[Xorcist [USA]]

Yes I did look around before posting that. Here are some quotes from a certain site.

"Because the economies of Africa did not depend on slave labor, the number of enslaved people was small until European traders arrived."

Julia Hotton, curator of the West Africa exhibit, "Captive Passage: The Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Making of the Americas," believes the European trans-Atlantic slave trade was much more violent than the African slave system.

According to Babou, many African slaves were treated like family members.

"A domestic slave, a slave that was pretty much incorporated into family, was like an adopted child in the family. They were not a commodity. They were not dehumanized," Babou explained.

Phillips disagreed, insisting that Africa's domestic slave trade was and still is dehumanizing.

"Slavery is a cultural system. It has been going on [since] ... Moses," Phillips said.

"Of course [slavery in Africa] was dehumanizing. Of course people were denied their God-given rights. People were treated as subhumans; they were treated as animals," he said.

I did not in any way blatanly post some irrelevent bs. I looked around.

Here is the link to that site........it is an article on The Smithsonian's African American history museum:

[url:b71c2]http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/3/6/145738.shtml[/url:b71c2]

As for the smoking issue, I would not expect anything in return for me (or any family member) destroying themselves by smoking but thank you for speaking for me.