The United States of America
Slavery transformed America into an economic power. The exploitation of Black people for free labor made the South the richest and most politically powerful region in the country. British demand for American cotton made the southern stretch of the Mississippi River the Silicon Valley of its era, boasting the single largest concentration of the nation’s millionaires.
But slavery was a national enterprise. Many firms on Wall Street such as JPMorgan Chase, New York Life and now-defunct Lehman Brothers made fortunes from investing in the slave trade, the most profitable economic activity in New York’s 350 year history. Slavery was so important to the city that New York was one of the most pro-slavery urban municipalities in the North.
According to Harper’s magazine (November 2000), the United States stole an estimated $100 trillion for 222,505,049 hours of forced labor between 1619 and 1865, with a compounded interest of 6 percent.
Source: news.nationalgeographic.com
we built their empire but the Most High will destroy them
Slavery will forever be remembered. I hope on judgement day the are ready to face the Lord.
Destroy their ego yes , Peace must Rule our world without Violence .
I do not agree mentioning Brasil in this list. It is not about who build what, but who excludes humanity from the profits from human labour. Lets not put ourselves in the same circle but lets restore history and build a common future.
To say nothing of the bankers, financiers, investors, brokers, insurance carriers, ship and cargo owners of all these nations' by whom these nations' wealth was measured and in many cases whose financial legacy still remains. In the case of Germany and the Netherlands, much of it was confiscated by the Third Reich.
To say nothing of the bankers, financiers, investors, brokers, insurance carriers, ship and cargo owners of all these nations' by whom these nations' wealth was measured and in many cases whose financial legacy still remains. In the case of Germany and the Netherlands, much of it was confiscated by the Third Reich and some returned in the form of "reparations."
"Forgiving and being forgiven are two names for the same thing. The important thing is that a discord has been resolved, " C.S. Lewis
This is deep and very educational…but shouldn't it start with Africa herself, since tribe sold tribe into slavery? When are we going to discuss the whole story and the fact that all these countries did was pull up to the shore and pick-up "cargo"? It was our own people who did the capturing and selling first.
That is why america and europe are falling apart. Good for it it's all stolen.
Bill Andress Can't forgive someone that isn't sorry. Ultimately things catch up to people. The world has not forgot.
You know, Sheryl, I never looked at it that way before. Thanks for opening my mind another time :)))
Here's the video of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx2scvIFGjE
You are right, part of the blame should be on those who sold their own people, but the fact is the Africans didn't see the white men coming on ships then once they landed they offered them to buy their people, most of prostitutes didn't choose their job but because of poverty for example, same for the natives who were fooled and been used by the invaders with smile on their faces, Africans should have at least an apology, it's the least..
I totally agree with Sheryl Renee, it by the hands of our own people ( African Kings ) that sold us ( Our Ancestors ) into slavery. The European nations figure out a way to build wealth and take natural resources from The Mother Land. Slavery still exist but that's another topic.
lovely to see people talking the truth the whole truth, whoever treated my people badly be they black or white should be outed as the oppressors that they were
Everyone that had a hand in slavery of black people should pay the cost. the biggest benefactors are undoubtedly the Caucasian devil but everyone from the Arabs to the Africans to the Caucasian should and will pay for it.
Let us also know that the Jews were the biggest benefactors of black slavery as the book The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews records
not so sheryl yes some tribes were encouraged. but the main instigators were arab slave traders many islamic kingdoms were built on slavery too
big conspiracy between the jews and the arabs. the humble african being the prize
Yusuf Salaam I suppose you have a "Time Machine". Cos, that's the only way we could bring these criminals to the present era, and prosecute them.
If you read it says top countries made rich from slavery…..Africa was not number one in cash
Your knowledge of the economics of the transatlantic slave trade is about at middle school level…..and reak of simplicity. Destablization and the depopulation of Africa was not done by africans…..yes there were allways war on the continent and captives were taken……but to look at your comment you lead folks to belive the africans just sold thier families and countryman for a bag of fritos…..you leave no space to understand that folks from one country in africa are as different as the english and russians…this convo should start right where it does those who raped ,bred,slaughtered and enslaved
Ceasar read more and then visit the continent…..dont be a voice for those that wish you harm
re the argument about African participation in slave trade http://www.rastafarivisions.com/features/acrime/britains-black-debt-excerpts
I agree with these, but uhm, Belgium? The intensity of the misery created by Belgian occupation of the Congo coupled with the immense fortune the Belgian crown made off of Congolese rubber is certainly worth mention, I'd say.
I reposted in the correct thread.
True, but most inter-African slave-trading was regulated by interprations of Moslem laws around "slavery". Many slaves could work or marry their way out of slavery, their children had opportunity to be born as free people. When Europeans began exporting Africans into the slave trade, it was a whole different, more lawless brutal genre of enslavement.
I agree Sheryl to an extent but lets be careful. There is a thin line when comparing African slave trade to European slave trades. When Africans traded slaves, the slaves were allowed to have small compensation, or have certain administrative powers. This wasnt something they would be doing for the rest of their lives. In Africa, many societies recognized slaves merely as property, but others saw them as dependents who eventually might be integrated into the families of slave owners. Still other societies allowed slaves to attain positions of military or administrative power. Europeans were different alot in this aspect. When the Pope signed the edict 'to reduce to servitude all infidel people Portugal and Spain both invaded different sides of Africa, This slavery was inhumane and considered Africans not to be human and suggested instead of Africans slaves being traded around for work, but be enslaved
M Scott Johnson –has expressed it exactly! western africa was destabilized by outside elements.
the federal government of west africa –the songhai empire– was destroyed by an invasion of the army of sultan of morroco and european mercenaries. personally, i believe they were guided across the desert by the ancestors of the modern day tuareg –who usually side with the arabs against the blacks and are now tearing up mali (and recently the tuaregs ,of course, were allied with al qaeda) with their french backed demands for a partitioning of mali for an independent tuareg state of "azawad". but back to the origins of the slave trade.
the armies of the sultan of morroco and their european mercenaries defeated the much larger armies of songhai– but only because of the firearms they carried. they looted timbucctoo, looted the 500 year old university of sankore and kidnapped the renowned faculty to serve in the universities of the arab world–a brain drain of west african scholars . the armies of the sultan of morrocco also grabbed the gold mines of wangara –the songhai empire's source of hard currency and vital for trade.
with its educational/technological center and financial center looted and its armies defeated –the songhai empire eventually collapsed. this would today being like the federal government of the Us disappearing over night. with no federal government who would mediate old disputes between texas and oklahoma or kansas and nebraska? order broke down and with no federal government, it eventually became every little state for itself. all of these states knew that it was firearms that made the difference in the defeat of songhai–so this created a huge demand for firearms among africans to protect themselves from the same fate as songhai.
with no federal government to mediate disputes –both new disputes and old disputes–the region descended into quarrels and warfare –especially when the european maritime powers arrived off the coast with large supplies of cheaply made and usually technologically OBSOLETE firearms called "trade guns" by the europeans. the africans militarily were in a very insecure position and the europeans knew this and took full advantage of it. they knew the africans needed firearms and demanded the africans trade captives –slaves in exchange for european muskets. this quickly started an arms race among african states who soon felt the only way to protect themselves from being raided for captives by other african states was to have a sufficient supply of firearms to protect themselves– BUT the only way to get firearms from the europeans was to raid other states and take captives and trade them to the europeans for firearms–the europeans would only accept captives in exchange for firearms and had the africans trapped in a "catch 22". no matter what they did they were still left in an insecure position–the more they raided other african states for captives, the more they fueled the endless warfare among the africans –but not to take captives meant that they would soon lose access to european firearms and eventually be raided for captives by other states already with and seeking more of those firearms.
the europeans used a similar ploy against the north american indians. they traded firearms for furs in the fur trade. the indians quickly saw that they lost in warfare to those with firearms. the introduction of firearms quickly upset the balance of military power among indian cultures. the europeans, of course would only trade obsolete "trade guns" to the indians because the british especially, knew they would eventually want indian lands for themselves. but the europeans also wanted furs. to get furs–the only thing the europeans would trade firearms for –the indians had to encroach upon other indians lands further and further to the interior as the supplies of fur animals were quickly trapped out and their populations depleted for the european fur industry. the indians closet east, needed firearms to hold on to their lands from european settlers. the only way to get firearms was to get more furs –the only way to get more furs was to go into other indians territory further inland and trap them . these encroachments caused endless warfare among indians– who just like the africans did not see the big picture –they ALL were being played off against each other by the various nations of europe.
k
You need to educate yourself. The white man showed up to the shore with gun, we had arrows and gave up and acquiesced to evil. Like Native Americans we discovered the gun is mightier than the sword. You seem to be into white revisionist history, ignorance and self hate. Disgusting! Blacks are grossly ignorant today have loss all semblance of reality just seek to assimilate with their oppressors, be like them, murder other peoples across the globe. Brown and tan peoples in the middle east for oil. Have no shame in putting on the white mans uniform pilferage and destroy another continent for greed @ white phosphorous and depleted uranium which we use on these brown and tan humans but white revisionist history will fool dumb blacks like you on that to. Read and learn; Michael Parenti, Howard Zinn. The apathetic mass culture blacks sickening and you are one!
That is the Lie they tell you there but remember during that time they were colonizing us and you know how they have been lying even thru their media in this present times so what difference does it make.Come back to Africa and see for yourself the mess going on here as at now can't help it when my people try to justify for the slave master and don't want to fight for themselves to be free.Free yourselves black man.
I think we need to stop talking, all together, and start acting. This story is SO old and everyone knows it. Yes, Africans sold prisoners of war but I doubt if they had any idea of the horrors the people they sold would face. I also believe it has been documented that many slave traders went and captured Africans themselves. So let's get beyond the story, we all know it, what's the solution? How do Americans of African descent move beyond the past? Because focusing on your past keeps you in your past. The Japanese were bombed, rebuilt and are doing well for themselves. Jewish people had the holocaust and they moved beyond it. Although the systemic and institutional discrimination of Americans of African descent is greater than that of any other race in America, we need to formulate a plan to move beyond our past.
Bravo, My Brother. Tell it like is!
M Scott Johnson right on bro Sherly Renee is lost truly stuck in grade school, lost as many black who don't get it has been sold a simple revisionist his-story
Diallo Sekou exactly!
Dr Kink on reparations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=n4vdfugMFbg#t=51
Martes Mar true talk
Martes Mar true talk
No mention of Arab countries. The Arab had their slave trade as well, do we have numbers for that ? Still a great piece and very telling.
First of all there is no self hatred here, so don't turn your trolling venom on me, Glenda. I'm not educated enough for you, then bring the conversation on my level..but bring it! Stop glossing over that part of our history. An estimated 11 million people were taken during the slave trade..11 million!!! At what point do you loose the naivety excuse? In the late 80's I met an African man from Dakar who informed me that NONE of his family had ever been sold into slavery. This blew my mind and sent me on a search for more information. We have a mental vision of white men walking though Africa snatching African tribes from there own backyards..it did not happen that way. WHY CAN'T WE TALK ABOUT IT WITHOUT ATTACKING ONE ANOTHER! Powerful tribes struck a wicked partnership with people they knew meant us no good, and the fact that they could do what they did, for what we know was little to nothing, makes it worse. The difference in what was done to the Indians in North America was that the white man wanted this land, and they took it. We as a people suffer from lack of unity it's because we didn't start with it. I look at the world map and I see neighbor killing neighbor regardless of their race and hue, so in my opinion this is a human problem, not a just a black problem. And finally FYI, none of you can take my black card from me. I sat and listened to my great grandmother tell me her history in this country. I learned more from her than I ever learned in a text book.
Glenda Jones-Epps First of all there is no self hatred here, so don't turn your trolling venom on me, Glenda. I'm not educated enough for you, then bring the conversation on my level..but bring it! Stop glossing over that part of our history. An estimated 11 million people were taken during the slave trade..11 million!!! At what point do you loose the naivety excuse? In the late 80's I met an African man from Dakar who informed me that NONE of his family had ever been sold into slavery. This blew my mind and sent me on a search for more information. We have a mental vision of white men walking though Africa snatching African tribes from there own backyards..it did not happen that way. WHY CAN'T WE TALK ABOUT IT WITHOUT ATTACKING ONE ANOTHER! Powerful tribes struck a wicked partnership with people they knew meant us no good, and the fact that they could do what they did, for what we know was little to nothing, makes it worse. The difference in what was done to the Indians in North America was that the white man wanted this land, and they took it. We as a people suffer from lack of unity, and it's because we didn't start with it. I look at the world map and I see neighbor killing neighbor regardless of their race and hue, so in my opinion this is a human problem, not a just a black problem. And finally FYI , none of you can take my black card from me. I sat and listened to my great grandmother tell me her history in this country. I learned more from her than I ever learned in a text book.
Sheryl Renee
You should educate yourself on the numbers involved in this discussion. Some scholars estimate the number of Africans sold into slavery by other Africans to be around 6%. The argument you are making is one used by many racists to downplay the significance of the White Mans involvement in this ugly chapter of world history.
Also, as other have mentioned, slavery (also indentured servitude) was nothing new at that time. Many people around the world would trade their conquered enemies into slavery. It was the white man who turned it into an industry.
Don't make any excuses for them.
Yusuf Salaam you have to forgive in order to move on. can't forget that i understand
Sheryl you are so right. I remembering saying this very thing in my history class. I think if we spoke about the issue with that in mind, we'd find a way to not only deal with the issue but move on as a nation and people.
Why did the south africans not have the problem they took it to the white folks to the point that they brought west africans to the cape of africa along with indians,Philipinos,and indonesians to do there dirty work and let's not forget the coups that were formented by the europeans.Also we should get familiar with the freedom fighters who resisted in Africa .
This story has quite a few oversights, dont want to say errors… nevertheless I see a very valuable comment below … what role did Africa play in all this? They sold their own into slavery for primarily guns… what we are seeing now is who made more sustainable investments… EU, US etc. built cities and industries… Africa settled for weapons, now the region is plagued by turmoil and underdevelopment… the true victims here are the countries that became home to these 'new slaves' the land and these people were used for profit not just by the EU & US etc but also Africa…
dont believe the hype… The zionist (khazaria or Ashkhenazi jews) were behind slavery and every other atrocity the world has known…. NO JOKE!!!!
Sheryl Renee. It was the white europeans responsible for the slave trade. What this racist country wants you to believe is: Blacks were responsible for their own slavery. You are maing a big mistake by buying into this version of history. Within any group there will be those who will turn against their own people for profit. As there were Jews in Nazi Germany who turned in other Jews in return for $ or their own saftey.
you are *making
Barb Corchnoy : Sheryl Renee's revisionist history of slavery. A distortion taught by our Racist society , blaming the victims of a true holocaust that lasted centuries Where millions of lives were lost in the Middle Passage. The Atlantic Ocean bottom is rife with the bodies of Africans who did not make the voyage. Who died of disease, murder, and suicide. What is mindboggling is that 15 people "liked" her post.
While what you say has truth to it, the tile of this article is "6 Countries that Grew Filthy Rich from Enslaving Black People". All African countries, compared to the 6 that are mentioned, no part of African received this much dividends!
While what you say has truth to it, the tile of this article is "6 Countries that Grew Filthy Rich from Enslaving Black People". All African countries, compared to the 6 that are mentioned, no part of African received this much dividends!
Exactly!
All for the love of money! smh
Why is it everytime there is an article on slavery the topic goes to African's selling Africans. Slavery in Africa was different to Chattel slavery of the West. Also, Africans did not ochestrate the atrocities captivies of African decent faced in the West. You all always trying to discount the actions of the oppressor like Stephen from Django.
that may be true, but the the point of the article is to explain the economic benefits of slavery, not to put blame on anyone, and by pointing out the controversial notion that Africa is primarily responsible for black slavery only confuses the issue and gives people a reason to justify racism. Africa was definitely involved in the slave trade, but let's not change the subject of who capitalized the most and who dehumanized and continues to dehumanize people of African descent, thanks to that appalling time in history. one thing comes to mind in reading this article: reparations. it's long overdue.
Slavery has existed since mankind. People that were conquered during ancient wars were also brought into slavery. Although these countries became rich, who is also to blame? Africans that sold Africans do they go free also? Arabs that held Africans and sold them as slaves also. What about the Amerindians?
Barb Corchnoy I'm an African from East Africa which is where Slave trade was rampant. We didn't sell our people off. The stronger and younger African were taken away, we didn't want that. This was our future, these were the ones protecting the kingdoms and villages and to add to that also boosting agricultural growth to provide food and all that. We loved our people, our fathers, brothers, cousins, sisters. It's our greedy leaders; the chiefs and kings that fell pray to these new eye catchy things things like mirrors, silk material, modern means of transport and guns among many other things. They desired guns the most because they desired power and the feel of being the strongest kingdoms. To get all these things however, they had to exchange slaves. Thats all the Arabs and Europeans wanted. So our own Kings carried out and arranged village raids to capture slaves. The more slaves they gave out, the more popular they became among the rich Europeans and Arabs hence the more wealthy they became and also the more powerful amongst other kingdoms (through acquiring guns). Who were left behind? The elderly and they disabled and a few very young children. This made our African communities lack labour so we starved for the most part as our Kings grew their egos and wealth. We hated it but there wasn't much we could do. The King kept his entourage i.e. his young strong warriors. There wasn't much we could do, we cried day and night and prayed to the gods. It's all we could do, we hated our Kings and chiefs for this. And today there are less Kingdoms in Africa compared to the ones present in the early 18th – 20th centuries
True hustlers
I may not be as articulate or as educated as some of you scholars, but I clearly started a conversation that needed to be started. Thanks Colin for your insight. Power has always corrupted and as we can see, always will. My maternal family did the ancestry test, and we know that my bloodline came from Tanzania. I am interested in knowing my history. I read everything I can find on the subject, because I like balance, and I think it's important to know the whole story. There is no hatred here from me, for any race. I think there is enough blame to go around. Africa should be the richest nation on the planet for all she has given up. When I was growing up, I was always the darkest in the class, and my own people made me feel like I was nothing. The irony is now I'm told I'm not black enough! Please stop sending your nasty messages to my inbox, or I will delete all my comments and you can keep this conversation going amongst yourselves.
Know your history friends. Great read.
You sound like a self hating black person, & you do not know history, many of those people that enslaved africans were arabized africans, they were arabs & brainwashed africans, arabs still enslave africans to this day, I hate people that open their mouths and dont do research because if you did the research you would see it, the arabs has a long history of befriending and hating africans, moslems having been enslaving africans since 700a.d.you need to read about the muslim wars, pick up a book called "Slavery and human progress" & it talks about how muslims. From the middle east enslaved no less than one million africans every 100hundred years for the past 1,000 years & many africans converted to islam by force & keep this pratice. & also their is a diffdifference about ancient enslavement & colonial enslavemet. Colonial enslavement provided wealth for nations & institutions, empowered & industrial revolution & brought mordern capitalism to the western world. Please get you facts right & know your history before you make foolish statements.
The fact the slaves originated in Africa is no excuse for the exploitation of them as slaves in the United States. It is sick how the hatred of black folks still exist today. All you have to do is watch many republican congressmen and how they hate our President because he is black. The good news is there are so many amazing examples of black folks doing amazing things even when the odds were totally against them. Thurgood Marshall is a great example of an American Hero and President Obama, he actually cares about all Americans.
Two things from the pictures on the website where this article originates. One: Now I know where all the gold from Fort Knox went! To the bloody Bank of England! Two: London has a tall building that looks like a giant dildo! Now we know how England screws the world!
Knowledge Is Power Learn The Truth! Deuteronomy 28th Chapter 29th Chapter 30th Chapter 31 Chapter
Check Out The True Hebrew Israelites Full Vol. Learn The Truth About The Slave Trade And Just Who It Was That Was Sold And Who Sold Us.
Glenda Jones-Epps Thank you!Very well said!
great post but I do not agree with figure browbeating.. slavery lasted four hundred years figure posted as numbers of Africans transported by countries involved for that period is manipulated.. for example between 1807 when slavery was officially aborted by British and latter part of 19th century when it was finally put to rest about 100,000 Africans were transported annually.. that was because there was embargo, the question is how many were transported annually before embargo? If people don't blame the "Jews Holocaust" on Zionist for collaborating with Nazis.. why hold the entire people of Africa responsible for evil that befall them?
I don't understand u
There are many important and well thought comments here. It is known there is not a country on this earth who has not benefited from slavery in some shape or form. African tribes who sold our ancestors into slavery did so under many pretenses. Those who came to Africa to take a human life and treat it so inhumane is sickening to say the least. We will never be able to remove so much hurt and evil from the grips of slavery. We can however, ensure that history does not repeat itself! Learn your history don't bow down to the notion that you are inferior. After all we are descendants of kings.
Yes, but the Europeans did more . They also played an active role the raids, capture and transporting Africans to be shipped across the Atlantic. It wasn't a case of just docking, picking up "CARGO" and removing them from Africa. Both Africans and Europeans committed these crimes………………CGT.
It was not your own people madam. The African tribes sold their jews. It's time to learn the Truth for who you people really are!
We all acknowledge that the greed of the white race and their racist belief that the black race is inferior, contributed to the devastation of Africa even to this day. But exactly when will the Africans themselves admit to their shameful complicity in the raids in deep interior and the subsequent capture, herding and selling of their own kind. It might have started off as a "what was I thinking moment", but come on, over four hundred years? Were they that trusting and naïve for so long. Where was the love for their own kind knowing that they would be taken way in ships across the ocean and never be seen again? Please don't lay all the blame on the white man. Many a white men fought for the liberation of slaves and aided them in their escape from this horrific existencel.
Sheryl – I agree that Africans are not blameless. However, Africans had practiced 'slavery' of sorts for generations. It was NOTHING like what Europeans practiced – stripping slaves of their very humanity – beginning with their Name. I don't think the sellers had ANY IDEA what they were committing their captives to. OR where it would lead. There is such a thing as 'degree' of criminality, I think.
Africa is comprised of many different tribes and cultures. Tribes stole members other tribes so even though "our people sold each other" it wasn't looked at that way. Sellers seen themselves getting rid of the enemy.
The white man not the African man planned, financed and organized the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Its a error not to resist the urgings to criticize the enslaved while excusing the enslaver. When you do that you become one with the enslaver, and a traitor to your own people. Use a bit more common sense before going public with statement that defies all logics. When you, as a card carrying member of the slaughter house complex, eating bacon/chicken etc. declaring its the animals fault that you captured, killed, and ate them after going into the woods, their home, and starting the mess. Our own people that are destructive to us are the ones who talk before considering the damage their uninformed loose lips may cause to our people. There are tens of millions of us that take serious offense to statement from any of the Black race that associate such statement to any part of us. I am being very restrained not to end up doing the same thing I think you have done. Clearly, you know nothing about what was going on in Africa pre American slavery you are speaking strictly on the authority of hearsay. You have not one iota of objective evidence to support your statement that African sold Africans into slavery – not one iota. The only thing you know is what you read in some book or received from some media that you have no knowledge of what went into the info you are stated as if you were right there. That sista is a classic effect of brainwashing.
You my dear have been so bamboozled you don't recognize it as such. What the African get, some guns to fight the whites from stealing their tribe members. Nost of that you talk about was trading prisoners of war for guns. And they had NO CLUE of the extent of the scope of what was happening outside their own borders. Yet you can NOT deny the opulence that Chattel Slavery afforded the whites and Arabs as well. Instead of confronting the largest perpetrators of crimes against humanity you dribble about "get the AFricans, too" THEY ain't got shit were just as victimized as US here in the states, even worse in some areas. So I guess you don't feel REPARATIONS are legitimate. And you ARE entitled to your opinion, but that don't make what you think a reality. You sound crazy and very ill informed. Read a rel book and stop regurgitating that white washed brainwashing shit they been feeding you all your life. Lead, follow or shut up.
"Before you embarrass yourself, in an effort to please your White friends, remember that when you accuse the Afrikan of selling his own people, you must take into account his fear of punishment for non-compliance as well as your reward for doing the same. "
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=590575664336059&set=a.165275270199436.40582.100001508916556&type=3&theater
"Reward for doing the same"
The irony being the fact that Sheryl is acting out of her desire for reward..
We here now what, and some of us were stole like my people, enuff with the blame game! The real money made was here in America !
You are wrong there sister! its just like today those white men were going to get slaves regardless if Africans helped them or not but some Africans decided to join them. Please believe that thousands of Africans slaves were captured without the help of the Africans, The whites only needed help with the stronger Dominate tribes so the weaker tribes who were the enemy of the others decided to help them, like the old saying goes… If you can't beat them then join them…..
You are wrong there sister! its just like today those white men were going to get slaves regardless if Africans helped them or not but some Africans decided to join them. Please believe that thousands of Africans slaves were captured without the help of the Africans, The whites only needed help with the stronger Dominate tribes so the weaker tribes who were the enemy of the others decided to help them, like the old saying goes… If you can't beat them then join them…..
Sheryl you are right, but there are other things to consider…none of which I mention to excuse what our people did, but just in the interest of the WHOLE story. Slavery existed in Africa long before the international trafficking, but the life of a slave was quite different from what the European institution developed. You might be a slave due to war or economics, but you could rise in the community that enslaved you to become even the son of the chief. You were respected for whatever your abilities were and allowed to function in that manner. Secondly, once the European began to give guns in exchange for captives, tribes faced an extreme dilemma: either they accepted the guns so that they could defend themselves from other tribes with guns or they became victims of the tribes with guns. The European created an need to 'kill or be killed' so to speak. And lastly…just as the Native Americans could not conceive that 'selling' the land to these strangers would result in their eventual displacement (for after all: Who can own land, it belongs to God and all share it for the purpose and time they need it), our people could not conceive of a slave system as heinous and barbaric as the European contrived and implemented. But because karma is real, misfortune befell our motherland in the form of colonialism and continues to haunt our original home in the form of neo-colonialism. We have all suffered for the mistakes of those historic times. Too bad we never turned those guns on the merchants who brought them every time they came!
Many African tribes were forced to participate in the action to avoid their own demise. Rival tribes were given guns and were allowed to attack other tribes. To defend themselves these tribes tried to acquire weapons from the Europeans however they were told that the only currency that would be accepted would be a slave. Not even gold was accepted. So they were often backed into a corner.
Sheryl Renee- True it started with Africa; however, the article is targeted towards countries that became…"filthy rich", as a result of the slave trade. No country in Africa to date became rich as a result of tribal disputing trade. It was never formally sanctioned by any African government. I appreciate any historical record to the contrary.
Ant, thankx for the History lesson!
Thank you for putting this in focus Brother Marcus and looking beyond the surface!!!
Not one historian has been able to bring forth one document to support we participated in our own enslavement.
Yes but, who employed them to do it…that IS the real beginning, right?
AND lets not forget the robbery of DIAMONDS, this is the richest continent…
Matthew Bank, because this entire topic was not taught, it will take a lot of us some time to sort it all through but I appreciate all of the conversation here as I learn…so that said, thank you for pointing that out and I think I agree (for now)…
As I mentioned above, it will take time for all of us to sort through this (new to many) information. Please continue to post and help us understand?
Clayon Campbell , not sure if that will work…we've been a very passive people and get nowhere with our requests…Look at our President…passive and I wonder what would have happened if he had jumped right in aggressively. I think the first time voters hoped for just that.
Mehdi Scally, among other things, the energy is still negative, today…how to forgive while you are still being beaten? Also, to travel to another country and run into or be introduced to your identical look alike, realizing that with mothers having their babies snatched and sold to different countries, we will never belong anywhere…
Anthony Wong, i think what is missing here is that this SLAVERY in a sense is still going on. Example, we have seen a witness on the stand of the Trayvon case teased for not speaking well …Spanish speaking people are forgiven as this is their second language, essentially it is our second also, recognising that we've only been allowed to learn it for only about 200 years…the first few generations struggled and generations a few back copied the poor skills of the first, so realistically we are the first generation to have no excuse. (and we don't need one now either). My point is that we are BLAMED for not getting good jobs when that is not our fault either and we can't force anyone to hire us. So many other examples of why I say slavery for us still exists.
Bad for africans
Brother Jackson…Africa is not a Country
LMAO!
@ Sheryl. While it is true that some Africans sold other Africans into slavery, this is only half truth and like they say, Half a truth is often a great lie. If you look back in time from the era of Classical antiquity, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Middle Ages, Viking ages through Lizbethan, kingdoms declared senseless wars on each other, conquered and enslaved each other. It was no different in Africa. However, when the Europeans arrived on the shores of Africa, they didn't come with a business proposal, they simply came to capture "weak lesser humans", who's means of self defense was not as sophisticated as theirs. It would take close another 100 years if not more for this to become a trade because it came down to, "sell or we take by force", and even then, kingdoms would only sell criminals and outlaws but every system has its flaws so did this one. I am not trying to condone the act itself but I am sick and tired of people (some African Americans) being prejudice against their own just because of Half Truths!!! Has it ever occurred to you that whiles your ancestors were taken away and enslaved in foreign lands, the ones that remained behind were NOT free either? We were enslaved on their own soil. It is one thing for our home to be invaded and some of us abducted and taken away its another thing for the intruder to remain in our home and turn us into slaves. Dont get me wrong, I have nothing against African Americans, I am married to one. Also, we all share the same ancestors.
An honest conversation! Great post Sheryl. There isn't a person alive today who participated in this atrocity. We should never forget the past but we need to fix what is wrong with America today. To many minorities in prison and not enough elevating of minorities. I have a theory that once as many Black woman marry white men as White woman marry black men racism and the stigma it has caused America will be mostly over.
I don’t understand how people come to their judgement but it is interesting none the less…..in history the weaker force has given way to the stronger force through war or making a deal or being forced to make a deal…the Europeans were the stronger force at the time…their war technology was far superior to any African nation at that time and still is…..even if the whole of Africa had resisted…the west would have annihilate most of the Africans in the continent…read up on the Zulu nation and you will understand….but most of you seem to forget after slavery came colonialism…where the African continent was carved up and shared amongst the western countries…and a new era of oppression and mass fortunes made for the western countries….but for some reason it seems easier for some of you to keep blaming certain Africans for selling slaves to the west….but the question I would like to ask…would these Africans….been able to stop the west from achieving their goal???? The answer is NO….because the Zulus put up a brave & strong fight as many other Africans….but when the west got their ass beat by the Zulus or any other African tribe…the west merely turned up the heat and brought more troops and most importantly more advance fire power in the form of the Gatling gun….people you need to read and understand why things happened the way they did…do not let your emotions make a judgement on something that you have no real knowledge about….in other words seek out the core of the subject than the peripheral.
Prove it please.
Sheryl Renee , the fact is, slavery occurred with "white men walking though Africa snatching African tribes from there own backyards" in addition to people trading their people for objects. It's critical that we as a people recognize that we come from love, unity and community as well and built not only the European civilizations featured in this article, but also the civilizations that far preceded their own, without the same slave trading, keeping/treating tactics. I agree, humans are humans, and that should never be forgotten. However, it's historically accurate to reference the whole truth and to urge others to never forget, lest history repeat itself.
Thank you.. We all need to be ready to face the Lord most important decision anyone can make in today's world is to get right with the Lord. Tomorrow is not promised..
If they just pulled up and picked up cargo then how did they end up owning and colonizing the whole continent(except Ethiopia). If I'm buying from you how do I end up owning the store. You getting your history of slavery from the enslaver so of course it's not their fault. Did the native America sell themselves and their land too, how about Australians, Asian, China everywhere they've been they have stole, raped, robbed and tried to enslave the people, why is it different when they come to Africa. You need to study more, read the Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams, read some Dr. John H. Clarke, Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan. and I didn't even touch on the type or form of this slavery like Marcus Ausar Brooks did just study a little more sister.
Tarek Allam Brother Tarek I hope this don't come across as an argument because my true intention is to inspire you to study a little more because it is NOT A FACT THAT THE AFRICAN OFFERED UP THEIR PEOPLE FOR SALE. The first African slaves in Europe were kidnapped off the west coast of Africa and sole to the Queen in England. " Destruction of Black Civilization" by: Chancellor Williams. The Africans wasn't so poor that they had to sale their people, study the empire of Songhay or the Kingdom of Kuba just a couple of Kingdom that was thriving at the time the slave trade started. The enslaver have to teach that so that their savage behavior don't seem so savage. They have to believe that or except the beastly behavior of their people.
Slavery wasn't just an event, it was a *system*. All humans are capable of terrible cruelty, and african folks are not an exception here, but it was undeniably the white man who was in control of this international system of slavery. The proof really is to look at where the wealth went. Where are the oppulent african empires, or the fabulous wealthy indigenous american cities? None, because whilst all the races participated in this evil trade, it was the white man that orchestrated it and grew rich and powerful off the backs of the expropriated forced labor of black men and women.
None of this happened simply because a villian in a cape and twirly moustache decided to do evil things, it happened because the capitalist and pre-capitalist system of the time needed to avery revolution in the white countries , and could only do so by creating more goods than white labor could produce. So they captured and enslaved black men to create goods and produce to prevent revolution by poorer whites by buying them off with cheap consumables and build wealth for the elite using the false ideology of white supremacy. The system in some respects still works today via the system of sweatshops in third world countries that work poor folk in africa , asia and south america to produce iphones and 50" televisions for people in the first world to stop the first world people realise that under this economic system, everybody gets screwed in the end. Its still the same old system, but now we just use poverty to enslave people of color, instead of the masters whip.
If we make education our number one goal and stop killing each other, the oppressors of our people can't keep doing what they do. Caucasians united to enslave us, we must come together as Africans to have a future in the advancement of the world and not let it happen again. Because space exploration is the future and without education, we will be the slaves building the colonies with free labor.
Yes, but remember that captives in tribal wars were often enslaved. After a period their status changed and they were just part of the community. This was nothing like race-based slavery in the European colonies.
Hi Cheryl,
While what you say is true, slavery in Africa was nothing like what we know about slavery in the Western world. While slavery is not good in any form, in Africa it was not the brutal form as in Western nations. See http://autocww.colorado.edu/~blackmon/E64ContentFiles/AfricanHistory/SlaveryInAfrica.html
Firstly, there were no tribes in Africa before colonization. There were nation states and empires. Secondly, I am sure there is crime in your area where robbers and serial killers are running lose, that does not make all of America a nation of robbers and serial killers. Thirdly, Saddam Hussein was supposed to have been a dictator, killing thousands of his people and owning and having weapons of mass destruction. That does not make all Iraqis dictators and murderers. Lastly, Africa was and still remains a huge continent with thousands of different nationalities and peoples. Today, it consists of 56 different countries who speak different languages.
The story of the slave trade is a lot more complex than tribe selling tribe. This is the sophistry that is being bandied about in a macabre "share the blame" game.
First of all, the captives were bought different times at different places under varying circumstances. African Kings and Chiefs did not just line their coasts with captives for sale waiting for European traders to come and buy. It was not an institutionalized or legalized system as it was in Europe. The Kings who did it were despots and their people tried to stop them from conducting the trade which in turn led to even more wars. King Alphonso of Kongo in the 16th century wrote a passionate letter to the King of Portugal to get his subjects to stop the "evil trade in slaves" but he was ignored. The reason the European forts and slave trading centers had to be so fortified was because the Europeans had to secure themselves and their illicit loot from Africans on the coast that were RESISTING the slave trade. Nobody in Europe RESISTED the slave trade up until it had been going on for several centuries.
The history that we have of the slave trade is a one sided narrative and needs to be overhauled for the real picture to emerge. We should at least remember that for every captive sold, he left behind brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers who mourned the loss of their relative.
Another issues often overlooked is that the reason the Atlantic slave trade was such an horrible crime was not even the actual buying and selling. that was bad enough. What escalates it to the realm of the barbaric is the TREATMENT the captives got when they landed in the "New" world. The tortures, the floggings, the inhuman treatment and other horrors that could have only be devised and carried out by tortured barbaric souls.
A few links might throw some further light on this issue. Tribe did not sell tribe and Africans did not sell their brothers. Africans were not racists so they did not judge people by the color of their skin. They were centuries AHEAD of the whole world in the knowledge and civilization of knowing that a human being should not be judged by the colour of his/her skin. Some of them knew more about Europe and the European they were doing business with than about the captive that had been brought from deep inside Africa, from a place they never heard of or knew existed. The Kings of Dahomey knew of Napoleon chasing the Portuguese Royal family out of Portugal but did not nor could he have been expected to know of the Zulu Empire and its predecessor states in South Africa. The same issues continue today.
On the other issue of slaves in Africa. It was impossible for pre-colonial Africa to have slaves. Society just did not allow it. They had indentured servants who were human beings and were recognized as such. Bi a se bi eru ni a bi omo. A servant is born in exactly the same way as a child is born is an ancient African saying. How they became indentured servants varied, some were war captives, some were to redeem debts, and many other myriad of ways but it was not transferable or permanent.
A few links might shed more light of the sophistry of "brother selling brother and tribe selling tribe". It is a deliberate sophistry to drive a wedge between Africans at home and in the diaspora as well as weaken the argument on repatriation by "blaming the victim". In the first place, an Black person, whether at home or in the diaspora that knows anything about the true African personality knows that we should not collect a single $ as reparations. That will be collecting blood money for the murder of your relatives and wiping the cosmic and justice plate clean. Let the blood money stay right where it is. The World is round (spherical) and it spins on its axis. What goes around comes around. It is a natural law of nature.
Sylviane Diouf has documented extensively, resistance by Aricans to the slave trade in her book,
http://www.sylvianediouf.com/fighting_the_slave_trade__west_african_strategies_3785.htm
Dr. Molefi Asante explains why "blaming the victim" is fundamentally wrong:
http://www.asante.net/articles/44/afrocentricity/
http://www.asante.net/articles/46/the-slave-trade-and-reparations-closing-the-gates/.
Know the truth and it shall set you free.
You make a good point, but it must be noted that slavery dating back to antiquity had rules for the treatment of slaves. The Atlantic Slave Trade marks a sharp shift in the slave enterprise reaching the depths of human depravity. Take a look at the Slave law in Barbados, later transported to South Carolina, and compare it to the rule promulgated by Islam. You are correct that slavery existed in Africa long before the Atlantic slave trade, just as it did in Europe and Asia, but slavery in the New World reached new levels of inhumanity.
NOT all tribes sold their "war captives" into slavery.
Two…just because "slaves" might be for sale, do I have to buy them?! NOPE.
Most importantly, slavery in Africa/Middle East was very different from the lifetime or chattel slavery implemented in the United States.
Additionally, upon completing her/his contract with the landowner, a "slave" in Africa had 3 choices:
1. Be paid a tidy sum and move on.
2. Stay and invest is earnings with the landowner's operations.
3. Marry into the landowner's family and thus become a partner.
Africa *was*. …NUMBER ONE…in natural resources.
Europe didn't have much of any…and thus off they went to colonize other countries using the gunpowder made in China.
Firstly, there were no tribes in Africa before colonization. There were nation states and empires. Secondly, I am sure there is crime in your area where robbers and serial killers are running lose, that does not make all of America a nation of robbers and serial killers. Thirdly, Saddam Hussein was supposed to have been a dictator, killing thousands of his people and owning and having weapons of mass destruction. That does not make all Iraqis dictators and murderers. Lastly, Africa was and still remains a huge continent with thousands of different nationalities and peoples. Today, it consists of 56 different countries who speak different languages.
The story of the slave trade is a lot more complex than tribe selling tribe. This is the sophistry that is being bandied about in a macabre "share the blame" game.
First of all, the captives were bought different times at different places under varying circumstances. African Kings and Chiefs did not just line their coasts with captives for sale waiting for European traders to come and buy. It was not an institutionalized or legalized system as it was in Europe. The Kings who did it were despots and their people tried to stop them from conducting the trade which in turn led to even more wars. King Alphonso of Kongo in the 16th century wrote a passionate letter to the King of Portugal to get his subjects to stop the "evil trade in slaves" but he was ignored. The reason the European forts and slave trading centers had to be so fortified was because the Europeans had to secure themselves and their illicit loot from Africans on the coast that were RESISTING the slave trade. Nobody in Europe RESISTED the slave trade up until it had been going on for several centuries.
The history that we have of the slave trade is a one sided narrative and needs to be overhauled for the real picture to emerge. We should at least remember that for every captive sold, he left behind brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers who mourned the loss of their relative.
Another issues often overlooked is that the reason the Atlantic slave trade was such an horrible crime was not even the actual buying and selling. that was bad enough. What escalates it to the realm of the barbaric is the TREATMENT the captives got when they landed in the "New" world. The tortures, the floggings, the inhuman treatment and other horrors that could have only be devised and carried out by tortured barbaric souls.
A few links might throw some further light on this issue. Tribe did not sell tribe and Africans did not sell their brothers. Africans were not racists so they did not judge people by the color of their skin. They were centuries AHEAD of the whole world in the knowledge and civilization of knowing that a human being should not be judged by the colour of his/her skin. Some of them knew more about Europe and the European they were doing business with than about the captive that had been brought from deep inside Africa, from a place they never heard of or knew existed. The Kings of Dahomey knew of Napoleon chasing the Portuguese Royal family out of Portugal but did not nor could he have been expected to know of the Zulu Empire and its predecessor states in South Africa. The same issues continue today.
On the other issue of slaves in Africa. It was impossible for pre-colonial Africa to have slaves. Society just did not allow it. They had indentured servants who were human beings and were recognized as such. Bi a se bi eru ni a bi omo. A servant is born in exactly the same way as a child is born is an ancient African saying. How they became indentured servants varied, some were war captives, some were to redeem debts, and many other myriad of ways but it was not transferable or permanent.
A few links might shed more light of the sophistry of "brother selling brother and tribe selling tribe". It is a deliberate sophistry to drive a wedge between Africans at home and in the diaspora as well as weaken the argument on repatriation by "blaming the victim". In the first place, an Black person, whether at home or in the diaspora that knows anything about the true African personality knows that we should not collect a single $ as reparations. That will be collecting blood money for the murder of your relatives and wiping the cosmic and justice plate clean. Let the blood money stay right where it is. The World is round (spherical) and it spins on its axis. What goes around comes around. It is a natural law of nature.
Sylviane Diouf has documented extensively, resistance by Africans to the slave trade in her book,
http://www.sylvianediouf.com/fighting_the_slave_trade__west_african_strategies_3785.htm
Dr. Molefi Asante explains why "blaming the victim" is fundamentally wrong:
http://www.asante.net/articles/44/afrocentricity/
http://www.asante.net/articles/46/the-slave-trade-and-reparations-closing-the-gates/.
Nobody is asking Romania, Hungary or Greece to pay reparations. WE should stop talking about Africa like it is just one monolithic mass of strange beings. This is simply racist and ignorant. Reparations are being asked from specific countries and legal entities that benefited or participated in the Atlantic Slave Trade which still exists and are visible.
The principle behind it is that you cannot benefit from your crime. Their so called African business partners have been neutralized and bankrupted and stripped of all power during the colonial invasion and conquest of Africa in the 19th century anyway so there is nobody to join the remaining existing slave trading entities in paying the reparation. Technically and legally, there are no inheritors to those legal entities that supposedly did the selling.
These African Kings HAVE paid their own reparations. In blood. To the same European slave traders.
If anyone wants any African to join them in paying for the Atlantic slave trade, they should please remove their colonial and neo colonial contraptions and Africans can now be in a good position to welcome back our brothers and heal this gaping wound.
Know the truth and it shall set you free.
I read this book by Molefi Kete Asante, the history of Africa, and indeed it said that powerful kingdoms of that time, would conquer rival tribes or smaller tribes and they would vanished them salvering them and selling them afterwards so they would never become a treath. Indeed they were naive to believe the europeans where the best option… same happened in America, hard to believe 500 hundred spaniards conquer a nation like the Aztecs, they used the same strategy used local rival tribes or states against the Aztec that were the ruling empire and in less tan 2 years they killed 2million locals, the ones that remained alive were also enslave and sold and until before the Independence mistreath as third class citizens the people from Mexico and the rest of Latin countries, they Exchange mirrors for all this given to the europeans.
Children and friends of this mishap (slavery) we should remind ourself of the comfort we have learned to enjoy……..most of the places spoken about would love to migrate here to enjoy the wealth of our society!!!
We should learn the art of slavery and understand it cause dare not scream out (bad ) as many of us practice this art and enjoy it rewards ….
America means slavery!
From Dr. Henry Louis Gates's documentary on Africa:
"It is easily assumed, therefore, that the African slave trade pit brutal, gun-wielding European slaver traders against unsuspecting, passive African victims. While the Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, English and French slave traders were often brutal, they were not always working alone — many Africans were also complicit in this victimization. Precolonial empires such as Dahomey and Ashanti (located in what is now Benin and Ghana), where slave ports at Ouidah and Elmina flourished, accumulated enormous wealth and power as a result of the trade of their fellow Africans."
If we are going to examine the Transatlantic slave trade, we need to examine it comprehensively. As it turns out, Europeans did not have a monopoly on greed and exploitation.
http://www.pbs.org/wonders/fr_e3.htm
By definition, slaves are not compensated. Stop apologizing for African slave traders who were just as greedy, brutal, and exploitative as their European counterparts.
Currently all the rich are still making money off of ppl in slave conditions but now we call it outsourcing instead.
Thank you Tyrone. Africans may have sold captives into slavery, but they did not commit the atrocities that were committed against them. they did not rape them, whip their bodies, burn them alive, hang women and children and women who were pregnant, bash the heads of children. please, there is not comparison.
No matter who Is at fault, black or white, slavery is wrong and yet it still continues, albeit in more subtle forms; Mexicans being "allowed" to enter the U.S. to pick crops putting in long, back-breaking hours for little pay and abysmal living conditions then being kicked to the curb when the crops are in. Other people living in abject poverty with no job prospects or health care, ergo, not being able to provide the basic needs for a healthy hopeful existence.
Noah Stephens Sir, you don't seem to know the history of the slave trade, and certainly don't know the difference between the European and African worldview which would have viewed the value of a human being quite differently.
Right you are Erick Donnie Jackson, and additionally, very few Africans traded in slaves with Europeans, so how can we attribute so much blame to Africans for this blight on human history? Moreover, deal with the fact that Africa view of slavery never, never, never stripped away the victim's humanity!
Cosby Jackson Well it is not the number one continent in cash either!
…and we must add Arabs to the list as well…
Kimm Anderson Bernier Irving …not only "not taught" but hidden, denied and generally lied about at all times!
Bill Andress … not quite yet, Bill, but we must continue the work on resolving it.
Anthony, there was a very big difference with the European introduction of chatel slavery which stripped people of their very hujmanity. I don't know of any other such examples in history.
the african slave trade was a way for rich Europeans to avoid empowering European peasants by paying them for their labor. The nations the article cites were not benefactors of European people. They were simply gangs of cooperating elite families. Same thing happens today with shipping American jobs to China.
You make slavery in Africa sound great ("administrative…power…family")! They treated their "family" real well when they loaded them on boats to turn a profit. Even if that was the whole truth, I'm sure those that were kidnapped, tithed away, or those who had their families murdered in war before being enslaved would agree with your rendition. And, for a current event piece Africa is still profiting from slave trade in many forms today. Give it time, Africa will catch up (if not already) as long as there are diamonds, sex, and people wanting cheap labor.
Yeah, you're right. As long as I trade another human for a horse or something like rum, cotton, or sugar cane then it doesn't count bc only cash makes you rich (laden heavily with sarcasm).
Um, I'm sure we could find infinite sources to prove the current practice of slavery alive and well in several if not all African nations to this day with the sex trade, blood diamonds, or even the selling of children. Maybe the "we" you are referring to isn't African? Or does it not count if it happened after 1865?
Do some reading on Timbuktu. They did pretty well for themselves in the slave trading business and it was a commonly accepted/sanctioned practice.
Vassie Welbeck-Browne The earliest (known) pyramid was built in Egypt 2650 BC-2610 BC. I just hope you don`t agree to the theory that pyramids were built from aliens.
What europeans introduced were 2 new tools to justify their slaughtery.
Yes slavery has existed since mankind and well said Alfonso, mankind is to blame.
Compensation? ..Yes you`re probably right, some of them were allowed to have some administrative family duties, but only after going through some very painful processes and surgeries, kind of : making them blind (physically), the process of forcing a normal sized (that didn`t have dwarfism syndrome) child to a grown up midget (read once abt that process and seemed a real horror) and the other little surgery to a special part of men bodies that would have made them eunuchs for the entire life. This were the only ways they (slaves) had to pass to eventually apply for an integration into the families of slave owners.
What you define as slavery from African traders is not a typical slavery, it is what we do in everyday life in modern times.
also the era of colonization and stalling our natural resources by the white man
Although these countries used Africa as a means of enrichment (as a Scot I am appalled at what the British Empire did), it must not be forgotten that the Arab countries and the Ottoman Empire were importing thousands of slaves through Zanzibar and that the Zanzibar slave market was the last to be closed to that iniquitous trade in the last decade of the 19th century. I suggest reading The Last Slave Market by Alastair Hazell published by Constable London ISBN 978-178033-657-2 Although as I have said, as a Scot I am appalled at what Britain did, I am also proud that the man who managed to close that Zanzibar market and stop the trade up the east coast of Africa to the Persian Gulf, was a Scot. Like Livingstone, he was a medical Doctor, but actually did more than Livingstone to stop the East coast trade. he was called John Kirk.
Kimm I so agree! The entire subject has NOT been taught. NOT a word was ever told to me about the WHITE slaves in America and in other parts of the world as well. Seem its OK to disregard this notion. Also what about the thousands of years the Jews where also slaves? The notion that ONLY blacks where slaves is BUNK!
There is slavery going on today in the SUDAN and many other nations. Arabia for one. They just arrested a Saudi princess for having a slave here in the US. The city I live in had arrests when a local Chinese restaurant was caught with Mexican slaves to work their business. Its not a "black" thing at all but a world wide problem since the beginning of time.
Before England enslaved blacks she enslaved Irish
And even more they stole by enslaving People on the ground, for example in Congo: http://wipokuli.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/crimes-on-congo-part-1-from-destruction-to-destroyed-independence/ And the enslavement of Africa, especially the Congo is going on, for Coltan for example! http://hungryoftruth.blogspot.de/2009/04/charles-onana-breaking-silence-on-rd.html
You know what he meant !!! NO COUNTRY IN AFRICA BECAME RICH !
Laurence Ligon I must disagree with you here. With a little more research you will see that there were certainly incidences where the atrosities did occur, where whole villages were vanquished, women raped, land eviscerated, animals killed and homes burnt to the ground. We have to get out of the notion of glamorizing the plight of Empire that was a part of African history. Empire does not imply a willing take over. It implies aggression.
While it may be true that in some instances around/across the African continent, there were also instances of barbarism. We must be completely honest. I always ask, what happened to Africa? If we blame it all on the Invaders, then surely we are saying our African Ancestors were weak. Can we claim weakness and strength during the same epoch of time? If we say that it was due to weakness, we are giving power over to the invaders. Then, what is the sense in talking about the glory?
Somewhere along the line, the Invaders hit a "nerve" as it were and were able to convince the Africans to capture their own kind. Look at current history today. What is it that makes people succumb to the promise of riches and glory at the detriment of their own people? Have you taken time to study the Nubian/Khemetian wars that took place? Wars and battles for the throne of the Pharaoh? What happened to the great Empires of Africa? As history has shown, Empires fall, not from without, but from within. Check it out.
with the discovery of gun pointing at you if you did not comply i dont think there was much choice there,if the idea of slavery was that of the same spectrum as the westerner for african i don't think for second that we will be where we are today,sure black african were selling or rather facilitating the trade of other african but im' sure that once those westerner understood how it work ( as they always do) i do not believe that they needed them the last 300 years of the trade,the spanish attitude toward the mayans and incas taught us that, so to kind of blame this all affaire on a few opportunistic mongral would not have inbalance this situation to the point of pointing finger at those later ,the fact is there was nations that was build on the other side of the globe at an accelerating rate with plenty to show today to the point that it leaves almost half of the globe in the dark ages….
If you think there was no slavery in Africa before Africa was colonized you have to be deaf dumb and BLIND. Slavery has been around since the beginning of time and was written about in most of the old scriptural writings. There is still slavery in part of the world TODAY, Sudan comes to mind as one, among many others! One has only to look at Uganda,Rwanda( Tutsi vs Hutu) and many others, to see there is racism as well, alive and active in Africa among the "NATIVE" people.It is just plain silly to say they where NOT slaves, BUT indentured servants. Just a fancy way of saying the same exact thing!
Islam means slavery and death!
Africa was always "CARVED" up in regards to different tribes, nations, and kingdoms.
Bill Andress. please tell me what has been resolved?
yusuf points out that you reap what you sow The vast slave trading country of Dahomey is reduced to Benin , Spain and Portugal made trillions in chatel slavery and are now in dire straits the Arabs are under Western guns and THE USA is facing gridlock and default the chickens do come home to roost !cherish your Ancestral culture. more later !
spirituality recognizes that there is unlimited resources for all and that transforming our (heaviness) impatience, sadness, anger, worry and fear into (the lighter, brighter) respect, courage, kindness, honesty and gentleness is the most challenging and fulfilling path. Anyone of us can easily fall into the trap of materialism which is the opposite. This is an individual battle and to whatever small degree we conquer ourselves, we must use that success to encourage each other to do the same. The most beautiful part of this planet is ourselves and that which would be here without us doing a dam thing. All them riches and monuments and stuff created by man and our greed pale in comparison.
Great points Bro….
Yes lets tell the whole story. We should not be so quick to beat ourselves up. Yes there tribal conflicts in Africa but the captives were not brutally exploited. How many African nation benefited from the the exploitation of the African in America? Let story show how many Tribes fought off the EEEuropean
The amount of unscientific essentialist concepts in your post is mingboggling ("nation-states" before the XVI century, yeah right). Poe's law applies here, seriously, if you were parodying a panafricanist reactionary, I take my hat off.
ik vind hetleuk
I'd drop Australia on this list as number 7. They call it "indentured" labor but that's just the diminished framing and re-badging effort to non-align its shameful past to Slavery (But lets for argument sake, call it by it's correct term – S_L_A_V_E_R_Y). Not only our Aboriginal Australian Ancestors who were brought down in chains, sent to work as domestics and unskilled labor with no wage, but also Melanesians (some 60,000+) were stolen from the Pacific Islands then deported 40years later (Pacific Islanders Act 1901).
Some useful links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Island_Labourers_Act_1901
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-14/an-blackbirding-special/4887692
http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/economy/stolen-wages
http://www.ccentre.wa.gov.au/ResearchAndSeminarPapers/LaunchingTheShip/Pages/Section70.aspx
http://www.antislavery.org.au/home/face-of-slavery-in-australia.html
Strike one to Christian Protestants!
Strike two to Christian Protestants!
Strike one to Christian Catholics, sworn enemy (at time) to PRodestants!
Strike three to Christian Protestants, with Dutch those neanderthals who kept their christian apartheid going up until… our living memory
and do we need to go any further the ONLY time the prods and caths stopped slaughtering each other was to take their bibles in one hand and gun in the other, truely Christianity has and should be held accountable to their dissonance of practice.
Folks there is a very interesting study on the Atlantic Slave Trade and interesting comments and hypothesis on why Africans cooperated with the Europeans in the slave trade. Africa is an enormous continent as was mentioned here ,Africans on the Coast were more familiar with Europe than with some parts of the interior of Africa. Africa had and has many different ethnicities, and the Atlantic slave trade lasted for almost three hundred years ,ending around 1840, for the most part. The internal US slave trade began in earnest then.
Lol I forgot all about this post
which book did you read to tell you this Ms Sheryl i'm sure its from the same people that want you to believe that is what it was so hear what . STOP READING EUROPEAN BOOKS TO GET AFRICAN HISTORY PLEASE ………………………………..if your offended then your lost Sorry
The very FEW afrikans who sold and traded slaves, sold their enemies and thus then were still captured themselves. Sorry but thses countries did NOT just pull up and pick up cargo and these statements were obviously not researched first, And looking at the position we are in now, we obviously did not profit much, so the fact still remains that these countries are enjoying wealth from enslaving afrikans. In my opinion we have too many black uncle toms posting that we were the cause of our own enslavement which is far from the truth. I get it, lets try to make them feel as non guilty as possible but the truth still remains.
Unfortunately it's falling apart worse and faster for the non rich and underprivileged, especially for the blacks whose ancestors were sold to those places.
"According to Harper’s magazine (November 2000), the United States stole an estimated $100 trillion for 222,505,049 hours of forced labor between 1619 and 1865, with a compounded interest of 6 percent." mindblowing
"According to Harper’s magazine (November 2000), the United States stole an estimated $100 trillion for 222,505,049 hours of forced labor between 1619 and 1865, with a compounded interest of 6 percent." mindblowing
That's why I do not cease my comments on the need for reparations for crimes against the descendants of slavery… can you name the countries that the slave trade negatively affected?
Until the wrongs are acknowledged, we collectively as a united people can not move forward.
Sheryl, Barb, and Tarek…to explain it in those terms is to oversimplify a complex subject. First, the white man was terrified by the strength of the African; so he came with weapons that could annihilate an entire tribe. Something tells me when the kings/chiefs resisted, the white man demonstrated for them what would happen-killed a few. They also stole many unsuspecting souls. The white man scouted the coastal areas for the people they captured. Hence, the African did not capture and sell at will.
Why do we never ever talk or write of White Slave history??????? I'm interested in know more about that. The Barbery Coast and beyond.
If you search the Arab Slave trade on Google or read books that Muslim scolars have written on the subject you will find that wars between African kingdoms caused not only the enslavement of 12,000,000 Africans but the loss of an estimated 100,000,000 African souls.They kept very good records. It might be considered however that being sold into slavery may have been a godsend, as was the custom at the time prisoners were usually beheaded and their heads used as trophies.
yes our ancestors sold us into slavery but the institution of slavery was a different thing in Africa most times slaves in Africa where made part of the family they had no idea how vicious these people where and I believe if they had of known it would of been different
Before the Black slaves, the collon killed, no genocide the native indians, france, england, holland and spain and some that i forget potugal as well did the slave trade, no doubt about the horror that they did, this was sick, you have to listen what Farrakhan said about the jews and slavery, he's a great man Farrakhan cause he's sayin the true USA history about the Rothschild impact in the usa, slavery is not finish at all cause you are a slave to get a car or a house, to pay your study fees, it's not about black or white anymore, that what they want that people are divided, they pass a law about stoping food stamp 50million people use it, 1 million people'll be fired in 2014, thanks OBAMA. Even Hollywood is doing a great job with some movie like American nigthmare, WATCH "PUNISHMENT PARK" and you'll understant it all
Wow!!!! You will never read about this in the history books. All of history should be taught no matter how ugly it is.
absolutely corrrect…and the Jews declared an all out war on Germany first…a few years before WWII started…"Jews, worldwide Unite"…Plants Cottage…you can add in a few edomites too…wink
@plants cottage…on point…NO JOKE
Wow! The irony is that Wall Street doesn't employ that many blacks…
Nana Baakan Agyiriwah Nana, you are spot-on. At the risk of sounding cliche, I'd say that you totally hit the nail right on the head here. The real problem is and always has been the endless internal squabbles owing mainly to divisions amongst our peoples. I've always maintained that we are "fractured by structure," and these fractures have been at the heart of our woes since time immemorial.
Liam Murcia Why don't you shed some 'scientific' light on the subject, since you seem to know more about our history than we do?
We are all equal in the apportioning of blame for the attrocities of the slave trade. When we talk of racism…we assume it is a white black or coloured thing. In fact racism is a remnant of tribalism. Tribalism is theroot cause of slavery. Slavery was rampant in Arabia and in Africa long before Europe became enlightened. Territorial conquest was the norm in Africa at that time. A defeated village became enslaved to conquering villages and were used as properties and as a sign of wealth. When the Europeans came to Africa.. they did not come to enslave.. tge Africans offered the Europeans slaves in exchange for goids and albeit services. The Europeans saw the slaves as cheap labour and were corrupted into using their services to benefit their coubtries. The Europeans on their sude of the sea were also slave owners.. they enslaved their captives but did not exploit them to the extent that the Africans were exploited. My point slavery is synonymous with every tribe.. culture and society. Apportioning blame for the sins of the past suuts no purpose…let us move on and celebrate humanity. Let us learn to love and tolerate each other. The love of money is the root of all evil. Love yourselves as you love your brothers snd sisters.
Sorry for my typos…could not edit properly on my mobile phone…which I sent my comment from.
By the way…if you want to see the real culprits in the slave trade fiasco…go to Africa.. Nigeria.. etc and see the population of starving citizens compared to their leaders who are the richest in the world.
mind opener
So, if someone commits a crime and enlists the help of a second person, the second person should be the focus of the crime? Slavery, like words, had a different meaning to Africans. They had no idea of the conditions they were subjecting the slaves to when they sold them. Research the conditions of slaves prior to the African slave trade and maybe you will see the truth. So many countries profited from the trade that to this day, they all are intent on denying the extent to which they damaged Africa. Does the word "Conspiracy" help you understand any better?
Sheryl Renee obviously you haven't read much about The African Slave Trade….
the conspiracy to fabricate and disseminate lies about the african slave trade reaches all around the world. How can anyone with a conscious cell in their brain believe the BS about African involvement being at the heart of the story… Please people get a grip. You are being told from the people of countries who profited that the "one" country that did not profit is the real culprit… How idiotic are you people? Does the word gullible ring any bells for you?
Africa should be #1…
The first slave owner was a black man.
Sheryl Renee….African slavery was based on biblical law and gave a time frame of 7 years not 400 years…every closed eye ain't sleep but nice try.
The Positive news here is that through the enduring plight and suffering of one's past ancestors of African slavery…the African blood not only survived in these wealth driven, industrial nations…but became educated, self-achieving, and wealthy…contributing profound ideas through academics, art, and business. Not all under this large umbrella have been generationally healed, nor separated from the time passage of racial disparity…but many offspring from these targeted slaves, who were forced and displaced into these foreign nations of oppression…have become emancipated, loyal, prosperous citizens in depths their forefathers likely may have never imagined…and have contributed with accomplishment and spirituality from which their forefathers could only hope. Remembering the past is knowledge…but progressing forward into the future…is wisdom.
@ Sheryl Renee…
What's your point? The white men took slavery to ANOTHER level!
What about indoctrination? How about the 1960's in the States.. Black people were not allowed to sit in front of the bus. All these things that happened just recent years ago were clearly against black people.. and all you bring up is the fact who started it… What about this… The white men could have gone to Africa with their ships and teach the africans what and not to do.. meaning explaining to them to stop their slavery and be more civilized! If the white people were so called civilized they should have educated some parts of Africa. But instead they took slavery to ANOTHER level like never seen before!
Think about it..
Peace..
None of them (man kind) will ever really consider the enormous debt due to the nativety of original people of this stolen land called America, nor will they conscientiously stop the blood shed and let African people alone with its own vine and fig tree. They are horrible in regards to everything right and true. They must never be trusted! They must be seen as they are, terrible and wicked. How, can we talk about liking a movie depicting the awfully dreaded reality that African people had experienced as so called "property" of despotic people, such as 'the help, butler, and twelve years a slave', without automatically feeling the urge to get the hell away from "those people"?
I am not sure what to do about it.
Enslaving a people by force,realizing profit from uncompensated,forced labor and building empires based on that activity is an atrocity. I don't care who saw who as what and how more or less benevolent anybody was viewed,it is what it is and there's no credit to be given to any regime,east,west,north,south,european,african,american or otherwise for any behavior that falls in that category. In my opinion,you can't compartmentalize types of slavery. Thank you.
Can anyone give an answer to my question: 1. When is compensation for the 222,505,049 hours of forced labor between 1619 and 1865 going to be paid out to slave descendants so that they can be economically equal to the descendants of slave owners who are still enjoying the profits till today?
When will we start using the word : ENSLAVEMENT instead of slavery … The incriminating word ENSLAVEMENT does at least 3 things:
1. The word ENSLAVEMENT connotes, suggests & connects criminal acts done to us by wicked criminals. And denotes, draws attention & points out the reality of the crimes that was done. We were not slaves, but FREE CIVILIZED PEOPLE who were enslaved by wicked en-slavers … What did they call themselves in the movie: Django … SLAVERS .. Thats what we were in … a state where slavers enslaved free humans for demonic greed.
2. The word ENSLAVEMENT demonizes the demons that committed the crimes against us. And gives one a feeling of no reverence for the perpetrators of that crime … instead of the noble respectable title of … Master … or Masa
3. The word ENSLAVEMENT reminds the offspring of those who were ENSLAVED, that they are descendants of free people who were enslaved & aggressed against & experienced a catastrophic holocaust that is unprecedented in human history for 4 hundred years & is still going on BY THE HANDS OF WICKED CRIMINALS. (watch Ma'afa 21 on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLnNi_qb7nY) And that enslavery in the enslaving prison system is the newer form of ENSLAVEMENT, where on record the 13th Amendment MAKES IT KNOWN enslavery still exists … neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist in America or any of its territories EXCEPT IN THE CASE ONE HAS BEEN DULY CONVICTED OF A CRIME. We need this reminder.
With genocide of this nature, should uncle USA not compensate these s self enslaved individuals and their progeny ??? The zionists feel embittered and held Europeans accountable. Why aren't the white Americans who even now owe their riches to the disproportionate abuse of black humans, not be made accountable ??
I dont think arabic nations have taken near enougj, or any, responsibility for the slave trade. There is still slavery in Africa – Mauritania for instance.
Sooo sorry that this thread stopped. The responses show an understanding and a cultural awareness thats taken st least three generations to manifest; not quite historically perfect but still great to see because I have lived thru times when it was not known by very many.
However, we can understand life as past, present and future. We must see from the point of what did we do? We were great people, accomplishing great things all across the known world. But by 1492 it seems that the Moorish and black world collapsed faster than the Titanic sank. What were all the dynamics in play that enabled that? We must know that as well or better than we know the slave past because there is a slave present we still have to address!
Why "England" and not the "United Kingdom"? Scots were well over represented in the slave trade.
Hmm I would really like to think that many of the crimes done to black people, we're done by whites. But history says not so. I can't change America's past or her future, but perhaps I can influence it. All I know is that there has to be a better way to exchange goods and services, and not continue to be enslaved bye a system that is designed to destroy me.
Its very nice that you have an article about slavery and the top 6 countries that grew rich on slavery, but . . . . . there is a country you forgot! In the four hundred year slavery lasted in the west, some 30 million people (mostly blacks) were send to the Americas (both of them). But in a longer period of time approx.. 60 million people (mostly blacks) were send to another country, after being castrated! Why haven't you mentioned this? I know, I know there are no records of it, and the US wants to stay friends with that saspit, that hell-hole, there was something about oil.
Is this supposed to be news?
They left out Belgium
And it is this wealth that the west is using as a weapon against African 'black' states.
Uganda is under threat if the Government puts into action the bill against homosexuality which was signed recently.
" If Christianity cared so much about us, why did we have slavery?
No but you cannot say the same now the whole of Africa is committing these atrocities to each other on a daily basis I just wish they would leave the children out of their corrupt madness wanting more than you need is greed
blaming Africans for selling slaves to Europeans is akin to blaming Colombia for selling drugs to America. it is PASSING THE BUCK. There are few clean hands here though. It does annoy me how America seems to get deliberately let off the hook by the guilt-ridden BBC (as usual). They are cleverly clouding history when they say: "From 1500 to 1860, by very modest estimations, around 12 million Africans were traded into slavery in the Americas. In British vessels alone, 3.25 million Africans were shipped ." Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807 and the Royal Navy WENT TO WAR with American ships to prevent it. The english are guilty as sin, but that doesn't change the fact that they abolished slavery in 1833 Thirty years before America, and they also offered to help The South in the American Civil War IF they would agree to abolish slavery (they refused). Had this been agreed, The South would have won the war (or at least drawn) and would have become a British colony. I wonder how many African Americans pause to reflect on the 4th of July each year that they are celebrating an event that condemned them to decades more of slavery? All I'M saying is that England is guilty here but America (and Spain) are MORE guilty, for clinging to slavery to the bitter end. (As America is now doing when it comes to the death penalty).
Slavery always existed from the days of the ancient greeks and romans. however the slavery we went through under the Euripeans was the most dehumanising and inhumane form of slavery and that sets it apart from the other slavers. as for those fools who keep bringing up the issue that blacks sold blacks, so what? stop being an apologist for thr genocide we endured. we had no rights. are you aware that incancient greece, slaves haf rights and set working hours? go and learn and stop spewing rubbish
Ya'll forgot something vital. What about the Africans who sold black people into slavery? How about Obama's Luo tribe that sold many slaves. While the Kenyans did not sell a lot of Kenyans they made a sport of selling other blacks into slavery.
turn to you GOD dont cry on your past we arleady wake up right now just learn from this kid a little bit http://youtu.be/wpnX0DDNEHM
http://youtu.be/oUFPbqaUQ9c
greedy European countries who did not care about human life , who stand here today preaching about human rights . ..European,European ,European , or white ,white ,white
This is the nation which call it self the leader of free world. How pathetic is it. Simply,USA is built on evil money.that makes is the devil of this planet,the funny thing is that,that do not want to apologize for that.how evil.
Very significant, five of those six nations send billions of Dollars to Africa yearly! Sadly significant: Africans also grew rich selling their own people to others. Most Significant: no one alive today remembers being enslaved by the American Democrats freed by the republicans in 1865. We can remember and mourn as my people do when African hordes raped and pillaged their way across the Italian peninsula, taking slaves and leaving death and destruction. Slavery is evil, 30 million people are enslaved in this modern world. While remembering the sins of those who are long dead we must face and abolish the sins of modern Slavers, mostly in Africa and Asia.
Shouldnt expenses be subtrated. Just saying.