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So November...
Another possibly (probably?) controversial ‘musing’ on my part, sparked by something in the recent news. Feel free to leave comments below, but any rudeness or nastiness will be composted. ‘Free Speech’, Mr Musk and Mr Trump, is all very well, but it doesn’t mean blatant nastiness, outright misogyny or abusive racism. If you want to write that sort of thing join the above two not-very-nice men on the rapidly degenerating XTwatter. [sic]
Slavery.
The recent get-together of various world leaders and VIPs in Samoa has sparked a renewal of an
ongoing heady debate.
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| © CC BY-SA 2.5 Wikipedia Image |
(I admit here, I had to GoogleMap for where Samoa is... somewhere in the Pacific between Australia and South America.)
To quote King Charles III "We cannot change the past."
I’m not going to get into the rights or wrongs of slavery – let’s face it, there ARE no ‘rights’, end of, but I’m a solid believer in what happened in the past is not the present’s full responsibility. I’m not comfortable with slavery, but nor am I comfortable with toppling statues, or renaming academic wings, buildings, colleges or whatever because their founder made his (usually his) money because of slavery, sugar, cotton or tobacco plantations etc.
I agree, maybe some statues would be better off in a museum rather on a
public street, BUT that public street probably only exists because of
that person’s original financial input. Frankly, if a building or wing – or street
– needs to have its name removed then maybe the entire thing ought to be
pulled down? But to what point? Obliteration is not going to undo the slave
trade, it isn’t going to do anything to help those thousands who suffered several
hundred years ago is it?
I would far rather have information, keep the statue, the academic wing, museum or whatever but have a proper plaque or information booklet giving the facts: “X did blah blah blah, founded blah blah but also made his money from blah blah blah.” And maybe, rededicate these buildings to the slaves themselves? Maybe we need more statues to commemorate the slaves and those who tried to help them? Memorials funded by the government and those who made money from slavery (the Church as example) not public subscription.
Listening to Radio 4 this morning (Saturday 26th October) there was talk that the Government should pay compensation. Sorry No. It's not the government it's us, the taxpayer who will pay. (Which will include our black communities who came to the UK from the Caribbean and who are the descendants of slaves. Why should they pay!?) The reason being sited: it was the government, way back when slavery was abolished, who arranged for the slave owners to be compensated for their 'loss of property.'
Appalling, but I can see the logic - without compensation slavery would have continued. But, the slaves got nothing, except more misery and poverty. Those who should pay are the ones who made their money from the slave trade. They know who they are. Tax them, not us. Maybe some form of ethical voluntary recompense collected to be of benefit for the people, in the form of schools, hospitals, medical research and such. A scheme where good can come from the mistakes of the past.
I do not know the full story of my paternal ancestors beyond names and dates going back to the mid-1700s, all I know is that one set of great, great (x ? number) were resident in Bristol, England. No idea who they were, what they did, how well off – or not – they were, but Bristol in the 1700s was a large – and I mean large – slave trade port, so you can bet my ancestors were involved one way or another. Am I to be held to blame? We do need to do something, but we also need to stop this Blame Game. I'm white, I'm British, but I was not responsible for the slavery of the 16-1800s.
I would assume that the majority of sane people today find the horrors of the Black Slave Trade utterly repugnant – but there is still human trafficking, usually for the sex trade, or those poor migrants trying desperately to seek a new, better life by risking everything to cross the Med, the Channel or the Gulf Of Mexico, are little better off than those original African slaves because of the ruthless greed of the traffickers who are making thousands of £ and $ out of the vulnerable.
All this talk of money ($trillions) which should be paid back by the UK to the Caribbean... it wasn’t just Britain responsible for slavery. Why isn’t Christopher Columbus being condemned? Are his statues being pulled down? Is the US being asked to pay up? Georgia, Virginia, Florida, the Carolinas ... all made their money because of slavery, well after America was independent of Britain and are where they are now because of it.
And how far do we go back? I am of Celtic ‘stock’. Maybe Rome should pay recompense for the Romans enslaving many of my ancestors. (And pay up to many other countries too – look how Rome decimated what is now Germany! (Watch the movie Gladiator for a rough idea!) The quote from that film is quite apt: “What we do in life, echoes in eternity” A pity people of the past – and we ourselves – do not heed this more often. (Putin? Are you listening?)
Who is going to be responsible for the thousands of forcibly indentured white slaves from England, Ireland and Scotland (I assume Wales as well,) during Cromwell’s ‘reign’?
Try these novels:
Barbados 1652. In the aftermath of the English Civil War, the vanquished
are uprooted and scattered to the ends of the earth. When marauding English
soldiers descend on Mairead O'Coneill's family farm, she is sold into
indentured servitude. After surviving a harrowing voyage, the young Irish woman
is auctioned off to a Barbados sugar plantation where she is thrust into a
hostile world of depravation and heartbreak.
Or
Matthew Graham committed the mistake of his life when he cut off his brother’s nose. In revenge, Luke Graham has Matthew abducted and transported to the Colony of Virginia, there to be sold as indentured labour – a death sentence more or less.
Matthew arrives in Virginia in May of 1661, and any hope he had of
finding someone willing to listen to his tale of unlawful abduction is quickly
extinguished. He also realises that no one has ever survived the seven years of
service – not on the plantation Suffolk Rose.
Morocco, Tunisia, Libya – let’s just say North Africa, you need to pay out too for all the white slaves taken by your Barbery pirates. (A subject included in my own:
 |
| (might only be available as an e-book? Thank you, Amazon for messing up paperback availability!) |
https://viewbook.at/OnTheAccount
Captain Jesamiah Acorne is in trouble. Again. Arrested for treason and
smuggling, believing his beloved ship Sea Witch lies wrecked on England's North
Devon Coast, his only hope of escaping the noose is for someone to quash the
charges. That someone turns out to be his ex-lover - but there is a price to
pay.
He needs to find a boy who has disappeared and a valuable casket that more than one person wants to get their hands on. When people start getting murdered and Barbary pirates kidnap his wife, Tiola, his priorities rapidly change - but who is lying about what? Is returning to piracy a wise idea? Is Tiola having an affair with her mysterious Night-Walker 'friend'?
And what about the African tribes themselves? It’s my understanding that rival tribes captured and sold their enemies into slavery in the first place.
I agree, slavery, in all forms is wrong, but many, many things from the past are also wrong. Religious persecution during the Tudor and Stuart age, the ignoring of poverty during Victoria’s reign – the Potato Famine in Ireland as example. The slaughter at Culloden, the treatment of the Australian Aborigines, the Native American 'Indians' ...
Should Germany recompense the Jewish nation for the horror of the Holocaust? Where is my compensation for the mental trauma my Dad suffered from PTSD after being held a Prisoner of War in a German Stalag for several years?
What we SHOULD be talking about is making a world-wide effort against slavery and exploitation, including the enforced marriage of young African girls – which is as much slavery as it is child abuse. To fund the education of people of all age-ranges about respect, politeness and caring, and to never forget the mistakes of the past.
Above all, to eliminate ALL forms of racism, now and for the future.
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on the Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Do main characters have to be likeable? (an article by me) |
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A reply from a regular reader, John in Virginia:
ReplyDeleteI think that you handled the slavery question quite well in your
blog, which I have just read. One aspect of the history of slavery that
NEVER gets addressed, and which is key to understanding where slavery
came from is the parallel criminal justice systems in both Europe and
West Africa.
It says several times in the Old Testament (I can supply the
references, if you ask) that slavery shall be for a punishment that
shall be no longer than seven years. Roman Catholic countries followed
the Pope's lead in stating that the seven-year rule was obligatory for
all Catholics, and quickly Protestant countries fell into line. So did
West African "areas," which were almost all Muslim. Today, many Jews and
Muslims hate each other, but back then, Muslims regarded the Old
Testament as being almost as important as the Q'uran, so their judges
followed the European model. Someone, whether in Europe or West Africa,
who got caught, let's say, stealing a chicken, would normally be
sentenced to death for that, but in a great many cases the judges would
commute the sentence to seven years of servitude. No, seven-year slavery
was NOT the equivalent of a death sentence, because a high percentage of
seven-year slaves survived and prospered.
ALL slavery involving Europeans, Europeans in the Americas, and West
Africans was for seven years until 1663. In 1663, an English slave
trafficker of the Royal African Company visited his favorite West
African port and said, "How many crooks have you got for us today?"
"Terribly sorry, sir, but we are fresh out of crooks: You've got them
all." When the trafficker then said that he planned to sail further
along the coast to other ports, the African contact said, "No, don't
leave. I'll have some people for you in three days." Sure enough, he
returned with a few hundred people in chains, and explained that these
were NOT crooks but prisoners of war. Hundreds or thousands of African
tribes were frequently at war with each other, and so they had a huge
backlog of prisoners of war, and since they were not crooks there was no
seven-year limit to their enslavement -- they could be kept forever! So,
1663, is when Atlantic slavery actually began.
One silly detail about all this: the Royal African Company was
originally intended to bring back ivory and gold to England, but they
quickly found they could make more money on trafficking slaves, at first
seven-year slaves, and later permanent slaves. The symbol of the Royal
African Company was an African elephant with a Howdah or castle on it
back, and the Company's chief offices were in Southwark across from the
City of London. The district quickly received the nickname of Elephant &
Castle, reflected in the Tube stop and a pub of that name today, and the
steps going down to the Thames so you could take a ferry across to
London were known as Elephant's Stairs (the name of a 1720s English
Country Dance that we dance). No real elephants ever tried walking down
those stairs!
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Thanks John - being an ex-Londoner I knew about the Elephant and Castle, but not the previous imformation - thank you! (So I assume various African nations are also required to pay compensation today for past misdeeds?
I do agree with you, Helen. As far as I can tell, some of my ancestors may have been quakers - there's certainly a Quaker name way back in my family tree around the 1600/1700s. They would have been totally anti slavery. The rest were, for the main part, not particularly well off country folk (apart from the French connection - and they were probably peasant folk, too) who wouldn't have had the finances to be involved in the slave trade, and I hope, they wouldn't have been immoral enough if they had had the money.
ReplyDeleteIt actually surprises me that other countries seem to want trillions of £s off us, which would leave all the ordinary people here in penury and without any services at all - health, roads - which are already in a bad way, government services. Would they really want to demolish this country? Because that's what it would amount to?
Yes, the slave trade was a disgrace, an abomination, but Britain was the first country to fight against it. I think it needs to be acknowledged that it was evil - but all right-thinking people already believe that.
agreed!
DeleteI absolutely agree with 99.9 per cent of your exceedingly excellent article. We can never compensate for the past, and money is no compensation anyway. There is probably no one today who has not had one or two very unpleasant ancestors who did some wicked actions. The past can mever even be properly understood now. The culture was so entirely different and the letters and accounts we now have from hundreds of years ago can easily be ignorant, biased and mistaken. But we cannot change the past and we should stop feeling endlessly guilty about things we didn't do.
ReplyDeleteThank you Barbara
DeleteI admit I was hesitant to post this article, but I'm pleased I did as I have received some very interesting feedback (see above) but also this one from Guy de la Bédoyère, Lincolnshire UK. (In particular, note his final sentence)...
ReplyDelete*
I thought you might like to see my letter to the Telegraph which was published a couple of weeks ago:
SIR – My great (x4) grandfather was William Montagu, 5th Duke of Manchester. He was governor of Jamaica from 1808-27 and presided over the dismantling of the slave trade there. He was just one of many British officials who managed the enforcement of the abolition of slavery.
Those so keen to present Britain with a bill for reparations (report, October 27) would do well to read 'The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano,' which appeared in 1789. This epoch-changing book described his enslavement and the horrors of the trade. It also explained how he came from an African slave-owning chieftain’s family. His father, among other elders, enslaved fellow Africans to sell into African-administered slavery in order to fund their taste for manufactured goods. Equiano himself was enslaved and owned by various Africans until he was sold into the European trade and shipped across the Atlantic.
The tentacles and evils of slavery reached far and wide. Those seeking reparations might come to regret the emergence of some unpalatable truths about their own ancestors.