Originally Posted by MisterV View Post
Not to hijack this wonderful thread, but the above post reminded me that slavery was a good thing...unless you're the slave.

Slavery allowed The South to develop and made a lot of people in The North a lot of money.
The worst thing that happened to blacks was the invention of the cotton gin. There weren't that many slaves in South Carolina in the late 1700's. Then the invention of the cotton gin opened the floodgates for imported first generation slaves. By the 1820's all white men above the age of 17 were required to ride night patrol twice a month to keep the slaves in check. Many slaves were Angolan with military backgrounds.