Africa was a continent ruled by feudalism, like Europe based on agriculture, but in Africa, tribal life was still powerful, and some of its better features consisted of a communal spirit, more kindness in law and punishment. Slavery existed in African states, and is sometimes used by Europeans to justify their own slave trade; however, African slavery was more of a serf "slave." It was a harsh servitude, but they had rights which slaves brought to America did not. Africans actually sold Africans to slave traders and they were brought to the colonies on slave ships. African slavery is not to be praised, but it was far different from plantation and mining slavery in the Americas. Africans were captured in the interior, sold on the African coast, then shoved into pens with Africans of other tribes, often not speaking the same languages. They were then marched to the African coast and kept in cages until they were picked and sold. Then they were packed aboard the slave ships, in spaces not much bigger than coffins, chained together in the dark, wet slime of the ship's bottom, choking in the stench of their own excrement. On occasion, sailors would open the hatches and find slaves in different stages of suffocation, many dead, some having killed others in desperate attempts to breathe. Slaves often jumped overboard to drown rather than continue to suffer. Slave ships were often so covered in blood and mucus that they resembled slaughterhouses. Perhaps one of every three Africans transported to America died, but the huge profits were made by slave traders and so they continued to pack slaves into the holds of ships like fish. The first American slave ship, Desire, sailed from America in 1637. Its hold was partitioned into racks, 2 feet by 6 feet, with leg irons and bars. By 1800, 10 to 15 million Africans had been transported as slaves to the Americas. It is roughly estimated that Africa lost 50 million human beings to death and slavery in the centuries called the beginnings of modern Western civilization, at the hands of slave traders and plantation owners in Western Europe and America, the countries said to be the most advanced in the world.

The leading painter of colonial-era America was John Singleton Copley. He won acclaim for his big, detailed portraits of many of the prominent citizens in his native Boston. He was born in Boston to poor Irish immigrants in 1738 and his father died when he was a young boy. Since America had no great art schools, he largely taught himself to paint. Borrowing from European rococo style, Copley used light and shadow much more than other American painters of his day. When painting portraits, he placed objects in his subject's hands to convey elements of their personalities. Copley left America in 1774 and continued his painting in London. His most famous painting, Watson and the Shark, shows a shark attacking a swimmer, based on an event that took place in Havana, Cuba in 1749. Although he never returned to America, he is known as the most important artist of the colonial period and the first American painter to achieve global renown.

First I'd like to thank Mr. Romero of Santa Fe, New Mexico who found my cellphone in the Petco parking lot in Santa Fe and returned it to me. Apparently there are some honest people in this state. Second I'd like to talk about the Albuquerque Police department. My husband and I did better detective work in one day than you have done so far. Of all the surveillance tapes involved in my purse thief case, I am by law not allowed to see, you haven't taken the time to look at any of it. You complain that you are so over-worked and under-manned that you can't be bothered to get out of your office and look. That is why this city has so much crime, your lack of interest. Thieves know that you don't give a damn, so they just keep stealing. I think that the Arabs have a good system of punishment. You steal, they cut off your hand. You steal again, they cut off the other hand. You figure out how to steal again, they cut off your head.

I'd like to address the latest remarks by Reverend Jackson. I heard your original remarks about Obama and I heard your apology. The remarks you made when you thought that your microphone was off didn't strike me as something a religious man should make; but, then I don't consider you very religious. You are typical of the people in this world today, say one thing to your face and another behind your back. Nothing but hypocrites!!! Mr. Jackson you are just jealous because Obama isn't an ass-kissing, back-stabbing Uncle Tom. You're a great example for blacks in America today. Why anyone wants to interview you on TV, radio, or in public is wayyyyyy beyond me. The only reason that you are apologizing is because your microphone was on and the folks who heard you now know what you really are. You and Al Sharpton need to crawl in a hole and keep your mouths shut from now on. If anyone should be castrated, it should be you.

If I have to go through another day of telephone answering services at companies and government offices, I'm going to scream. I have spent over 5 hours trying to get through to human beings at companies and government offices only to be instructed by machines to press this number and than that number and then they disconnect you so that you have to do it all over again. And the initial instruction, press 1 if you want to hear this in English has really pissed me off. No, I called so that you could talk to me in Greek and I wouldn't know what the hell you were saying. Then there is the, Please fill out this form and submitted it with several pieces or copies of all the ID that some moron just stole from you. If I had all that ID I wouldn't need to be here trying to get more. What the heck has happened to this country? Are companies so stricken by economic hard times that one receptionist or phone service person costs too much. I swear that if I have to talk to one more person on the phone in India about a robbery in Albuquerque, I'm going to demand that they speak in Russian because I'm sick and tired of English and Spanish. I'm fed up and I don't give a damn who knows it. WAKE UP AMERICA, you're going down the tubes and no ones seems to give a damn.

This past Thursday, 3 July 2008, my husband and I drove into Albuquerque since we had the day off of work to purchase office chairs and tables for the new workshop. We drove down I-40 to Office Depot and parked in their parking lot, in broad daylight. I left my purse in the truck since we weren't going to be in there very long. Twenty minutes later we came out to find that the truck passenger window was broken and my purse was gone. We immediately called the police and then started calling the three credit card companies and shut down the cards, the two banks we do business with and shut off the ATM cards and the checkbooks. We stood around for about 45 minutes waiting for Albuquerque Police to show up, finally an officer called my husband's cellphone and took the information; told us to clean up the glass and go ahead and leave. They never came to investigate. The manager at Office Depot told us he didn't have security cameras and we were the third person that this had happened to in their parking lot. Maybe you idiot, you should get security cameras and take a long look at the folks who work for you, they could be involved in this gang. We drove over to Verizon and shut down the cellphone I had in my purse. It started storming and raining so we got some clear wrap and wrapped the windowless side of the truck and drove back to Rio Rancho. In the 20 minutes it took me to shut off the cards, the thieves charged a $3,500 Apple computer, $450 in software stuff at Staples, took $300 out of the business ATM, charged $102 at Walgreens, $47 in gas at a gas station, and drove to a K-Mart where the card was declined. They tried to get another $300 out of the ATM but it was declined. All of this in 20 minutes. They also got all my ID, drivers license, Social Security card, badge to get into work at the Department of Energy, passport, military ID, retirement ID from the Department of Defense, my eyeglasses, two checkbooks, a large pocket knife, and keys to our truck, my hybrid fob (control for the electric vehicle), office key, business keys, and house keys, and $120 in cash. On the 4th of July my husband and I went back to the Office Depot and looked in all the dumpsters and garbage cans for several blocks, hoping the thieves had taken the wallet and dumped the purse. Nothing. Then we figured out that the thieves took the purse right after we entered the store, got on I-40 and drove down to Albuquerque Uptown Mall; bought the Apple computer at the Apple store; drove down the street a couple blocks and filled the gas tank at J&C station; drove a couple more blocks to the Staples store; 1 block to the Walgreens, and across the street to K-Mart. We searched all the dumpsters and garbage cans, nothing. We spoke to the store managers who said they had records of the purchases and attempts to purchase and security film that they would give to the police. When I ask why they took my ID from someone that obviously didn't look like me, or did they even check ID. They had no comment. On the 5th of July we took our hybrid Toyota to the dealer and paid $500 to have my car programmed to respond to a new fob and my husband's fob. We arranged to have the truck repaired and re-key which will cost us another several hundred dollars. I went to Talbot's clothing store and Zales jewelry where I also had credit cards and no purchases had been attempted, but I shut them off too. Then I had to go to Verizon and get another phone. I went to the bank where I have my business accounts and closed one account, opened a new one, and discussed the $300 ATM withdrawal. They are going to get that video tape and give it to the police. While I was there 2 other women came in with the same problem. On Monday I will have to go to all the places where I had ID and get new and cancel the old ID. I'll have to get a new badge at work and give my police reports to the Military Police, the State Department, and the Department of Defense and Department of Energy. This will cost me a day of work with no pay. I had to join LifeLock to watch my credit history for the next 7 years. At first I thought teenagers had done this because of the purchases and then I talked to a state policeman at the car dealer who told me that there is a gang of professionals in Albuquerque doing this and they catch some of the guys that steal the purses, put them in jail and they are out in the morning and never showup for court. They can't seem to catch the big guys who are making all the money. He told me that if they get the small guys that took the purse, the same thing would probably happen. I told him that they had better not let me know who did it, because I believe in personal justice, and they won't have to set them a court date. Why am I blogging this? I want to let other women know. Other women in Albuquerque and every where in the US. Don't leave your purse in your vehicle. Don't carry everything in your purse that gives away your identity. If you go to a store, park your car, get out and notice someone just setting in another vehicle; make sure you have everything of value locked in your trunk, lock your vehicle and set the alarm. Our alarm was set but didn't go off. I think that my theft insurance will cover some of the expense, but you feel violated because someone out there has your personal things. Pictures of your family, your home address and keys to get into your house. It's a real sick feeling that you can't shake. If by some miracle the thieves read this blog, don't show up at my house when I'm home because you won't walk away.

Anne Bradstreet, America’s First Published American Poet Anne was born in England in 1612 or 1613, to Thomas Dudley and Dorothy Yorke. Though Anne never attended school as girls in that time period were not permitted, she obtained a superb education from the books she devoured in the library of the Earl of Lincoln, and from instruction of her widely read father. Anne married Simon Bradstreet in 1628 and 2 years later the Dudleys and the Bradstreets embarked on a long and weary journey to America aboard the ship, Arbella. They landed in the Massachusetts Bay Colony where Simon Bradstreet and Thomas Dudley served as governors to the settlement. Anne confessed that the scarcity of food, sickness, and the primitive living conditions of the New England outpost caused her to rise in protest of the new world and new manners. In 1632, Anne Bradstreet composed her first poem titled, “Upon a Fit of Sickness, Anno 1632.” The poem discusses the traditional concerns of the Puritan—the brevity of life, the certainty of death, and the hope for salvation. Her works primarily reflected the religious and emotional conflicts that she experienced, both as a writer and as a Puritan. She struggled with the Puritan way of life because she sometimes felt more strongly connected to her husband, children, and community than to God. Anne Bradstreet composed the greater part of her existing poetry by the time she was 30 years old. One of Anne’s admirers was her brother-in-law, John Woodbridge. Woodbridge traveled back to England in 1647, taking with him, without Anne’s knowledge or permission, the manuscript of her poems. He had them published in 1650 under the title “The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America. The volume was a great success. Anne Bradstreet, though the first published American poet, was somewhat overshadowed by other American writers such as Thomas Jefferson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allen Poe. Her writing experienced a revival beginning in the 1960s due to the growing feminist movement which began in the middle of the 20th Century. Take the time to read something by Anne Bradstreet; it will help you to understand the colonial period of American history.