Antebellum Slavery

The most unique book written on slavery today; the author follows the antiquity of slavery, from Plato and Aristotle's views, from a Biblical basis, and describes what the greatest theologians have written about the institution. He uses the accounts of geographer, Conrad Malte Brun, (1775-1826) to show that at the height of the slave trade 60 million Africans were slaves in Africa! Sharing with the reader the depravity of the African Kings who were the real "slave catchers," Roper theorizes that for those surviving the Atlantic crossing, life actually improved if they landed in the American South. He questions why the South receives the lion's share of criticism when probably the most benign form of slavery in history existed there. Some of the contents of the book are shocking. He castigates those who apologize for slavery, while anyone can go to Haiti and obtain a child slave. He reports that slavery in its harshest form exists in at least 16 countries today.