not to mention the fact that if you pay attention to the New Testament, when Jesus was born crops were being harvested and livestock were still in their ranges. Some scholars put his actual birthdate in mid to late September or October.
True we don't celebrate the birth of Jesus on his actual birthday but there was a reason Dec. 25 was chosen by early Christians to celebrate that event.
There was a particular pagan cult (to my knowledge no one actually knows the name of that cult, they left no writings other than occult symbology), that practiced human sacrifice on that day and were particularly hated by early Christians, possibly because the cultist may have had the nasty habit of abducting Christian girls to use in their sacrifices.
Archeologist have unearthed some of those sites which were in underground chambers with an altar in the center which had the cult's symbols carved into the stone altar and wallls, all that have been located have the marks of swords severely defacing the symbols.
As I recall there was always a bull, a dog, a scorpian and others I don't recall.
Early Christians made that a day to celebrate the birth of the Savior because it was also a day to celbrate victory over the most despised of the pagans.
Who cares how it originated, America was forged on the back of slavery, certainly isn't that way today.
That is partially true, but America was more dependant on the pioneers and settlers, the vast majority of whom never owned one slave.
It is also worth mentioning that at the time of the beginning of the Civil war the two people who owned the most slaves in America were free black men, one in Charleston, SC and one in New Orleans, LA. They were slave traders who operated sort of like a used or new car salesman/dealer would today.
Also worth mentioning is the indentured servant concept where a tradesman paid passage for poor people from Europe and they worked for seven years to repay the tradesman.
That class also purchased slaves at times under the same rule, after seven years they gained not only their freedom but the knowledge needed to practice whatever particular trade was involved.
