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