[autumnraine]

You’d be surprised at the almost hysterics the black college students in my class went into when they discovered that the first legal slaveowner in America (English colony at the time) was a black man.

[cripplecreek]

Yesterday I went looking for an account of the freeing of a slave by Samuel Adams. The first site I found made the claim that Adams would not allow a negro in his home. The reality is that Adams always opposed slavery and said that he would not allow the negro (Surrey) to live in his home as a slave.

I did eventually find this account of the story.

[norton]

cvan you elaborate for we historically challenged students?

[justa-hairyape]

You’d be surprised at the almost hysterics the black college students in my class went into when they discovered that the first legal slaveowner in America (English colony at the time) was a black man.

Quite a few Europeans originally came to America as Indentured Servants. Basically a contract slave. The contract was for a specific length of time. Once the contract was over, they were free. There were also many Europeans that came over on English prison ships. Those people probably had it the worse off. Forced to do the dirty work of the English at the point of a gun. That was standard practices back in those days.

[Ditter]

Thinking about your black ancestors being slaves must be very painful but did you ever ask the black college students in your class if they would rather be living in Africa today or where they are living in the USA?

I chatted with some black girls in a plantation house in Louisiana while we were touring it. They had just learned that the owners of that plantation were black and they had owned black slaves. They were devastated.