callously write slaves had to have been treated well or cotton production would have suffered tremendously. He fails to recognize the role of overseers with whips in their hands and a system that demanded less productive slaves be flogged. Sure they survived and yeah they were property and therefore must be "mended and tended" like the way one sews a button back on a shirt or patches a pair of torn pants, but it would have absolutely sucked not having any control whatsoever of your life, to always be forced to grovel before the overseers and plantations owners, as well as whites in general, and worst of all, to be denied education, in many circumstances, and separated from your family. Marriage was seldom allowed and when it was, nothing prevented a married slave from being sold and taken away from their spouse. Children were sold into bondage whenever the owner found himself in debt or wished to raise capital for whatever reason. Slaves were shamelessly beaten, whipped and raped on a daily basis and that's not even going into detail the tortures the owners subjected them to, physically, emotionally, psychologically. To justify something as hideous as slavery by saying the owner simply had to take good care of the slave so he could pick a days worth of cotton is complete ignorance and callous disregard for the freedom rights of humans. It amazes me what people will mindlessly say or write after a day immersed in Fox TV. It's like they can no longer think. They become absolutely and completely mesmerized by this idea of wealth and anything becomes justified in the pursuit of it. And in the same breath, I am sure such individuals will talk about how freedom is being taken away everyday. Oh! The irony!

It's scary.