I suppose with the new film coming out 12 years in slavery. Thought this would be a good time to start a thought provoking thread.
When you look at how slavery was in the the us, and not just in the southern states although this was more prevelant, do you think the others countries should have done more to stop it or do you think that they were living off the benefits of it also.
For me the story of slavery whilst not personal is quiet hard hitting especially whilst I have been doing us research in my family tree. The use of words which under today's catergisation would be racist to classify people, the ownership of another human being without any rights, the outrageous behaviour of male slaveowners towards the female population, would shock even the cold hearted people.
It is strange as I still think the issue of slavery in the uk is a , as we kind have washed our hands of it. But there was a number of owners who moved to North America and Caribbean, from the uk.
Wondering what people's thoughts are...I know this could be a potential firebrand thread but I think a friend would be smiling up there and would be one of the first to post
Oh good topic.
When I did my history degree we covered slavery in quite some detail. The letters and records kept by some slave owners are shocking, even by the standards of their day. I thought I was quite hard, but they certainly got to me.
I think the wealth brought to Britain, and the benefits from that wealth are still very much with us. Probably for most people the situation is one where they just don't realise where the wealth that created cities like Manchester and Liverpool came from, what was a major contributor to the rise of big industry, the railways we all still use etc etc.
I know officially Britain has apologised for being involved in the slave trade, but I think more could be done about educating people just how shit (and how very recent) all of that was.
Excellent topic.
So good, in fact, that I will have to think before I post!
I'll be back to this one later; it's a topic I feel quite strongly about.
Of course, if you want to objectively discuss any historical event like the African-American slave trade and how it affected the world, you have to remember that slavery has been well used, totally acceptable (to the wealthy) and the rock on which every single known empire going back as far as you like, has been built.
Ancient Egypt, for example.... the pyramids that are now a fascinating tourist attraction were built by thousands of slaves. Many thousands died during the building of every one... and for what? So some rich dude could be dead in it :dry:
Ancient Rome could not possibly have happened without its legions of slaves. Britain bought and sold slaves then.
With the rise of every empire, there are the wealthy few and the very poor many, who have no or little life choices. Whatever you want to call the poor --- slaves, serfs, peasants... whether they were bound in actual chains, or psychological chains made by laws --- the poor many were the worker ants that fed the wealthy few.
The African-American slave trade only stands apart from all of the above because it was so recent. It is quite possible for people to find the names of their slave (or slave owner) ancestors as it really is only a handful of generations ago. And because we can look around any part of Britain today and see the benefits of it.
And of course, the thing that no one ever speaks about is that the living descendents of African-American slaves have now quite arguably better lives than their distant relatives in Africa whose ancestors weren't enslaved. Thinking like that proper does your head in, but isn't it quite true? And again, you can look anywhere you like throughout history and see the (very) long term benefits of the shittiest parts of empires.
(By the way, Neilinleeds would have loved this thread)
:bolt: