Its entire economic output was dependent on slave labor and the reduction of persons into property. Yet at the turn of the 19th century, the transatlantic slave trade saw huge opposition, acquiring slaves was no longer an option for colonial powers, so there had to be other ways.

Laws and acts passed across the 18th century in America, steadily degraded and destroyed any personhood an enslaved individual had. This process most pointedly took the enslaved from ‘personhood’ to ‘thinghood’ – leaving all ‘rights’ belonging to the owner of the slave and not the person in slavery.

As this ideology and culturizing took hold, the sale and purchasing of slaves became accepted with no objection from American society or its people. Consider a visit to Whittney Plantation, 34 miles west of NOLA where the plantation story is told from the perspective of the slave. The walls of the reception area tell the story of slavery throughout the world.

Our guide was a very knowledgeable college professor. From that tour I learned of interviews of former slaves recorded in the 1930's that you can access through the Library of Congress. I have read and listened to many of these recording. The experience at Whittney Plantation was factual, sobering, free from bias or division.