The End of Slavery in America Historical Perspective

[David Lockmiller]

Medieval French Coins Unearthed in Poland? A Mystery Begins

Could a scavenger hunter’s find be a part of the lost booty once extorted by Vikings to spare Paris from ruin?

What happened to the huge ransom the Vikings received for sparing Paris in 845, however, has always been a mystery.

The Vikings had a major trading post called Truso just 30 miles from Biskupiec, the Polish village where the coins were found. That has led some experts to speculate that the silver extorted in Paris made its way there and then spread into nearby areas as part of a flourishing Baltic-region trade, whose main commodity was slaves.



I had never thought about the longevity of the slave trade in the world until I read this fact. The year 1865 (marking the triumph of President Lincoln's Thirteenth Amendment legislation) minus the year 845 is equal to a thousand and 20 years. This is a millennium plus 20 years by itself. One would have add the number of years that slavery existed prior to this date to get the grand total.

Is it not amazing that President Lincoln, as the head of this American democracy, brought a permanent end to slavery in this section of the world in 1865 at the expense of the American Civil War?