Rating: 
Summary: Evidence that demands a verdict.
Review: A jolt the system, a reversal of everything that you have ever been taught on a subject. In describing a book thus, am I not making it perfectly clear that you should buy it and read it immediately. Certainly, some of the negative things that have been written about this book are true. It is poorly organized, and slightly disjointed, but it contains a barrage of facts that you will not find put togeather in this fashion any where else. The book does not attempt to ram it's ideology down your thoat, it simply presents a view of history entirely new and unprecedentedly provocative.You may agree or disagree with Mr. Hoffman's political views, but they are not revlevent to the discussion of the facts that are presented herein. This book's considerable value derives from it's ability to force us to face the fact that it is the economic class system that is the primary agent behind human exploitation. The enslavement of Europeans by other Europeans is now a matter of public record, let us consider what that signifies. In reality, poverty stricken whites have more in common with the black underclass then either group has with the white elite. Realization of this fact could overturn our society, hence the careful distoriton of the record. To those who pay close attention, this book will clarify their picture of how the mechaniations of society have ground under the vast majority of human beings for the past five nightmarish centuries. The clues are there for anyone who wants to pay attention, certainly no competent person has an excuse for ignorance at this stage of the game. I dearly hope that this book will find readers among many races, if it does it might reveal the unity of interest that would inspire us to unite against our common enemies, the elite wielders of power who's decisions covertly effect every aspect of our lives.
Rating:
Summary: Much needed book in today's slavery debate
Review: As other reviewers have noted, this book is a barrage of facts that are a little rambling and disorganized, but this in NO WAY takes away from the interest of the subject matter that is presented in this volume. Mr. Hoffman presents a rough outline of the history of the enslavement of whites in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, the Carribean and finally in America from Roman times to the begining of the 20th century. Documented are such details as: -Slavery in ancient Greece and attitudes towards slaves there
-Arab traffic in white slave to the Middle East
-The Vikings' massive involvement in the slave trade during the middle ages
-White slavery and ethnic-cleansing in Ireland and Barbados under Oliver Cromwell
-Kidnapping of whites in Britain to bring to the Americas
-Child labor and gross working conditions in the mines and factories in America and Britain during the industrial revoloution.
-One of the most disturbing events documented here: the use of "human brooms" as chimney sweeps in England during the 1800's. These might be able to claim the worst status. The orphans who had to climb up chimneys filled with toxic dirt and soot weren't even paid to do so, they were forced to do that work and then BEG for a living.
-White slavery and white slave trade in colonial America. These whites were treated as more expendable then the African slaves because the slave ships had to go out of their way to pick up Africans.
-"Redneck," because whites had to work out in the fields in the sun so their skin would get tanned and burned.
-"Hillbilly," because when they were freed or escaped, the slaves had nowhere to live except in remote places in the backwoods and especially APPALACIA.
-The race politics presented here explain and elucidate the animostiy between blacks, lower class whites and the white slave-and-plantation owning aristocracy in the South.
-This one's the kicker: the word SLAVE actually comes from SLAV, the white peoples of Eastern Europe who were often raided and held in bondage by invaders. This book is well worth getting a hand on and reading, because it proves that slavery is a universal condition that has been practiced against all races and nations of people, even against those traditionally portrayed (i.e. Anglo Saxons/whites) as being the slavemasters and oppressors.
Rating: 
Summary: Inestimably Important Work
Review: As those readers familiar with the work of this author already know, Mr. Hoffman rarely fails us in the arena of word-slinging, and "They Were White..." is no exception. An excellent primer for thoughtful citizens of every stripe, this book will open your eyes to a hidden world, as well as providing a framework for further crucial understanding of the methodology of the cryptocracy as well. This slim volume has the capacity to simultaneously alarm, enrage and enlighten, all at the same time. True, the composition of the book is, at times, disconcerting insofar as Hoffman's thesis is fractured into several score chapters. Nevertheless, this is not sufficient detraction to warrant serious critique. As our present age continues its unassailed 'progression' toward burdening the white working class with a false sense of guilt --to accompany the equally stage-crafted sense of false history under which today's blacks exist-- this book offers to the reader a means by which to regain their intellectual equilibrium. Highly recommended reading.
Rating:
Summary: Inestimably Important Work
Review: As those readers familiar with the work of this author already know, Mr. Hoffman rarely fails us in the arena of word-slinging, and "They Were White..." is no exception. An excellent primer for thoughtful citizens of every stripe, this book will open your eyes to a hidden world, as well as providing a framework for further crucial understanding of the methodology of the cryptocracy as well. This slim volume has the capacity to simultaneously alarm, enrage and enlighten, all at the same time. True, the composition of the book is, at times, disconcerting insofar as Hoffman's thesis is fractured into several score chapters. Nevertheless, this is not sufficient detraction to warrant serious critique. As our present age continues its unassailed 'progression' toward burdening the white working class with a false sense of guilt --to accompany the equally stage-crafted sense of false history under which today's blacks exist-- this book offers to the reader a means by which to regain their intellectual equilibrium. Highly recommended reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Read with caution -- falls into the white versus black trap
Review: I was looking for a serious analysis of the subject, and did not find it in this book. It is full of quotes and facts (the immense majority of them valid), but lacks a long term perspective (other than what any reader can imply). It falls (in the very first sentence) into the white versus other-races divide which has poisoned the U.S. for all of its history. I got sick of reading references to the "white" this or "white" that, on and on. I was looking for (and did not get) a volume that spoke to me in the same way Jim Goad did in his brilliant Redneck Manifesto (Jim used much of the same data but without the racist undertones).
In addition, Hoffman's book makes no meaningful distinction of the relative MAGNITUDE of white slaves versus the quantity of indentured servants versus the sharecroppers during the history of the U.S. ... by lumping all of these that were "white" can inflate the impressions a reader can be left with regarding the impact of white slavery. A real idea of the quantity of people affected can help us expand the historical discussion of slavery in the U.S. beyond the black/white divide to include ALL of those who suffered.
It is important to review our history, and a meaningful expansion of the discussion regarding slavery in the U.S. MUST include what happened to slaves of other races. Sadly, this volume contributes very little to that discussion.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating, but not very well written
Review: Seriously,the fact that so many Europeans having been brought to Colonial America in chains against their will is rarely addressed by most mainstream historians is a disgrace.This classic book provides much of the source material for Jim Goad's brilliant Redneck Manifesto.
Rating:
Summary: Although provocative, it is a must read.
Review: The book "They Were White and They Were Slaves" is no doubt controversial. Definitely, it will lift up some people's eyebrows,and make their faces turn red when picking up this masterful work of revisionism. However, no matter how truthful it maybe, there will obviously be conscientious objectors to it. For instance, after taking a cursory thru Hoffman's web site, admittedly he seems to be linked up with Christian Identity Group leaders, such as Louis Beam and Pete Peters. And so,unsurprisingly, the critics may take advantage of that and use it to cast dispersions on "They Were White and They Were Slaves". Afterall, isn't Hoffman affiliated with White Supremacist Groups? Although I think that is highly probably - actually, it is hard to tell - that is totally irrelevant. Truth is never determined by behavior. To cast dispersion on Hoffman's writings because of his affiliations with certain movements is just like doubting the authenticity of Pat Robertson's Christianity because of his connection with a radical Christian Coalition movement. In the end, just looking at the content is the only legitimate type of evaluation. In otherwords, I refrain from throwing the baby out of the bath water. My favorite parts in the book is the author's thorough discussion on Wealthy Women who use double standards by leaving young children left for dead in Chimney pipes while supposedly being sympathetic to the plight of the African American slaves. Another one of my favorite parts is explainations as to how Blacks were allowed in the Military while while white servants weren't. To sum up, the book extensively argues that white slaves, constantly called even by black slaves themselves 'Rednecks' and 'Hillbillies' fared worse than black servants. This is a perfect countering view to the black paranoi of 'equal rights' as if slavery is uniquely a black thing despite evidence to the contrary. I just can't put the book down!
Rating:
Summary: A lttle bit of the silence breached
Review: This book may be the first salvo in opening up the entire neglected issue of white slavery in the Americas to a mainstream audience.....
Rating:
Summary: Is this the book or did I get the author's notes by mistake?
Review: Very slim book for the price. Writing style is equally sparse. Lots of facts and quotes from historical sources, almost no context tying them together. Almost like geting a book on dinosaurs, and finding it consist only of an assemble-it-yourself Tyranosaurus skeleton, with no instructions. This reads like the author's research notes, waiting to be fleshed out. Facinating subject, excelient research, poor execution.
Rating:
Summary: A Paradigm shiftin novel
Review: While I had heard of the terms redneck or redleg, little did I know that these terms originated from insults hurled by African Slaves unto White Slaves on plantations in the new world. This is the type of information that author Hoffman transmits to the reader in this book! The thrust of this book is shocking and apparantly unassailable. Namely that the vast majority of slaves in the New World to perhaps the 1830/1840's period were poor whites enslaved by creditors, by welfare 'agencies' or perhaps kidnapped off the streets of England, Ireland, and Scotland for slave labor picking tobacco in the New World. Constant acts of cruelty and inhumanity are chronicled. Everything from entire English and Irish families being sold to different slavemasters piecemeal in different states. Husbands and wives, one sold to work in New York, one sold to work in Georgia, never to see each other again. Children used by the modern Victorians to clean putrid chimneys so reducing their health that the vast bulk of the merry Chimney Sweeps we see caricatured in Merry Poppins never made their 16th Birthday in real life conditions, and startlingly, the abolitionsits who advocated so hard to an end to African Slavery, in the same breath and in the same day did nothing to free their own 'white slaves' and worked and beat many to death while advocating the freeing of African slaves. What does this book boil down in the final analysis. It will assure that you will scoff at those asking for slavery reparitions, that furthermore, the vast bulk of our population with roots in North American going back before 1850 are the descendants of slaves, that indentured service was really a racket that even Benjamin Franklin had to escape from it as a boy. Nothing could be more perfect to sum up this book than the quote from Shakespeare at the start of 'They Were White and They Were Slaves' which was "NOW STEP I FORTH TO WHIP HYPOCRASY". Hoffman's little book is an important piece of history, and will forever alter your perspective on current 'reparations' demands, the lawsuits upon companies that used to insure slaves, etc.
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