The Hypocrisy of the Slavery Haters

A group of indonesians rescued from slave traffickers in 2015.

When the average person hears the word “Confederacy” these days, they automatically associate the word with slavery. This is due to the Yankees’ successful efforts to distract the populace from the real cause of the Confederacy – governmental reform and freedom from tyranny. But that’s a topic for another day. For now, we’re going to focus on “slavery” part.

 
Now as most of those reading this will already know, the notion that Confederates were fighting to keep their slaves is a quisquiliary ipsedixitism. That is to say, it’s utter BS. But, the Confederacy did have slavery, and the vast majority of its citizens probably didn’t lose any sleep over that fact. So if you oppose the Confederacy because you hate slavery, I suppose I can respect that.
 

But in order to hate slavery, you must, in fact, hate slavery. Now, slavery has been used all throughout history, and all major ancient societies utilized it. Thus to hate slavery is to hate all those ancient societies. But of course that would be absurd, and I don’t fault those who hate the Confederacy but admire, for example, the ancient Egyptians.

 
But slavery still exists today, and it’s not some minor thing either. A lot of the world’s raw minerals, such as gold and cobalt, come from forced labor in Africa. A lot of the world’s coffee and cocoa (the main ingredient in chocolate) come from forced labor in Africa and parts of South America, and many of those laborers are children, some as young as 5.

 
Sweatshops in east Asia are responsible for a lot of the world’s phones, clothes, and shoes. The World Cup stadium in Qatar was largely purported to have been built with slave labor, and Saudi Arabia has many Indians and Filipinos who are lured in by the promise of high wages and then have their passports confiscated and are forced to do backbreaking labor to “earn” the passports back. The list goes on and on and on for examples of modern slavery.
 

Oh, what is that you say? You only hate slavey in the United States? Well first of all, shame on you, and second of all, we have you covered here, too. Those migrants that come pick our crops and work in our factories, do you think those are well-paying jobs? Do you think there’s any chance of a promotion? Do you think there is paid time off? OSHA regulations? Job-provided healthcare? Benefits? Retirement packages? Well let me help you out. The answer to all those questions is a firm, resounding NO. Sure, it’s not technically slavery - they could just get up and leave. And watch their families starve to death back home because there’s no more money flowing in.
 

So there’s slavery present in basically every facet of the modern industrial world. And so, naturally, you see all these anti-Confederate, anti-slavery people constantly raising awareness for modern day slavery, donating to anti-slavery organizations, and buying products confirmed to not be made using slave lab… I’m kidding, of course they don’t do any of that.

 
Those in the Naming Commission and the 1619 Project will happily pour their slave-harvested sugar into their slave-grown coffee, while using their slave-made iPhone (itself made from slave-mined materials) to shop for slave-produced clothes and shoes. Maybe they wanted to eat healthy today, so they’re eating an orange, one that was picked by some 15 year old migrant in California working in the 95 degree heat for 16 hours a day, and earning about as many dollars as compensation.
 

And then their lunch break is over, so they buy their last shirt or two off of Amazon, set their iPhone down, finish their orange and their coffee, and then get back to work – advocating for every Confederate monument and flag to be taken down. After all, we wouldn’t want to have any symbols of slavery, now would we?
 

But, to quote every TV infomercial that comes on at 3AM, we’re still not done! Oh, so you only care about chattel slavery that happened in the Civil War era United States. Well wouldn’t you just know it, the North had slaves too! And for longer than the South did – on BOTH ends of the timeline! The first slaves went to work in the late 1600s in Massachusetts, while the last slaves were freed in December 1865 from New Jersey. Do you think the slaves were treated any better up North than down South? Quite the opposite – the South, under heavy pressure from anti-slavery groups in the North, greatly reformed its slave practices in the 1830s, 40s, and 50s. The Nottoway plantation in Louisiana that recently burned down actually had running water for slaves to take daily showers – a luxury far out of reach for most Southern Whites. You want to go find something like that at a Northern plantation? I’ll wait.
 

So in conclusion, slavery was unfortunately part of the Confederacy, and a large part at that. But if you’re going to hate the Confederacy and advocate against Confederate monuments because of slavery, while simultaneously not losing any sleep about modern slavery or even Civil War era slavery by the North, I reserve the more-than-merited right to call you a hypocrite and laugh in your face.


Deo Vindice.