I just found out something shocking about the past. Back in the day, some lotteries had human beings as prizes. Can you believe it?
There was this guy named Bernard Moore who needed money fast. He came up with a crazy idea to split up his property into 124 different prizes. Then he sold 1840 tickets for a lottery.
The prizes were all kinds of things. You could win:
An enslaved person
10 cows
A house
A forge
A mill
A wagon
The worst part? The enslaved people were actually the least valuable prizes in the whole lottery. It’s hard to imagine how people could treat other humans like that.
Has anyone else heard about stuff like this happening in history? It really makes you think about how far we’ve come as a society.
wow, thats messed up. never heard of that before but not surprised considering how awful slavery was. makes you wonder what other horrible things happened back then that we dont even know about. glad society has improved since then but we still got a long way to go
I’ve come across similar accounts in my historical research. These lotteries were indeed a grim reality of the past, reflecting the dehumanizing nature of slavery. While it’s tempting to view such practices as isolated incidents, they were unfortunately more common than we’d like to believe.
In fact, many prominent figures, including george washington and thomas jefferson, participated in similar lotteries. These events were often used to liquidate estates or raise funds for public projects.
It’s crucial to remember that while we’ve made significant progress, the legacy of such practices still impacts our society today. studying these historical events helps us understand the roots of systemic inequality and reinforces the importance of continued efforts towards social justice.
This serves as a stark reminder of how far we’ve come, but also how vigilant we must remain to prevent any regression in human rights.
Whoa, that’s wild! I had no clue lotteries used to be that twisted. It’s mind-boggling to think people could just ‘win’ another human being like they were some kinda object. Really puts into perspective how messed up things were back then.
Ya know, it reminds me of this documentary I watched about weird historical practices. They mentioned something about ‘wife-selling’ in England during the 1800s. Apparently, some guys would bring their wives to the market with a rope around their necks and auction them off! Can you believe that?
It’s crazy to think about how far we’ve come, but also kinda scary to realize how recent all this stuff was. Makes you wonder what people will look back on from our time and be like ‘they did WHAT?!’
Thanks for sharing, Mia29! Always learn something new on here, even if it’s pretty disturbing sometimes.
I had no clue lotteries used to be that twisted. It’s mind-boggling to think people could just ‘win’ another human being like they were some kinda object. Really puts into perspective how messed up things were back then.