I picked slavery because we are still living with it's effects 200 years later. Americans indians were robbed and treated as slaves so they are included in my pick.
All that is true, but the Indians were enslaved in the early history of our country.....I don't think they were treated as slaves, as they were not plucked from their lives and forced to work. Slavery is a deprivation of liberty. The natives were deprived of life, liberty and property (the whole sha-bang). Their entire lives were destroyed in front of them and they were left with neither the means nor the property to realize any semblance of freedom or autonomy. I'm not excusing slavery, but nothing holds a candle to what my ancestors did to the native people of the land I now enjoy.
.....Once Europeans arrived as colonialists in North America, the nature of Indian slavery changed abruptly and dramatically. Indians found that British settlers, especially those in the southern colonies, eagerly purchased or captured Indians to use as forced labor in cultivating tobacco, rice, and indigo. More and more, Indians began selling war captives to whites rather than integrating them into their own societies. And as the demand for labor in the West Indies became insatiable, whites began to actively enslave Indians for export to the so-called "sugar islands."
The resulting Indian slave trade devastated the southeastern Indian populations and transformed Native American tribal relations throughout the region. The English at Charles Town, the Spanish in Florida, and the French in Louisiana sought trading partners and allies among the Indians, offering trading goods such as metal knives and axes, firearms and ammunition, intoxicants and beads, and cloth and hats in exchange for furs (deerskins) and Indian slaves captured from other tribes. Unscrupulous traders, frontier settlers, and government officials encouraged Indians to make war on other tribes to reap the profits from the slaves captured in such raids or to weaken the warring tribes.
It is not known how many Indians were enslaved by the Europeans, but they certainly numbered in the tens of thousands. It is estimated that Carolina merchants operating out of Charles Town shipped an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 Indian captives between 1670 and 1715 in a profitable slave trade with the Caribbean, Spanish Hispaniola, and northern colonies. Because of the higher transportation costs of bringing blacks from Africa, whites in the northern colonies sometimes preferred Indian slaves, especially Indian women and children, to blacks. Carolina actually exported as many or even more Indian slaves than it imported enslaved Africans prior to 1720. The usual exchange rate of captive Indians for enslaved Africans was two or three Indians to one African.....
Slavery in America
I was torn in between the Indians and Hiroshima Nagasaki ...one was genocide the other was the most horrible terrorist attack in history, so I dunno.
The Indians sealed their fate when they sided with the British during the War of 1812. What did they think was going to happen? And dropping the bomb on Japan was a "terrorist" attack? Get real.
Well, the bomb was a show of overwhelming force against a civilian population. However, it was during a time of open warfare against an aggressor nation. "Terrorist" it was not.
Well, the bomb was a show of overwhelming force against a civilian population. However, it was during a time of open warfare against an aggressor nation. "Terrorist" it was not.
I would say it still fits the definition of terrorism. That doesn’t in itself mean it wasn’t the right choice. In my book, targeting non-combatants in order to effect some sort of political change or action, is terrorism. Terrorism used to be a very common, and acceptable, tactic in warfare.
I agree. It was effective military strategy, and it likely did save lives. 70,000 people died in the immediate blast. 70 million people died in the war overall, many millions of civilians. A military invasion would have been catastrophic, as it was in Europe.
Plus, after Bataan and their treatment of POWs, and our allies, I can't say I have any sympathy for the Japanese at that time.
The War for Indendence a greatest American sin? I guess the British must have thought so, but why is it on the list?
How many of the Japanese killed in the bombing ever laid a hand on an American? I can be convinced that the bomb was necessary for the greater good while still feeling sympathy for those killed and maimed, particularly the children. Surely you can as well.