in the UK we have been marking the 200 year anniversary of the abolition of slavery, (it was abolished?

Question

in britain years before it was abolished in america). we have had calls for britain to apologise for the slavery, we have even had people in the street chaining themselves up wearing sorry placards . Britains stance on this is that even though slavery was a terrible evil and a dark period in britains history, we cannot apologise for this because there is not one person alive in britain today, who has any direct association with the slave trade. if that were the case, then the germans, french (normans), danes(vikings) and italians (romans), would have to apologise to us for invading the uk many years ago. What is the american view of this given that the US and UK were basically partners in this appaling trade

Answer 1

I would agree with your comments, and further state that history shows that there has been slavery in every recorded civilization before the modern ones, including all those in Africa and Asia. I have no idea if that is true of the Australian aborigines, but it applies to everybody else - seems to be a very recurring human failing.

Answer 2

There is a similar view in America, even extending to the idea that "the Government" owes current day descendants of slaves "reparations" (read big cash payout) for what happened 144 years ago.

Something that most Europeans and too many Americans don't know:

More men died in the American Civil War than ALL the US other wars combined.

Yes you read right. Revolution, 1812, Mexican, Spanish American, ww1, ww2, Korea Vietnam, Gulf 1 and 2.........plus all the other actions over 220 years ADDED TOGETHER don't equal the dead from 1860-1865.

White men killing white men so that ( amongst other reasons) black men could be free.

( 3,500 so far in Iraq? That was ONE HOUR one terrible morning at Fredricksburg, Virginia )


When asked about an apology or reparations, I say:

"My family payed in blood at Antietam and Gettysburg and Spotsylvania."

Oh, yeah.a "thank you" to the descendants of the Grand Army of the Republic........and over there, the descendants of Wilberforce and the Abolitionists, and the Royal Navy sailors who patrolled Africa and hung slavers...... wouldn't be out of line

Answer 3

England has no reason to brag about its ending slavery before the U.S. Slavery of Polynesian people in Australia, a part of the British Empire, continued into the early 20th Century. The British Isles may have been "cleansed" of this practice, but it continued in part of the Empire long after the U. S. ratified the 13th Amendment to its Constitution.
With respect to the issue in the U.S., there is one ticklish problem. The Amero-Liberians who are descended from freed slaves in the U.S. have yet to apologize for their ancestors engaging in the practice of enslaving native people in Liberia.

Answer 4

The US view for the most part is about the same. The people who benefited and the people who suffered are all long gone. Others, however, argue that the legacy of slavery is the continued poverty, unemployment and incarceration of African Americans and that they are due reparations for the wealth their ancestors helped create but which they never benefited from. Stay tuned.

Answer 5

Oh please, this idiocy is irritating me now. Without the slave trade, these people chaining themselves to railing would not be able to live in the luxury they do now. If you asked one of them "would you trade it", theyd lie and say "yes." The slave trade was neccessary in the past to allow two great civilizations to grow. People want apologies and even compensation. I think the billions we now donate to Africa each year sort of apologies in itself. Maybe we should take that away until they apologise for stirring up trouble?

Answer 6

Your past is not your "past"; you're who and what you are because of your past, so it's still with you. The legacy of slavery is still with us - the wealth that was garnered from slavery, and the social structure.

African Americans are not so naive as to believe that the American government will ever really pay reparations for an institution that was government sanctioned. It was a Supreme Court decision that said that a Black man wasn't even fully a man, and had no rights as a man (Dred Scott), and that's a lingering sentiment. So, to say something like, it happened a long time ago, let's move on is almost nonsensical. Let's not talk about it, or think about is too simplistic an answer for such an extremely complicated issue.

People want to excise that part of American history because it's too painful. So, that what we windup with is American mythology. What's really perplexing to me is that, in any discussion of slavery, it seems to be White people who suffer the most pain, to the point where they don't want to talk about it at all; and I mean pain-***-anger. A discussion of slavery in America is not an automatic indictment of all White people. Blacks are not seeking money from "the general American", as one poster put it, but from those institutions that can be identified as having built their wealth on the forced, free labor of other human beings without due compensation. Most White people weren't slave owners; they were practically, or literally slaves themselves. So, while it can be argued that most Whites had nothing to do with slavery, let's not lose sight of the fact that they still enjoyed privileges based on the remnants of that system.

My fellow poster wants to remind us of the White men who lost their lives during the Civil War - no problem here; well, a lot of Black men lost their lives during that war also. Let's not forget that. Black men have fought in every single war this country has had. The first man to die in the war fought for this country's liberation from England was a Black man; and this during a time when the abolition of slavery was still almost a hundred years away. Black men fought in the Civil War mistakenly thinking they were fighting for the freedom of slaves. The Civil War wasn't about freeing the Black man, it was about preserving the union, and the resources that the south had. Lincoln only freed the slaves in the south to destabilize their economy, which was slave based. No one in their right mind would ever think that White men would go to war with each other, to the tune of 650,000 dead, to free Black men. That's utterly preposterous! It's just more of that American mythology that's taught in schools in the guise of history.

Yes, Africans sold other Africans into slavery; but, the people they sold weren't their own brethren. They were captives of war, or captives of raids - in affect, foreigners. But, conversely, Europeans sold other Europeans into slavery also. None of it was right. I don't care what era or mindset you speak of, when people are suffering, it's wrong. In a discussion on the Atlantic slave trade the African-on-African-to-European slave trade connection is always drawn up, and I have no problem with that, because it's a fact; however, it's generally used to lessen the guilt of the European parties in the matter. It's like saying, "Hey we were just going along with the system", or that other infamous line"I was only following orders". Even so, that doesn't exonerate them, or lessen their guilt one scintilla.

Like I've said, African Americans know that not a dime of reparations money will ever be paid. For some it's a painful subject to talk about - for others, it's painful NOT to talk about it. Peace.

Answer 7

Yeah, the general American is sick of hearing about it to be honest. It happened, it's over, let's move on. It's not like the people of today are the ones who did it, although I'm sure some people secretly advocate it still. So... yeah, people are annoying.

Answer 8

Pretty much. And, at the same time in the United States, corporate greed and avarice has destroyed the working class by outsourcing good paying jobs.

Answer 9

Slavery was never abolished anywhere, all governments just made everyone slaves and call them citizenry!