Indian Slavery

[Anonymous]

I just heard an interesting podcast on the hidden problem of Indian slavery in the U.S. We’re all familiar with black slaves, but Indian slavery is less well-known. They made a small reference to the Indian slave trade in the Utah Territory, and Brigham Young’s decision to purchase Indian slaves in order to free them. It was a very small part of the podcast, but indicated the complex problems Indians (and Mormons) faced. Indians enslaved Indians well before whites came to America. It was pretty well entrenched. But Europeans made it more of a commodity, and often paid higher prices for female Indian slaves than their male counterparts. They were more of sex slaves than anything. It was pretty interesting to hear. See/hear: https://www.npr.org/2017/11/20/565410514/an-american-secret-the-untold-story-of-native-american-enslavement

[Anonymous]

Interesting and a bit depressing how enslavement has always been around. It makes me a bit angry when folks say we are living in a terrible time. I wish I could force some singing that song to really see some of this history.

[Anonymous]

I knew about Christopher Columbus and his whole child-sex-slave trading shinanigans, as well as poor Sacajawea. But as a whole, I thought Indian slaves were less desirable… they much more adapt at escaping, surviving in the brush, and making their way home, than the Africans carried from half a world away and raised in captivity.

LookingHard wrote:

Interesting and a bit depressing how enslavement has always been around. It makes me a bit angry when folks say we are living in a terrible time. I wish I could force some singing that song to really see some of this history.

I completely agree. The quality of life for most is at an historical all-time high. There’s less murder, less rape, less pillaging, less hunger, less disease, better communication, better education… We’ve given up some virtues (like chastity), but we’ve also rejected some vices (like cruelty). I’d rather live in a world where porn is commonplace, than one where diviants are “staked”. While there are still plenty of improvements to be made (human-trafficking is still awful), I am grateful to be living in a time where slavery as a whole is viewed with shame and disgust. I wouldn’t trade living any for any other time.

[Author]

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