by CHARLESBELL » Sat Oct 24, 2009 11:53 am
No, slavery was never a "normal" thing in our society or any other. It was allowed to exist as all oppressed groups are allowed to exist, in order to exert power over them, make money, etc. It may have been "accepted" but it was never right and everyone knew it.
It took people willing to stand up and admit it was wrong, and do something about it, to change that.
The slaves had been freed when baseball became an American sport. The earliest teams of the era even included black players, until racism reared it's ugly head. Moses Walker is the first black player ever to play in organized baseball back in 1878, 63 years before Jackie Robinson. Blacks played with and against whites through the 1880's and even into the 1890's. By the end of the century, though, racism had overcome talent and blacks were totally segregated from white baseball.
Baseball had an opportunity to be one of those organization that stood up to racism and integrated their teams. They did not, and that is the fault of Baseball, not society.
The history lesson comes from an excellent book on the history of black baseball, called Shades of Glory by Lawrence Hogan. It's a great read.
No one on this forum condons slavery or racism, I'm sure. I'm very excited to see Strat come out with a Negro League set. I hope it encourages others to check out the book I mentioned above and other books about the Negro Leagues. It's a truly amazing story that we, as baseball fans, should know more about.