The U.S. abolitionist movement is not what “freed” insurgents and POWs before and during the civil war. The government relinquished “ownership” of human bodies because they needed to find a new way to further use our ancestors to build their capital. ALSO, “slavery” is still alive and kicking in America (read: prison industrial complex). Furthermore, very few people, if any, are actually “free.” You can’t equate social change to freedom. It’s not equivalent. So Assata’s sentiments are correct.

The abolitionist movement had a huge impact on the politics of the North, driving them to institute anti-slavery laws and eventually to attack the South when they separated.  I think it’s wrong to say that abolition was a plan. Yes, after slavery was abolished new forms of oppression were created. Wage slavery has been institutionalized and internalized just like chattel slavery was, but it is still an improvement. Freedom doesn’t come over night. The story of social change is a never ending struggle against oppression. Gains are made, and sometimes there is backsliding, but over all, mankind has progressed towards a more free society. 

The fundamental question is this. If you believe that many of our freedoms are taken by oppressors who are willing to use violence, how can you believe that using violence to get rid of these oppressors will lead to freedom?

hi, i know you mentioned Gandhi as an example of someone successfully achieving freedom by appealing to Britain’s morality. I would like to bring to your attention that Gandhi was imprisoned, had to starve himself and then became a martyr, meaning he was killed, for the revolution he was trying to bring forth. I don’t know how you equate that to “freedom”. Also, India is independent of Britain but they still have very racist and sexist policies in place. Therefore, he did not achieve his goal.

It sounds like you have different ideas of what freedom is and how much you should have. To address your thoughts on Gandhi, yes he deliberately had himself arrested and went on hunger strikes to bring attention to the suffering of the Indian people. You cannot evoke compassion from others unless they know of your struggle. This was all a part of his campaign of non-violent resistance. Did Gandhi create the anarchist communal India that he dreamed of? Of course not. Did he make great strides in gaining rights for the untouchable class, women, and the poor? Absolutely. And he got the British to leave India. No one is ever totally free. We live under the tyranny of physical existence, time, and ignorance. But Gandhi’s life was a testament to the struggle for freedom that is on going and always evolving.

Your screen name makes me wonder about your beliefs. Are you a Lucifarian, or a Satanist? To my understanding (and there are many nuanced versions of these definitions), Lucifarians venerate Lucifer, the Light Bringer, and the Adversary who fights against the oppressive tribal god of Israel. While Satanists are essentially agnostics who believe they always have the right to protect their freedom, even if that means taking freedom away from others (like the right to live).

It’s funny that some Satanists (not all) have learned well from the Christianity’s use of the persecution complex. They believe that if only we run our lives this way, everyone would be better off. While the truth of the matter is, this is the way things have been run all along, and it has produced a pathological society poised to destroy the planet it lives on.