• galanthus@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    6 days ago

    But when that happened, the americans were not a group distinct from the british, they were a part of the state that did that, so it is not the case that they adopted slavery from the brits, like it is not the case they adopted english from the brits for example.

    • vvilld@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      6 days ago

      That’s just semantics. Sure, I guess the more proper way to say it is that when the Americans founded the US they continued the practice of race-based chattel slavery which the British had instituted in the colonies prior to the formation of the US. Is that really substantively different than saying the Americans adopted slavery from the British?

            • vvilld@lemmy.dbzer0.com
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              6 days ago

              That’s a different situation considering the Irish language was created before there even was a united Ireland. We can trace the history of how English came to America, and it came from the English people. We can’t trace the history of how the Irish language spread across Ireland because it predates history.