Should 21st Century UK Apologise For Slavery?

Question

It seems a little crazy to me. Slavery was a awful thing (and still is in some parts of the world), but was abolished around 200 years ago in Britain. What need is there for 21st Century Britain to apologise for something that happened in a different age with different values. Should Blair also apologise for 18th Century laws that allowed the hanging of children for stealing bread, press ganging etc? Should modern Germany continue to apologise for the war? Should Italy apologise for enslaving Britons 2000 years ago? Slavery goes back to the very earliest civilisations, and continued long after Britain abolished it(Belgium, Portugal, USA, Spain, Arabs, Turks & Black Africans carried on long after). Britain actually went to war with Black African kingdoms, Arabs and others in 19th Century to prevent slavery.
History should surely be judged in the context of its time!

Answer 1

there is nothing we can do to change the past but we must learn from our mistakes and be more considerate and understanding. that said, I think we've gone too far and are heading towards a lawless society.

Answer 2

Apologise to who? All the slaves and their slave masters are dead. The current British government is completely innocent of involvement in the slave trade and have nothing to apologise for. The people that were slaves are no longer alive, so who exactly would an apology be for? The black race? I don't see the point of that. Irish Catholics from the time of Cromwell were also sold into slavery by the British as well as some of their own people from unsuccessful rebellions. So blacks don't have the monopoly on suffering there.

Not only that, in 1807 the British passed a law abolishing slavery, they ended the suffering of people because they knew it was wrong. Couldn't people focus on them doing that instead and what a good thing it was?

Answer 3

I just asked this....

Slavery was around since the Egyptians, 7 millennia ago. It was still around during every empire the world has ever seen.

Then the Brits made an empire, profited – like every other empire and nearly all countries – through slavery.

The only difference was that the British middle class became wealthy and politically vocal and chose to abolish slavery throughout the empire and to pressure its trading partners to do the same.

They were the first people to do it…..ever!

Is this celebration more of a thank you to the British middle class rather than a sorry for 10,000 years of a legal and legitimate trade?

Answer 4

No, I don't think we should apologise. You are spot on with your statement 'History should be judged in the context of its time'. Yes, slavery is despicable but most of the slaves sold around the world were given up by the elders in their own villages in return for money etc. Slavery and greed went hand in hand and so many individuals and nations are guilty. Did the Western world not make amends enough when we were the first nation to abolish the barbaric practice and give the remaining slaves their freedom?

Answer 5

I think lessons have to be learnt but it is now to far in the passed to compensate although we are all still raising a lot of money for Africa to help the sick and poor there. The slaves that went to the plantations have probably fared a bit better in modern times than the population of their homeland.

There are still a lot of injustice happening in the world today.
Modern Germany is still paying back (rightly so) to the few families that can prove that artworks that were stolen during the war from killed members of their families should be compensated. I don't think very much has been paid for the loss of millions of lives.

Answer 6

Apologise, no. The people who (if any) should apologise are long dead and buried.

TB has the right to say sorry if he wishes. Though personally I wish he'd pay more attention to today's problems. The sex industry, gangmasters and sweatshops of illegal immigrants are often simply the modern version of slavery. I think that for such things to exist so many years after the slave 'trade' was supposedly abolished is disgusting.

Answer 7

Blair has expressed regret and that's call he can do. He cannot say 'I am sorry' for something he did not do. I hope next year sees Britain celebrating being at the forefront of the abolitionist movement, but fear we're going to see self-flagellation over something the whole world was doing at the time.

Answer 8

Perhaps Greece should apolgise for Alexander the Great, Egypt for Cleopatra and Italy for the cruel Romans too!!!!

Its ridiculous! Lets concentrate on the criminals that enslave girls into prostitution and the problems we have today. Just like Tony Blair and new labour, taking political correctness to new levels of insanity.

Answer 9

I think it was a daft idea, but you know Blair, he wants to impress the rest of the world and suck up to them all. He wouldn't apologise for the hanging of children because that would be apologising to British people, why would he want to do a thing like that?

Answer 10

No, in any event, governments shouldn't personalise matters, particularly for things that they haven't done to people who are long dead. I wouldn't give credence to this nonsense by even asking the question. Those that think that we should apologise have a perverse agenda or they have a screw loose.

HE HAS NO MANDATE TO APOLOGISE ON BEHALF OF THE BRITISH PEOPLE.

Answer 11

Sorry your question was to long but i get the point. Am I a cynic or is T Blair talking about apoligising for slavery or is he merely trying to create news to deflect bad publicity yet again. Isuspect the latter.