Click Here for Issues & Views: History Swept Under the Rug

"Challenged by professional historians, Alex Haley's reply was, 'I tried to give my people a myth to live by.' No doubt Haley's intentions were good, but it is the truth that sets you free, not myths. The most painful of all truths is that slavery existed all over this planet, among people of every race and color, for thousands of years. Nobody wanted to be a slave, but that is completely different from saying that they opposed slavery for others. Slavery was as accepted in Africa as it was in Europe or Asia, or among the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere. "