Was slavery about business?

History is only offense to those who do not learn from it

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 19, 2019

While I do hate politics in general, I find it more distressful to witness facts being assaulted because someone does not like what history actually was.

“It shouldn’t be surprising since owning slaves wasn’t a decision predicated on race but on economics. It’s a business decision.” — Republican state Rep. Werner Horn

I am an Independent because I no longer believe either party represents what I think. This is in no way a defense of a politician I know nothing about. It is however predicated upon the response that forced him to delete what he rightfully pointed out.

This is from the National Museum of American History.

The Business of Slavery Slavery created enormous profits not only for Southern planters and slave traders, but also for Northern cotton-mill owners and investors. Nearly one million enslaved Africans, defined as property, were wrenched from their upper South families. Some bought their freedom; more fought back by running away or even taking their own lives.

While our nation did try try to rectify this with the Civil War, it seems that has also been forgotten. Many African Americans who were freed joined the fight for their independence. After all, it is something they had done since the Revolutionary War. 

They have served in the military ever since the beginning.

If you know history, then you would know that as reprehensible as it was, slavery was always about business and making money using the cheapest labor instead of valuing those who provided the wealth the owners enjoyed.

Slavery existed around the world as one nation conquered another.

History of Slavery from History World
Slaves in Babylon: 18th century BC

Information about slaves in early societies relates mainly to their legal status, which is essentially that of an object - part of the owner's valuable property. The Code of Hammurabi, from Babylon in the 18th century BC, gives chilling details of the different Rewards and penalties for surgeons operating on free men or slaves. But it also reveals that the system is not one of unmitigated brutality. Surprisingly, Babylonian slaves are themselves allowed to own property.

But the first civilization in which we know a great deal about the role of slaves is that of ancient Greece.

A free man beating an enslaved man.

Slaves in Greece: from the 7th century BC

Both the leading states of Greece - Sparta and Athens - depend entirely upon forced labour, though the system in Sparta is more properly described as serfdom rather than slavery. The distinction is that the helots of Sparta are a conquered people, living on their own hereditary land but forced to work it for their Spartan masters. Their existence is a traditional rural one to which certain rights remain attached.

The slaves of Athens, by contrast, have no conventional rights. But their condition varies greatly according to the work they do.

The most unfortunate Athenian slaves are the miners, who are driven often to the point of death by their owners (the mines are state-owned but are leased to private managers). By contrast other categories of slaves - particularly those owned directly by the state, such as the 300 Scythian archers who provide the police force of Athens - can acquire a certain prestige.

The majority of Athenian slaves are domestic servants. Their fortune depends entirely on the relationship they develop with their owners. Often it is close, with female slaves looking after the children or acting as concubines, or a male slave running the household as a steward.

No free Athenian works in a domestic capacity, for it is considered shameful to be another man's servant. This inhibition applies equally to a subsidiary position in any form of business.

As a result male slaves in Athens do all work of a secretarial or managerial nature, for in these contexts they are unmistakably somebody else's personal assistant. Such jobs include positions of influence in fields such as banking and commerce.

Slaves in Rome: from the second century BC

The same loophole, offered by the self-esteem of free citizens, provides even greater opportunities to slaves in imperial Rome. The most privileged slaves are the secretarial staff of the emperor.

But these are the exception. In the two centuries before the beginning of the empire (the last two centuries BC) slaves are employed by Romans more widely than ever before and probably with greater brutality. In the mines they are whipped into continuing effort by overseers; in the fields they work in chain gangs; in the public arenas they are forced to engage in terrifying combat as gladiators. There are several slave uprisings in these two centuries, the most famous of them led by Spartacus.

Slaves in the Middle Ages: 6th - 15th century

In the period after the collapse of the Roman empire in the west, slavery continues in the countries around the Mediterranean. But the slaves are employed almost exclusively in households, offices and armies. The gang slavery characteristic of large Roman estates does not reappear until the tobacco and cotton plantations of colonial America (one notable exception is the salt mines of the Sahara).

Nevertheless the slave trade thrives, and the Mediterranean is a natural focal point.

Go to the links above to learn more before more history is deleted. It would be great if the people who are so offended would actually know the basics behind what they complain about today.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. To covet truth is a very distinguished passion."-George Santayana

Greek Armed Forces: 3 Suicides in Less Than 30 Days

Shock in Greek Armed Forces: Three suicides in less than a month
Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Very Mix

Greece’s Armed Forces are in shock. A non-commissioned officer of the Land Forces was found dead in his home on Monday morning. According to a statement of the Land Forces General Stab, the 44-year-old lieutenant was ‘fatally wounded at 2 am’ on Monday. “The causes of his death are being investigated,” the statement concluded in a traditional army tone. However, the Greek Federation of Military Associations, speaks of a suicide, noting in a statement that the man “had hanged himself in the early hours of Monday.

The lieutenant put an end to his life just 20 days, after another lieutenant, 38, shot himself in front of his soldiers, on August 4th. Several army units were participating in a army exercise on the island of Samos, when the officer pulled out his gun, put it on his temple, told two soldiers “I say Farewell” and pulled the trigger. Five days later, a 27-year-old soldier shot himself on a Sunday noon, while he was on watch duty in a military camp in Orestiada, in North-East Greece.

Greek media speak of an increase of suicides or attempted suicides in the last two years and that while in the past it was mostly soldiers taking such fatal decisions, “now it is also officers.” Last March a 43-year-old officer of the Air Force jumped into death from the fourth floor. In May 2013 an army officer committed suicide and left a note citing financial problems.
read more here

Family seeking justice after Greek Officials removed heart of Marine

Family seeking heart of dead Marine son loses round in court
The Philadelphia Inquirer
By Jeremy Roebuck
Published: July 15, 2014

PHILADELPHIA — A Coatesville, Pa. family seeking to learn how their son's heart went missing after his death in Greece two years ago will have to find answers outside of a courtroom, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell tossed out the family's claims against the Greek government and an Athens hospital, saying they had not met the high burden required to sue a foreign government in American courts.

In a ruling Thursday, the judge did, however, clear the way for the parents of Marine Sgt. Brian LaLoup to pursue a claim of negligent infliction of emotional distress against the U.S. government, which the family says withheld information about their son's incomplete remains.

The LaLoups filed their suit last year against Greece and Evangelismos General Hospital in Athens, alleging the autopsy in which their son's heart went missing was conducted over objections from U.S. military and diplomatic officials.
read more here

Also from last year

Greek Government 'Harvested' Dead U.S. Marine’s Heart
Family says the Defense Department lied to them about the missing heart and that the Greek government later sent a heart that was not their son’s back to United States
NBC 10 News
By Vince Lattanzio
Saturday, Dec 7, 2013

The family of a U.S. Marine who committed suicide inside a U.S. Embassy in Greece says their son was buried without a heart, after the Greek government performed an illegal autopsy on his body and “harvested” the organ.

Craig and Beverly LaLoup, of Coatesville, Pa., filed a lawsuit in federal court on Friday against the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Navy and U.S. government for negligence, emotional distress and alleged mistreatment of their son’s body.

U.S. Marine Sgt. Brian LaLoup, who was stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Athens, Greece, shot himself following a night out drinking in the Greek capital on Aug. 12, 2012, according to the court filing.

The 22-year-old allegedly had been at an off-duty party when he told a fellow officer he was considering ending his life.

“I don’t have anyone who loves me,” he allegedly said. He then apparently told the officer he was planning to shoot himself in the face with a shotgun.

That officer notified a superior, listed in the suit as Staff Sgt. Martinez, about Brian’s intentions. But instead of getting him medical care, the commander allegedly took him out to drink more – a violation of Marine Corps protocol, the lawsuit claims.
read more of this here

Greek officials offer clue on dead Marine's missing heart
The Philadelphia Inquirer
By Jeremy Roebuck
Published: December 12, 2013

COATESVILLE, Pa. — The missing heart of a dead Marine sergeant from Chester County was removed during an autopsy last year for toxicology testing, Greek consular officials said Wednesday.

But that explanation - offered without comment on where the organ is now - only begins to answer the questions raised by the Marine's parents in their lawsuit, filed last week in federal court in Philadelphia.

On Wednesday, Craig and Beverly LaLoup of Coatesville, parents of Sgt. Brian LaLoup, added the Greek government and the Athens hospital that conducted the autopsy to the list of defendants in their suit, which previously included the U.S. Department of Defense and the Navy.
read more of this here

Greek officials offer clue on dead Marine's missing heart

Update to this story Family says Embassy Marine's heart removed by Greece Officials

Greek officials offer clue on dead Marine's missing heart
The Philadelphia Inquirer
By Jeremy Roebuck
Published: December 12, 2013

COATESVILLE, Pa. — The missing heart of a dead Marine sergeant from Chester County was removed during an autopsy last year for toxicology testing, Greek consular officials said Wednesday.

But that explanation - offered without comment on where the organ is now - only begins to answer the questions raised by the Marine's parents in their lawsuit, filed last week in federal court in Philadelphia.

On Wednesday, Craig and Beverly LaLoup of Coatesville, parents of Sgt. Brian LaLoup, added the Greek government and the Athens hospital that conducted the autopsy to the list of defendants in their suit, which previously included the U.S. Department of Defense and the Navy.

Brian LaLoup, 21, had been stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Athens. It was there, after a night of drinking, that he fatally shot himself in the head on Aug. 12, 2012. His parents allege that Greek medical examiners removed his heart in an illegal procedure.

U.S. military officials failed to notify the parents about the missing organ until after they had buried their son, the LaLoups claim.
read more here

Family says Embassy Marine's heart removed by Greece Officials

When I saw this headline I was thinking the source must be back to some outrageous publication in checkout area of Publix but it linked to NBC.

Greek Government 'Harvested' Dead U.S. Marine’s Heart
Family says the Defense Department lied to them about the missing heart and that the Greek government later sent a heart that was not their son’s back to United States
NBC 10 News
By Vince Lattanzio
Saturday, Dec 7, 2013

The family of a U.S. Marine who committed suicide inside a U.S. Embassy in Greece says their son was buried without a heart, after the Greek government performed an illegal autopsy on his body and “harvested” the organ.

Craig and Beverly LaLoup, of Coatesville, Pa., filed a lawsuit in federal court on Friday against the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Navy and U.S. government for negligence, emotional distress and alleged mistreatment of their son’s body.

U.S. Marine Sgt. Brian LaLoup, who was stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Athens, Greece, shot himself following a night out drinking in the Greek capital on Aug. 12, 2012, according to the court filing.

The 22-year-old allegedly had been at an off-duty party when he told a fellow officer he was considering ending his life.

“I don’t have anyone who loves me,” he allegedly said. He then apparently told the officer he was planning to shoot himself in the face with a shotgun.

That officer notified a superior, listed in the suit as Staff Sgt. Martinez, about Brian’s intentions. But instead of getting him medical care, the commander allegedly took him out to drink more – a violation of Marine Corps protocol, the lawsuit claims.

Later that night, Brian went into an unlocked room inside the embassy, where weapons were stored, and committed suicide. According to court documents, he was visibly drunk and distraught and passed a guard on his way through the building.
read more here