Israel

[Resident Loser]

...question: Judah P. Benjamin, Attorney-General of the Confederacy.

I love it when critics of certain racial or religious groups are instantly labeled card-carrying members of the KKK when unpleasant and/or critical remarks about those groups are made.

Examples such as, free blacks in the south owned slaves, black Africans sold other black Africans into slavery and now add to the list: Jews were complicit in the slave trade.

Given the fact that down through history, Jews were and are a dominant and (some might say) controlling segment of the financial and mercantile elite...further that four continents and countless individuals and groups were involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade...it is really beyond reason to somehow ignore those facts and categorically exculpate them from any participation in the trade.

Some salient text follows:

"...The history that the old "Black-Jewish Coalition" clumsily avoids is the entire three century history of Jewish presence in South America and the Caribbean. But other highly acclaimed Jewish scholars have not been so blind:

Lee M. Friedman, a one-time president of the American Jewish Historical Society, wrote that in Brazil, where most of the Africans actually went, "the bulk of the slave trade was in the hands of Jewish settlers."

Marcus Arkin wrote that the Jews of Surinam used "many thousands" of Black slaves.

Herbert I. Bloom wrote that "the slave trade was one of the most important Jewish activities here (in Surinam) as elsewhere in the colonies." He even published a 1707 list of Jewish buyers by name with the number of Black humans they purchased.

Cecil Roth, writer of 30 books and hundreds of articles on Jewish history, wrote that the slave revolts in parts of South America "were largely directed against [Jews] as being the greatest slave-holders of the region."

"I gather," wrote Jewish scholar Wilfred Samuels, "that the Jews [of Barbados] made a good deal of their money by purchasing and hiring out negroes..."

According to the Jewish historians, all Barbadian Jews owned slaves - even the rabbi had "the enjoyment of his own two negro attendants."
In Curaçao which was a major slave trading depot, Isaac and Susan Emmanuel report that "the shipping business was mainly a Jewish enterprise."

Says yet another Jewish writer of the Jews of Curaçao, "Almost every Jew bought from one to nine slaves for his personal use or for eventual resale."

Seymour B. Liebman in his New World Jewry, made it clear that "[t]he ships were not only owned by Jews, but were manned by Jewish crews and sailed under the command of Jewish captains."

Moshe Kahan stated bluntly that in 1653-1658, " Jewish-Marrano merchants were in control of the Spanish and Portuguese trade, were almost in control of the Levantine trade...were interested in the Dutch East and West Indian companies, were heavily involved in shipping; and, most important, had at their disposal large amounts of capital."

In Brazil, where most of our kidnapped ancestors were sent, Jewish scholar Arnold Wiznitzer is most explicit about Jewish involvement:
"Besides their important position in the sugar industry and in tax farming, they dominated the slave trade. From 1636 to 1645 a total of 23,163 Negro slaves arrived from Africa and were sold for 6,714,423 florins. The West India Company, which monopolized imports of slaves from Africa, sold slaves at public auctions against cash payment. It happened that cash was mostly in the hands of Jews. The buyers who appeared at the auctions were almost always Jews, and because of this lack of competitors they could buy slaves at low prices. On the other hand, there also was no competition in the selling of the slaves to the plantation owners and other buyers, and most of them purchased on credit payable at the next harvest in sugar. Profits up to 300 percent of the purchase value were often realized with high interest rates....If it happened that the date of such an auction fell on a Jewish holiday the auction had to be postponed. This occurred on Friday, October 21, 1644."

Jews and Slavery in the Old South

The Jewish critics prefer to focus on the history of slavery in America while ignoring our kidnapped African family in other parts of the Western Hemisphere. This attempt to focus the debate is designed to limit our historical inquiry and to suggest that we Blacks are to care only about our Black family within America's political boundaries. This view also conveniently limits the consideration of evidence of direct Jewish involvement as whip-wielders in the slave trade which is so abundant in the southern part of the Western Hemisphere. By the time of the Jewish migration into what is now the United States, Jews were less involved in the direct trade but remained significant beneficiaries by their involvement in the plantation economy.

Jews in the South were of the merchant class, according to a Jewish historian, having developed "a separate and distinctive accommodation to the plantation economy." The Southern planters depended upon these merchants to move their produce to market as well as for a source of supplies and financing. Jews had become commission merchants, brokers, auctioneers, cotton wholesalers, slave clothing dealers, and peddlers, keeping the slave economy oiled with money, markets and supplies...."

While there may be an agenda on the authors part, there would certainly seem to be a number of historians, Jewish historians at that, who concur with the premise of Jewish complicity in the slave trade.

The complete article is here:

http://www.blacksandjews.com/Jews_and_Slavery.html

So while one might prefer to be complacently blinded by their own naivete' on the subject, they do so at their own peril.

With regard to other statements in Joebialek's post, there is some info in this prior posting that may be food for thought:

http://forums.audioreview.com/off-topic-non-audio/so-flo-you-learn-your-mistakes-eh-13677-post104940.html

While it's original intent was a bit different, the info contained therein (the Balfour document, formation of the Arab League, etc.) is still applicable...Israel and it's policies are a significant problem for the region.

jimHJJ(...and as unpleasant as it might be to some, there is no denying it...)

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

RL,
When I was studying slavery the fact the Jews showed up so prominately in slave trade really surprised me. Considering the history of slavery within the Jewish culture, I thought they would be the last group of folks having anything to do with this henious practice. Upon further reading I found that during the height of african slave trade, just about every country from Europe to the middle east was involved in slave trade in some fashion. Arabs were also.

This just goes to show that quite a few people do not seem to learn from history. Even there own. Interesting enough, it was Jews that helped me early in my film mixing career, and I am forever greatful to those people for it.

In the end, people are people. No matter what culture or religion they come from. There is good, and bad in them all. That is why I chose to look at people, and not races or religions. No one race or religion has cornered the market on hate and evil.

[trollgirl]

... just about every country from Europe to the middle east was involved in slave trade in some fashion. Arabs were also.

Yes, I read recently that Arab raiders pretty much broke European sea power in the Mediterranian Sea. They raided for slaves as far away as Iceland. You've seen the Greek and Italian costal towns which are perched way up on hills above the shore? Now you know why. Many thousands of Europeans ended their days as slaves in north Africa. If you learn enough, you find that we're all the same boat.

Laz

[PAT.P]

[QUOTE=Sir Terrence the Terrible
In the end, people are people. No matter what culture or religion they come from. There is good, and bad in them all. That is why I chose to look at people, and not races or religions. No one race or religion has cornered the market on hate and evil.[/QUOTE]Words well spoken ,hope everyone would see the world this way.