[Column] Confederate History Month: Are governors endorsing enslaving unborn fetuses?

One of the most obscene aspects of slavery as practiced by the slave system in North America consisted in the enslavement of unborn fetuses. This assault upon the unborn child was an act of sheer greed, seeking to assure that any baby born to a mother designated as a captive would also be a captive and saleable; in short, a commodity.

In fact, a pregnant mother and her unborn fetus were treated as saleable “chattel” (property) in the white slave states.

It is incredible to think that persons (“all other persons” as stated in the Constitution) could be seized, shipped under horrible conditions, and subjected to punishment (for forced captivity is certainly a punishment) while being innocent of any crime. This was an act of sheer depravity, depriving both new and old Americans of the protection of habeas corpus and forcing them, upon pain of horrible punishment and even death, to serve a lifelong sentence, while being innocent of any wrong.

No documents were required to prove that a crime had been committed by the victims, but lifelong punishment at the hands of those who had indeed committed the crimes of seizure, purchase, and subjugation was to be their fate without the benefit of attorney, court, or judge.

But atrocious as that system of profiteering was, the sentencing of each and every fetus to a lifetime of captivity and labor, before birth, was an unbelievable violation of British common law, American Indian practice, and the core values of every humane religion practiced upon this Mother Earth!

North American tribes sometimes held captives, but captives often were able to become free persons with the passage of time and fetuses were never condemned to servitude (until certain “civilized” tribes, largely controlled by mixed-blood planters, adopted the “slave codes” of their white neighbors).

Just close your eyes and think on it: A baby in its mother’s tummy already condemned to a lifetime of unfree labor without any court proceeding! An unborn child already possessed by some slave master while still in the womb!

“Get your hands out of my womb, you fiend!” would be the cry of any mother!

Of course, the unborn babies given to “owners” of their innocent mothers by an all-male legal system were of African, Native American or mixed ancestry, and that made it alright to violate British tradition!

Recently the governors of Virginia and Mississippi reportedly announced their support of “Confederate History Week.” They chose not to mention the unborn captives. They chose to be silent about the mothers, fathers, and children, born and unborn, condemned while innocent. They chose not to offer help to the descendants of the victims of an outrageous blot upon human morals.

My book Columbus and other Cannibals explores some of the issues of the terrorist system that was “slavery.” My ancestry includes two men who fought for the Confederacy, both part Indian. They suffered greatly, and I feel for them; but I must also feel for the innocent victims of their loyalties.