Qualified whites may have more percieved privleges than minorities (arguable), but don't think that this "It beats being tied to a tree and whipped any day." did not happen in large numbers to endentured servants during the early days of our country. Endentured servants, mostly white Irish, Scottish and English were treated harsher than slaves during the height of this practice and had a somewhat higher mortality rate. Most holders of endebtedness tended to "use up" the endentured servant as they knew that the time they had use of this labor was finite. Slaves were viewed as long term investments and treated a little better. DON'T GET ME WRONG: BOTH WERE HORRIBLE MARKS ON OUR SOCIETY. Just illustrating a point how it has been the poor or the powerless in our society that have been taken advantage of. Fast forward to around the late 1800s and find the descendants of those same indentured servants being fiscally enslaved to the coal companies mining in the Appalachians. It has happened with many of the ethnic groups that come here: Chinese and the railroads, Irish and the Union Army, Italians, etc. Those who are disadvantaged and poor, while attempting to pull themselves up the economic ladder are often put in bad situations in order to make a living. Not slavery exactly, but when you cannot get ahead because you owe all your wages to the company store and live in company housing, you really are not free....