Can we please stop having this argument over whether what S*lver did was right?
Heavily John S*lver critical below the cut:
At the end of the day, you know what John S*lver did? He:
a. sold his closest friend into something that is so damned close to slavery that I’m only making the distinction because black people on that plantation would have been treated even worse
b. left Thomas, an innocent man, in a horrible place – go ahead, try to tell me that camp was somehow a merciful option. look up “accidents, sugar plantations” on google and tell me what you find. In case you can’t be bothered, here, click on this: http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/slavery/archaeology/caribbean/plantations/caribbean35.aspx
c. made a black woman’s decisions for her and effectively shoe-horned her people into signing a treaty that they might otherwise have rejected. He robbed them of a real choice by removing their best general and the money to wage their war all at one time.
d. betrayed the trust of the woman he loved, leaving her wondering just how long he had been planning to turn on her, and undermined her effectiveness as a leader at the same time. He pretty much told her “you’re not capable of making good decisions for yourself, I know best, live with it.” Does this sound healthy to anyone?
e. refused to apologize for any of it. Is not even remotely sorry for what he did, and refuses to leave when the woman he did this to is justifiably angry and tells him to go multiple times. No does not mean convince me, and yet he hangs around as if she might change her mind if he just refuses to listen to her for a bit longer.
f. condemned countless people to live as slaves, since the war was aimed at ending slavery and S*lver ended it peremptorily without so much as a by your leave, and before you tell me how many lives Madi’s war would have cost, let’s talk about the millions that died over the next hundred and fifty years or so because of the slave trade.
g. told Madi what he had done to Flint and then expected her to be less angry, as if SELLING HIM was somehow going to make her less angry than him being dead.
What he did was not right. It was not ok. He was participating in slavery, pure and simple, by enabling it and by directly being responsible for selling a human being as if he were property. I don’t particularly care what his reasons were, that kind of behavior is never, ever acceptable, and trying to pretend that what he did was ok is reprehensible.
Meg's Mumbles 