A discussion of slavery

Every morning, as I drive my son to school, we talk about stuff. Between pithy comments about other drivers, L and I teach each other. It usually begins with a question such as, "Hey mom, remember that time we did that thing...?" Today's driving lesson began thus: "What's the difference between centrifugal and centripetal force?"
How does this get around to slavery, you're wondering? Bear with me, I'm getting to that.

When I went to school, the force that makes things go away from the center of spin was called centrifugal force. That's why the machine that separates blood by spinning it is called a centrifuge. Somewhen between my education and L's, the powers that be came up with a more exact term. Spinning now induces centripetal force. Go figure.

I'm glad textbooks change, though... because when I was in school, my history class taught just one instance of slavery. It got me thinking -way back in the 7th grade- about omissions in textbooks. (I believe I wrote here about my dad beating my ass, because I once apologized to a black girl for my race keeping slaves. anyway...)
So it got me thinking. Part of my ancestry is Native American. There is a strong chance that those ancestors either had slaves, or were slaves themselves. Hm! But that's not all. Part of my ancestry is Sicilian. Sicily was part of the Roman Empire. Again, there's a strong chance of either side of slavery in my lineage. And there's more! I'm 1/2 Welsh. History says slavery!

I fell silent, lost in my thoughts, tracing my lineage and wondering. L was silent too. Perhaps he was enjoying a (for once) quite ride to school, or maybe... just maybe, he was thinking.