Is there a case for financial compensation to the ancestors of the slave trade victims?

Question

I thinks its nuts, but heard on the news some woman demanding compensation. for somthing that happened two hundred years ago(workers didnt even have the vote then so why should we get the bill)

Wild man Borneo 9.60 Luke 9:60. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. What the hell has that to do with the question

Answer 1

For God's sake - when will all this whining and whinging end? Why should the people of today be responsible for the actions of people hundreds of years ago. You cannot equate the culture and way of life during the times of slavery with the world we live in today. The African people themselves were selling their own people - not only to Europeans and Americans but largely to the Arabic countries so shouldn't the African governments be apologising to their own people!!!! Do we blame the young Germans of today for the Holocaust - NO we don't! We can only learn from past mistakes and MOVE ON!! This is another example of people trying to make financial gain in todays compensation culture!

Answer 2

The apologising for the Slave Trade is political correctness gone mad. Why stop at that? There have been many other examples throughout history of man's inhumanity to man. I'm sure we could all think of some perceived injustice to out forebears and find someone to seek compensation from. My family had to leave agriculture in the mid 19th century due to cheap imports of meat and grain from the US, Canada and the Antipodes. Shall I seek compensation from those governments for the fact that they had to move to London and live in East End slums. I DO NOT THINK SOOOOOOO

To the poster that says Western Governments ignored the NGO conference on this matter 5 years ago should know that today the UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, is to apologise for the slave trade. The councils of a couple of cities (Liverpool and Bristol) which were ports used in the slave trade have already passed resolutions 'apologising'

Answer 3

NO! But... if this person feels he/she has suffered because their ancestors were slaves Then I would suggest they voluntarily repatriate to the country of their origin so they can enjoy what they are missing in: way of life; health; peace; and other benefits! Stop posturing and get real!!

Slavery was, and is, indefensible but at least the British did something about it [and thro' the might of their navy at the time, enforced their ban as and when possible].

When I was ,as a boy, in the Middle East in the early 50's I was told there was still slavery in some places? True or not, slavery was an international crime, not just a British one, and was practised, between tribes, in the country where most slaves came from - Africa. So again, get real and be satisfied with the grovellings of our 'Politically Correct', apologist of a Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

Answer 4

Only if theres a case for financial compensation for victims of terrorism and war.

Who's she going to ask the compensation from? the people who did these things are long dead. As for "It was our ancestors" - it sure as hell weren't mine, none of my ancestors had anything to do with the slave trade at all - they were poor factory workers and farmers so why should I be expected to pay?

You'd have to find the very descendants of the people who made money from the slave trade and make them pay. And thats pretty unfair. Who thinks people should pay for what some long dead ancestor did?

Answer 5

There are many things in British history, and even now, which are shameful. Guess you're not a 'worker'. Compensation after two hundred years does seem a bit over the top. Christmas is coming and the UK is a Christian country, how about a little Christianity?

Answer 6

Being a decedent of a family of slave traders in the 1500's I have given this a lot of thought. I soon came up with the answer NO. This was not my doing or any other Englishman alive today. It was a horrible thing to happen and I agree with those sentiments.
One has to think of it in the context of the time they lived in.
The slaves were sold to the traders by their own tribes in most cases. Christians of the time did not look on heathens as human. The slave trade started centuries before by the Arabs.
Should the government pay compensation to people that were hanged because today it is not acceptable but it was before?
The same woman that you refer to said that she cannot trace her roots because her family had to take the name of a plantation owner. She should know that people in Africa did not have surnames at that time and would not be able to trace her family anyway.
It was terrible for the people that went through that but you cannot claim for another persons suffering especially if you benefited from it, or was she saying she would have been better of living in Africa now. If so why is she not there.
If I had been responsible I would be the first to apologise but I wasn't.
To this end Tony Blair should save his apologies for the people of Iraq whose suffering he was personally responsible.

Answer 7

various of people are at fault not in simple terms white Europeans for the disgusting exploitation of slavery. Why not provide Slave descendents a similar rights because the Jews to declare. in spite of everything the human distress of slavery far exceeds the distress of the holocaust. a tremendous fault in this evil commerce appears to be like with the Africans who hunted and acquired different Africans for earnings and white and Jewish slave investors and deliver vendors. So why not move on to their descendents for monetary reimbursement - as someone suggested the Jews managed to get the traditional German people to pay reimbursement for his or her complications in the course of the Nazi time. If, as maximum information factors to, large scale Jewish possession of slave ships and African on African exploitation became the case then deal with them too. in spite of the indisputable fact that the descendents of slaves ought to really have an average declare adversarial to countries like Britain and u . s . who're wealthy in the present day on their ancestor’s slavery . each and every thing that is going round does come round and now appears to be like the time.

Answer 8

There is no one perfect under the sun! Never has been! When it comes to looking at sins of the father. Who on earth would be left out? should we claim against our creator; or look to ourselves and use what intelligence and compassion we have to make the worlld a better place right now.Live in the present as best you can.

Answer 9

no, it's ludicrous. How has this woman's life suffered from knowing that her ancestors were slaves? And how far back do you take it - do you sue the Royal family because your family were Catholics during the 1600s, or do you sue the French because one of your ancestors died defending England from William the Conqueror? Can you actually bear a grudge on behalf of your ancestors - no.
Sadly it is a case of our government pandying to the politically-correct lobby. There's better things to spend the money on thse days. Ignore the woman - she's only making a fuss because someone has bothered to listen to her.

Answer 10

This was pretty much a dead horse at the NGO conference in South Africa 5 years ago...all the western nations simply ignored the committees and conferences on this subject.