In other words, depending on the death rates of white slaves, most white Americans today are descendants of former slaves.  Jordan and Walsh report that two-thirds of white immigrants from the British Isles were slaves for life or for a contracted period. It is an American myth that the colonies were settled by free men and women. "The truth could not be more different," write Jordan and Walsh. "The freedoms of modern American society evolved only gradually from enforced labor and penal servitude."  In 2007 when their book, White Cargo, was published, it had not become obvious to Jordan and Walsh that the propagandistic 21st century "war on terror" had put American freedoms on the chopping block.  The Bill of Rights, which was added to the US Constitution, has been eviscerated "to make us safe."