# More evil: American chattel slavery, or the Nazi Holocaust?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-evil-american-chattel-slavery-or-the-nazi-holocaust/535669>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [April 10, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-evil-american-chattel-slavery-or-the-nazi-holocaust/535669 "2010-04-10T20:48:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![Perciful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Perciful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perciful)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-evil-american-chattel-slavery-or-the-nazi-holocaust/535669/81 "2010-04-12T20:03:27Z")

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A good book to read about this subject is called “Vessels Of Evil”. It is written buy a back man who is also a Jew. It was a real page turner.

I think the two examples are separate acts of moral disassociation.

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**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-evil-american-chattel-slavery-or-the-nazi-holocaust/535669/82 "2010-04-12T21:45:59Z")

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> [@Quartz](#):
>
> Not a good comparison: they killed for disobedience or as an example. Not just because.

Entire populations, cultures and languages were destroyed by the Mongols. They were more murderous than the Nazis. The Nazis didn’t destroy every city in France and exterminate most or all of the population; that was the sort of thing the Mongols were known for.

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**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-evil-american-chattel-slavery-or-the-nazi-holocaust/535669/83 "2010-04-12T22:14:35Z")

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I vote for “None of the above”, or possibly the continued existence of _American Idol_.

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**Author:** ![brickbacon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@brickbacon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brickbacon)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-evil-american-chattel-slavery-or-the-nazi-holocaust/535669/84 "2010-04-13T07:02:22Z")

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> [@Sunspace](#):
>
> I’m going to go with US chattel slavery as well, because of the long-term effects. And that’s _US_, _not_ “North American” slavery; slavery existed in pre-1834 British North America (the future Canada) but the plantation system didn’t because of the climate and types of agriculture, and so slavery never had the pervasiveness that it did in the US.
> 
> My feelings are broadly similar to **Mr Dibble** ’s here.
> 
> I’ll add that I have the impression that slavery among Europeans had not been considered to be particularly related to race, but that US chattel slavery created the prejudice among European descendants that a specific people were genetically inferior and thus naturally suited only to slavery.
> 
> If this impression is true, US chattel slavery did more long-term damage to US society than the Holocaust did to European society, even with all the deaths in Europe. Mind you, if Naziism had survived, it would eventually have done the same damage to European society.

I said the same for similar reasons. I would like to also note, in light of the Governor McDonnell/Confederate History Month thing, that we have not come to terms with slavery, and our history of racial tension. Can anybody really imagine a Nazi history month, or a world where relatively rational people defend the practitioners and enablers of such acts?

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