The Mormon author of THE REDEMPTION OF COLUMBUS offered the supposition that slavery was a boon to mankind, since that particular institution established a value to human life previously sacrificed to satisfy the blood lust of pagan gods. A GOP politician echoed Orson Scott Card’s theory in the 2012 election by saying that slavery in the South had improved the lives of Africans by cultivating western values in the savage beasts. Such thought is considered progressive in some parts of the Deep South and this week the country was astounded to hear that the State of Mississippi finally ratified the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery.

The vote was brought about by a University of Mississippi Medical Center professor after viewing the film LINCOLN and subsequently discovered that the measure had been passed by both branches of the state legislature, but never registered with the Federal authorities. This oversight was righted by an unanimous vote, although a number of ‘ssippi representatives abstained from casting a yea or nay.

I was speaking with a Southern friend who defended Mississippi’s reluctance to join the modern world, “Everyone sold slaves back then. Africans captured other Africans to sell to the Arabs and Portuguese.”

“That may be true, but it’s also no excuse for slavery.” My Yankee side of the family had been involved in shipping during those centuries of human trafficking. There was a chance that they might have transported slaves to the South and West Indies, but that was a long time ago. “There’s no place for slavery in this world, even though it exists throughout the world and even in the USA where young people are forced to work as unpaid interns with corporations.”

“They have to learn somehow.”

“Not as slaves.” There is no other word for it.

The South will not rise again and neither should slavery exist in any state in America, but it does no matter what Mississippi does.