Ask Yourself Why You Were Never Taught the Origin of Race Based Human Slavery

We are deliberately discouraged from researching or discussing the truth about history

Here's a question that you've never asked: Where did the idea of race based human slavery come from? Too often, people talk about “human slavery” as if it's a static concept that has never changed. The truth is far more complex. There have been various iterations of human slavery, some of which still exist to this day.

Before I'm done with this article, you'll experience a certain amount of anger over the fact that you've been manipulated into never considering this question. That's good. That means you're becoming a better human being, even if it makes you uncomfortable.

“Human slavery has always existed”

Most people respond to any discussion on human slavery with lazy, ignorant, and inaccurate assumptions. They'll say things like, “Well, slavery has always existed.”

They act like human slavery is as natural as gravity or the sun. It isn't.

In fact, that suggestion is wrong to the point of being malicious. What are they trying to say? Are they trying to argue that oppression is part of human nature? Do they mean that “people” have always enslaved “other people,” or do they mean that “white people” have always enslaved “Black people?” Chances are, if you try to press them for clarifications, they'll become enraged rather than respond.

Some people assume slavery “has always been there” because it appears in the Bible. But it's important to note that Biblical human slavery is not race based. Human slavery in the Bible was a punishment for a crime. Connecting human slavery to race got retro fitted in later.

Behavior versus physical characteristics

Human slavery as a punishment for behavior is a significant concept. Biblical slavery wasn't a consequence of physical characteristics. There is no part in the Bible where Jesus says, “You have an unattached earlobe, and that means you have to labor for me for the term of your natural life.”

That would be a disgusting thing to say. It's equally disgusting to say the same thing about race but our culture has been so desensitized to the horrors of racism that it's considered “inappropriate” to discuss it. Christians are allowed to say “everyone is a sinner” without any objection, but if you say “everyone is racist,” it provokes anger. This strikes me as an appalling double standard.

Race is not in the Bible because race is a relatively new concept historically speaking. The term “race” itself is problematic because it's a complex idea that has acquired different meanings throughout the centuries. The first time a person with white skin saw a person with Black skin, they didn't think, “Oh, somebody of a different race!”

There was a time in human history when people didn't even have a name for all the colors. If you're feeling embarrassed for having never recognized this, you can go a little easier on yourself. The truth is that you've been deliberately conditioned against thinking about race and racism because it contradicts the mythology of American exceptionalism (among other things). If you make an intellectually honest inquiry into the historical truth of human enslavement, it ends up looking really bad for some proud and powerful institutions.

For now, it's important to recognize that human slavery was conceived as a punishment for BEHAVIOR, not for an inherent physical characteristic. That would come later as part of the human descent into total corruption, and boy, can human beings become corrupt!

What changed?

How did punishment based human slavery evolve into race based human slavery? Ugh... it's ugly. It's so ugly that the story had to be completely scrubbed from history books and the internet. It's the grossest, most disgusting, most awful story that human beings have ever created, and we just don't talk about it.

Well, we need to start talking about it. I don't care who gets embarrassed. It's time for those who are responsible for evil to quit pointing the finger at everyone else and recognize their own shortcomings for a change.

Part of the problem is that quite a bit of our modern ideology has grown out out of philosophies that are little more than dishonest justifications as to why white men should be able to exploit, oppress, and rape everyone they come into contact with. They'll try to shut you up by saying, “Well, that was a long time ago.”

It wasn't. It's still happening.

Jefferson in Paris

I'll jump to the middle of the story because you aren't yet ready for the beginning. The United States was one of the last countries to abolish human slavery. People like to say, “You can't judge the founding fathers by the mores of their time” but the fact is that even in the time of the founding fathers, people knew that slavery was evil.

44 year old Thomas Jefferson knew it was wrong when he started raping 14 year old Sally Hemings. But doing something evil even when you know it's wrong is the behavior of sociopaths. At that time in France, there was a law in place that allowed slaves to petition for their freedom. The first time slavery was abolished in France was in 1794. The fact is, the immorality of slavery was well-known in Jefferson's time.

We know Jefferson knew his abuse of Hemings was wrong because he tried to hide it. Also, we can presume that Jefferson would have objected to himself being raped, so some part of him must have known it was wrong to rape Sally Hemings. The point is, even if you judge Jefferson by the mores of his time, he's still a despicable piece of trash.

But Jefferson isn't the only villain in this story.

The decision in the Virginia colony

About a hundred years prior to Jefferson, legislators in Virginia passed one of the most despicable laws in human history. Partus Sequitur Ventrem determined that babies born to human slaves would inherit the condition of the mother. This decision is one of the roots of racism, white supremacy, modern misogyny, toxic masculinity, American rape culture, patriarchal traditionalism, and the overall exploitation and oppression of women and members of the Black community that we see today.

You see, all these self-righteous white men who decided it was their divine privilege to be the patriarchal and unquestionable source of authority in their communities, second only to God, decided that they “deserved” the right to constantly rape all the enslaved women in their vicinity. So all they did was rape, rape, rape. They didn't build anything. They didn't do any work. All they did was rape.

The thing is, all these rapes led to a bunch of babies, so these patriarchal monsters found they had to make a decision. Should they acknowledge these children as their own and have to share the family fortune? Or should they work them to death? In the name of personal comfort, they decided on a capital sentence of forced labor for their own offspring.

That's how repugnant these people were. They enslaved their own children. Thomas Jefferson did it too, think about that the next time you hear the phrase “founding father.” Jefferson was a father who made slaves out of his own kids.

To me, this demonstrates the need for the presence of women in leadership roles. I think only men are cruel enough to condemn their own children to slavery. I don't see women doing that, and the church has always known this which is why they've always prohibited women from occupying positions of power. They'd rather burn a woman at the stake than allow her to cast a vote.

When women have equal power, a society doesn't normalize the kind of “locker room” talk that makes light of rape. That kind of talk isn't funny, but history shows that when men are left alone they end up talking like that.

The “traditional” power structure

As it stands today, the only thing that makes people uncomfortable is when you question the abuses of traditionally patriarchal institutions. We're not allowed to discuss politics, religion, or sexual assault in “polite” company. That's because all those things are related. When the head of a family is a priest who rapes his own daughter, she's discouraged from bringing it up at Christmas dinner.

Whom does this mechanism serve?

We currently live in a society where women who have been raped are forced to die rather than receive life saving healthcare. The philosophy that women aren't allowed to control their own bodies needs to be exposed and expelled from humanity.

The Partus Sequitur decision is one of the forebearers of modern white supremacy, but we haven't gotten to the original theme of how race based slavery came into existence. We've only established that in ancient history, slavery was conceived as a punishment for a crime.

Slavery and the church

So, what's the missing link between “slavery as punishment” and “slavery for race?”

In 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued a decree declaring that human beings could be enslaved for being heretics. This turned out to be a terrific source of revenue for the Catholic church, and they appreciated having all the new powerless people to rape and otherwise exploit. It's frustrating when people assume the mission of the church is to assist the impoverished when history shows that, for centuries, the church profited from the brutal exploitation of the marginalized and vulnerable.

It's a fact.

Again, this argument that “all people” do this or “all religions” do this isn't supported by evidence. There's a LOT of evidence that the Catholic church is guilty of this behavior.

Freedom through conversion

Around 1650, human slaves started to figure out that they could gain their freedom by converting to Christianity. You see, up until then human slavery was still punishment based. The “crime” was that the slaves were heretics, but there had always been provisions that Christians couldn't be enslaved (because of course there were). Christians waged an effective war on education even then to keep slaves from learning they could convert, but eventually word got out (systems of oppression require ignorance).

The idea that their slaves could convert to Christianity and be free didn't make the Christians happy at all. So, they decided to change things up again and they decided to retrofit The Curse of Ham (or curse of Canaan) as a justification that all Black people were “sinful” because of their race.

There you have it, this is the argument that was used that connected Christian ideology to the justification of human slavery, and this argument was used for centuries.

The Curse of Canaan turns up in the Cornerstone Speech, which is basically the founding document of modern white supremacy. It's a disgusting speech that demonstrates the absolute depths to which people will descend. The man who spoke it, Alexander H. Stephens was the Vice-President of the Confederacy, and he was elected to the Senate after the Civil War (the US has an appalling history of leniency when it comes to insurrectionists).

All of this comes from a deliberate and malicious misreading of the Curse of Ham designed to oppress and exploit human beings. It was an accepted belief for centuries. They started with the concept of sin and derived the concept of white supremacy.

The genealogy of white supremacy

Christian ideology is one of the main reasons why race based human slavery came into existence. It's one of the main reasons why we have white supremacy, it's the parent of toxic masculinity and misogyny. You don't have to like it, but you can't erase history. They've tried, it didn't work. Now we need to try accountability.

This is why Christians accuse diversity programs as being part of the non-existent “war on Christianity.” If we study the true set of factors that led to the abomination that is race based human slavery, it looks bad for the Catholic church.

Women still aren't allowed to be leaders in the church. It's through maintaining ignorance and powerlessness that toxic males are able to preserve their untouchable positions which allow them to indulge in unspeakable acts of cruelty.

It's pretty startling when you stop and realize the power the Catholic church has had to wield in order to keep their crimes hidden from humanity. People don't go around thinking, “Where did race base slavery even come from?” Instead, they say, “Well, slavery has always been there.”

The truth about race based human slavery is why right wing groups become so angry about diversity programs.

The truth about race based human slavery is why right wing groups want to ban the 1619 project.

The truth about race based human slavery is why right wing groups object to the concept of woke.

The KKK is a white supremacist, religious based terrorist group. They make no secret of their affiliation. They dress like priests and burn crosses. Why is this a surprise to anyone?

There are some very powerful people who are terrified that the general public will wake up to the truth that white supremacy is a direct descendant of the ideology of sin.

But we don't have to stay silent.

It's not the truth that's offensive. It's the actions of powerful people who try to brainwash us into never recognizing their crimes. This is why they call us sinners, and never point the finger at themselves. They realize that if they let up the pressure for even one second, we might wake up and realize all the crimes that have been committed in the name of their beliefs.

Racism is real. Racism is a problem. It's unfair to decent people to perpetuate a system that disguises where racism comes from. It's time to hold evil accountable and do what we can to ease the suffering of humanity. We need to recognize both the crimes and the cover up. We have to fight for the collective soul of humanity, and that means rediscovering our reverence for the truth.

Modern racism is a direct descendant of the Biblical ideology of sin.

This article is going to make some people angry. But out of respect for all the innocent and vulnerable victims, betrayed by the indifference of cowards, who had to suffer the oppression of powerful evil, it's time to find the courage to stand up and tell the truth—no matter who that truth offends.