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Quote by Michio Kaku

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Einstein's Cosmos: How Albert Einstein's Vision Transformed Our Understanding of Space and Time

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Michio Kaku
Michio Kaku

Michio Kaku is a renowned theoretical physicist known for his work in string theory and cosmology. Born on January 24, 1947, he is a professor of physics at the City University of New York. Professor Kaku has made significant contributions to the popularization of science, making complex physics concepts accessible to the general public through his books and television appearances. more

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“In his book The African Slave Trade, Basil Davidson contrasts law and in the Congo in the early 16th century with law in Portugal and England. In those European countries, where the idea of private property was becoming powerful, theft was punishable brutally. In England, even as late as 1740, a child could be hanged for stealing a rag of cotton. But in the Congo, communal life persisted. The idea of private property was a strange one, and thefts were punished with fines or various degrees of servitude. A Congolese leader told of the Portuguese legal codes asked a Portuguese once, teasingly, 'What is the penalty in Portugal for anyone who puts his feet on the ground?”

SlaveryFood For ThoughtSlavery In The United StatesSlavery History
Book:A People’s History of the United States: 1492 - Present
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“Slavery was immensely profitable to some masters. James Madison told a British visitor shortly after the American Revolution that he could make 257 dollars on every (black slave) in a year, and spend only 12 or 13 dollars on his keep.”

SlaveryFood For ThoughtAmerican RevolutionSlavery In The United StatesFounding FathersSlavery History
Book:A People’s History of the United States: 1492 - Present
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“While slaveowners worked vigorously to allow slaves only so much biblical teaching as to make them good, docile, submissive slaves, even the most basic moral elements of Christian truth proved revolutionary. This phenomenon arises clearly with the commandment against theft. Reading the proslavery defenses from the antebellum era, one encounters consistent references to slaves stealing and "pilfering" from their masters' stores and livestock, etc. This is always held up as evidence of their incapacity for civilization. Yet it was hardly any lack of capacity; it was resistance and restitution in their keen understanding of their masters' hypocrisy. "While white preachers repeatedly urged 'Don't steal,' slaves just as persistently denied that this commandment applied to them, since they themselves were stolen property." Former slave Josephine Howard retorted to those slaveholders who preached against theft: "[T]hen why did de white folks steal my mammy and her mammy? . . . Dat de sinfulles' stealin' dey is." A Virginian slave preached back at his master, "You white folks set the bad example of stealing—you stole us from Africa, and not content with that, if any got free here, you stole them afterward, and so we are made slaves." Former Georgian slave George Womble agreed: "Slaves were taught to steal by their masters." [...] It is no wonder that whole audiences full of slaves were known to get up and leave the preaching services of missionaries when they began to preach on stealing. They simply could not stomach the hypocrisy.”

SlaveryAmerican HistoryBlack HistorySlavery In The United States
Book:The Problem of Slavery in Christian America
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