No real distribution is an ideal gaussian. There are always outliers.

Post #402,715 by Another Scott 6/20/15 5:03:41 PM Reply	No real distribution is an ideal gaussian. There are always outliers. http://www.thecarpetbagger.org/2012/09/hk-edgerton-black-confederate.html The truly disturbing part is when you venture over to Edgerton.'s website. Edgerton disputes that Slavery was the primary cause of the Civil War. Even more troubling, Edgerton defends slavery, painting the relationship between slaves and their owners as harmonious and loving. He also claims that African Americans fought for the confederacy, which is a questionable claim. From what I have read, they were not allowed to be soldiers, but did have roles where they assisted on the battlefield. One would wonder what would make a man seemingly betray his own heritage. Well, take a look at THIS. It turns out that at the events that H.K. attends he is not simply showing up at over a sense of confederate unity. H.K. charges an appearance fee. H.K. charges a 20,000 dollar appearance fee, plus mileage. So, is Edgerton for real? People who knew him as a NAACP president have expressed shock over his recent shift in views. Does Edgerton really believe what he preaches, or is he cynically selling himself to Confederate apologists as a way to erase their guilt? Maybe he laughs his way to the bank. http://anthonyhervey-confederatecrook.com/ For the 3 black people you can find that feel the way they do, there are 30M who feel differently. FWIW. Cheers, Scott.
Post #402,723 by mmoffitt 6/21/15 12:03:19 PM Reply	The victors always write the history books. Some time ago, I picked up this free book at the big river company and I read it from time to time. "Slave Narratives - A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves" It was written by the Federal Writers' Project and assembled by the Library of Congress. (I think this is the same book, but mine doesn't have the fancy cover: http://www.amazon.com/North-Carolina-Slave-Narratives-1936-1938/dp/1557090203/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1434900417&sr=8-1&keywords=slave+narratives+from+the+federal+writers%27+project+1936-1938 ) I'm not advocating for the slave apologists. I would point out, though, after reading some of these accounts and taking them at face value, it would seem to me that the institution of slavery in the South contained far greater complexity than one might suspect. The stories in that book are fascinating. Jane Lassiter's for instance. Here's an excerpt: We had plenty sumptin to eat an' it was cooked good. My mother wus de cook an' she done it right. ... Dere wus 'bout fifty slaves on de plantation, an' dey wurked from light till dark. I 'member dey wurkin' till dark. Course I wus too small to 'member all 'bout it an' I don't 'member 'bout de overseers. I never seen a slave wupped, but I 'member seein' dem carryin' slaves in droves like cows. De white men who wus guardin' 'em walked in front an' some behind. I did not see any chains. I never seen a slave sold an' I don't 'member ever seein' a jail fer slaves. Or former slave Abner Jordan's account of an encounter with Union forces: When de war come de Yankees come to de house an' axed my mammy whare de folks done hid de silver an' gol', an' dey say dey gwine to kill mammy if she didn' tell dem. But mammy say she didn' know whare dey put it, an' dey would jus' have to kill her for she didn' know an' wouldn' lie to keep dem from hurting her. De sojers stole seven or eight of de ho'ses an' foun' de meat and stole dat, but dey didn't burn none of de buildin's nor hurt any of us slaves. My pappy an' his family stayed wid Marse Paul five years after de surrender den we moved to Hillsboro an I's always lived 'roun' dese parts. I've only read maybe 10% of these stories. So far for me the most striking thing is how many slaves continued to live with their masters after the war. There are certainly instances of slaves telling stories about beatings, but the unusual thing for me is how many former slaves spoke fondly of their former masters. You don't read those stories in your history books. What all of us were taught is that all Southerners were racists who owned slaves, beat and raped them repeatedly and in general treated them in approximately the same way the Nazis ran their concentration camps. FWIW, from the stories I've read, I'd be willing to wager there are more than "three Black men" who feel the way HK does.
Post #402,724 by Another Scott 6/21/15 1:00:27 PM Reply	Another good book, mentioned here before. Slave No More. Slave narratives, some of the most powerful records of our past, are extremely rare, with only fifty-five post–Civil War narratives surviving. A mere handful are first-person accounts by slaves who ran away and freed themselves. First-person narratives carry more weight. None of us were there. I know where the preponderance of the evidence lies for me, though. YMMV. Cheers, Scott.
Post #402,725 by boxley 6/21/15 2:12:13 PM Reply	lets not leave out the californians their treatment of the chinese in the same time period of southern slavery met or exceeded their southern bretheren. Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free American and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 59 years. meep

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