At 04:41 PM 2/20/98 -0500, you wrote:
>But isn't that distorting history?  The Africans who worked on the
>plantation were most definitely slaves.  Some of them had it real good,
>living better than poor, free whites and some of them were treated worse
>than abused animals.

No matter how "good" they may appear to have had it, they were still
enslaved.  That cannot have been "good" in any meaningful sense.


>Why is the use of the word "slave" such a bad thing?

Because it represents one group of humans systematically degrading another
for profit.

>
>Deb
>


William H. Mulligan, Jr. [[log in to unmask]]
Associate Professor of History
Director - Forrest C. Pogue Public History Institute
Murray State University - Murray, KY 42071-0009
Phone:(502) 762-6571 Fax:(502) 762-6587
Home Phone:(502)753-9033
Pogue Institute web site:
http://campus.murraystate.edu/academic/faculty/Bill.Mulligan/Index.htm