The slave trade myth?

Question

Hi. I think that the slave trade was wrong but it led to the worlds greatest myth racsim against blacks. I think they were not taken as slaves because they were black but because they couldnt defend themselves and were exploted and as a result treated badly, why would they treat slaves right.

Also many other races have suffered, Jews, Indians and even the Irish even though they are white. In the end I think slavely only existed to please and make people rich not because they were black.

And its about time blacks stopped complaining. Others have had it much worse, Jews and the Irish.

Answer 1

All slavery is wrong; can we agree? It is most prominent in the context of black Africans because of the volume and value of the trade between about 1700 and 1840. However, there is no evidence that African slaves were selected because they were black. It wasn't a matter of skin colour but of availability, and West African slaves especially were "provided" by local tribal chiefs and often by Arab traders from North Africa. All the main European slavers record payment to tribal chiefs and to other traders. Actual kidnapping of native people seems not to have been an important method of obtaining slaves. Enslaved individuals were traded as a valuable commodity, regardless of ethnic origin.

During the period 1550-1750, Europeans were enslaved whenever they fell into the hands of Barbary pirates; mostly Arabs along the North and North-west African coasts. Mozart's opera Die Entfhurung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) is based on just such enslavement of a European lady and set in about 1720.

In Europe until about 1400, millions of agricultural workers were engaged as serfs and the same structure was continued in Russia until 1880. Serfs were unpaid and forced to work on their lords' lands or take up arms to defend his boundaries. They were just poor people who had insufficient background or family wealth to escape their station in life. It was a form of slavery and applied to the majority of the population in some parts of Europe and Russia.

In recent times, Pol Pot amassed hoards of slaves and there is evidence that Al Qaeda is doing the same in Afghanistan and probably Iraq. These slaves' lives are at risk unless they continue to work for nothing except basic rations.

In none of these slavery situations, past or present, was or is it possible for the slave to say, "No thanks - I've had enough now. I think I'll go and start somewhere else." That would mean death.

So, the white man's guilt for African slavery is real and needs repentance and forgiveness, if that is possible. The Arab guilt for Barbary slavery is/was equally real. Today, Al Qaeda's enslavement of so many young and impressionable followers is equally real.

The important thing is to recognise the evil of slavery, wherever it appears and whoever is included. Black or white; Christian, Pagan, Muslim, Jew or athiest; agricultural worker or suicide bomber.

Answer 2

Slavery has existed since time immemorial, among all races.

In antiquity, many slaves were either criminals or prisoners of war, but ancient cultures such as the Greeks and Romans also kept a fairly sizeable portion of their own population as slaves. (It is estimated that at the height of Rome's power, around 40% of the populace were slaves.)

The magnitude of the African slave trade was probably the largest in human history, but they were not enslaved because they were black, but because they were available to be enslaved.

In the Dark Ages, the Irish were great slave-traders. They made a fortune capturing blond, blue-eyed Anglo-Saxons
which they sold in the Mediterranean lands where people with such colouring were a rarity. And it is said that the word "slave" comes from the word "slav" (the peoples of Eastern Europe) who were enslaved by the Russians, the Romans and the Arabs.

Racism has, unfortunately, always existed, not just between people of different skin colour but often between people of neighboring countries. It is based on ignorance and fear, and there seems to be much less of it now than there was twenty or thirty years ago, and definitely less than a century ago.

You are right that many other "races" have suffered. However this in no way diminishes the horror of the African slave trade.

Answer 3

This is not a question it's a rant about Black people. Black slaves were captured, including by other tribes and sold to traders as is well known but they were then shackled and that generally makes anybody unable to defend themselves. Slavery has also existed throughout history when one group conquers another but it's not a competition to see who is the more deserving of our pity. Slavery also exists today and depending on which source you listen to there are more slaves in the world today than there have ever been.
Why should they stop complaining? It's hardly like black people are treated fairly yet. You stop complaining because you obviously don't realise what it's like to be in these situations and your reasoning is simplistic and totally without empathy

Answer 4

Slavery is endemic with the human race from the first time a nation captured another and found it could get somebody else to do the work . it has been with us since the first so called civilised man and still exists in some pockets of the world . Every person who works at a menial job which they hate and is told by a boss to carry out work they would not think of doing themselves or shames them is a slave because there choices are almost none

Answer 5

Ok, so now you've vented. I'll add more fuel to the fire. The only ones who have a right to complain about this are the actual victims (first and second generation). Since the last child of a former slave is long dead, so is the need for any kind of repayment.

What you did not point out is most blacks were sold into slavery in Africa by other blacks. You are right in saying the underlying cause of slavery was greed.

Racism DOES exist in America and we must continue to fight it, but the slavery card is no longer in play.

Answer 6

You all are forgetting one thing, Spain was the first ones here, The Spanish, not greedy whites, started the African slave trade. Also, their own people caught them and put them up for sale to the Portuguese. There is more to this bit of history than black and white. All the racist need a reality check. We need to lead by example.

Answer 7

Well it wasn't a myth that's for sure considering the millions who died, either being transported or working on the lands of fat greedy white men. Its true that many others have died in slavery you missed out the Chinese who were shipped in large numbers to America and beyond as slave labour.
I think that you need to read up on your history books and that many people i am sure still feel the agony of knowing that not long ago there ancestors were torn from their homes and more often or not died an agonising death.

Answer 8

There has always been Slavery. Egyptians had the Jews. Roman Empire had everyone in the known world even the British, who are blamed for the trade in Africans in the 18th century.

Answer 9

You're quite right, African slavery didn't begin as specifically racist. European slave traders went to Africa, because there were few states powerful enough to stop them. However, the idea grew up that Africans were essentially different from Europeans. They were the children of Ham and cursed to be slaves. They were less evolved from apes than whites. This was a useful way to defend slavery against the growing movements in favor of human rights and democracy.

The idea of black inferiority developed a life of its own. Blacks were seen as so dirty that they couldn't use the same restrooms or water fountains as whites. Black men were so sex crazed that it was necessary to lynch some to keep the rest under control. And you certainly couldn't allow them to vote.

Answer 10

the Jews where slaves 2000 years ago , the Irish had a potato blight and worked very cheap, the black where Kidnapped and taken from the country to work as slaves.

what we need is idiots like you to stop complaining or is it because you fell inferior to a black-man, because there some nice ones out there