"I first read it as a student and it struck me as something that was very different to other things I was reading about the Atlantic slave trade. I havent said anything about my personal sense of guilt or responsibility. This is a moral argument. Over 150 years in America. Intellectually more convincing anyway for practical and political purposes, demolishing a straw-man often makes a better video or audio clip while simultaneously making your opponents position sound stupid. In the UK its not white people enslaving blacks anymore, but Asians enslaving other Asians, as in Leicesters clothing sweatshops. He writes to inflame white guilt, so that you will ACCEPT destruction of your culture. He previously worked at JP Morgan for 18 years in a number of senior roles and was . David Olusoga, introduces his book Black and British, an exploration of the relationship between the British Isles and the people of Africa. I think a case could be made. And the transatlantic slave trade? June 16, 2020 - 20:29 BST Aisha Nozari. Not sure theyd do that with modern sensibilities mind you. (I suppose it makes a point about blame not being distributed homogeneously, or that a certain group of people shouldnt be guilted just because they share the same colour of skin with another bunch of people you do think are guilty. Those who grew rich on slavery and the slave trade were not neutral and no achievement or act of philanthropy justifies airbrushing their involvement from history.. H istorian and broadcaster David Olusoga has been the face of a decolonial turn in British broadcasting that, in recent years, with series including the Bafta-winning Britain's Forgotten Slave. This is nothing to do with slavery or as with black lives matter, blacks being shot, and everything to do with a shakedown of the white man. This year, return to Neverland. At the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, Britain was granted the right to supply slaves to the Spanish colonies in the Americas, a right then passed on to the South Sea Company. Their cities, as well as their comfort, will rapidly decay. Good point, I wonder how he squares the obviously comfortable living he has writing, opining and broadcasting about slavery with his principles. Id say theres enormous dangers in treating this as if it was some public school debating society gig. In fact he is a biased political campaigner working to attack and do as much damage to Britain as he can. TV historian David Olusoga claims it is "palpable nonsense" to say that removing controversial statues "somehow impoverishes history". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jxc5ENT8ajg, https://www.history.co.uk/shows/the-real-vikings/articles/eyewitness-to-the-vikings, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestmannaeyjar, https://www.historytoday.com/archive/normans-and-slavery-breaking-bonds, https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/domesday/world-of-domesday/order.htm, Apparently Essay Mills Must Be Made Illegal, Why Oxfam Can Go Boil Their Heads Over Vaccine Patents, The real point about climate change is how cheap the solution is, The excellent Tim Worstall- The Register, Tim Worstall is a darn good economist- Don Boudreaux, Tim Worstall, you pendant- Polly Toynbee, .more sensible than most right wing nutjob bloggersBob Piper. His book is a product of that childhood terror, and partly an exploration of his condition as a black Briton. Thousands of petitions were presented to parliament. The problem with slavery is that it left us with their descendents and weak minded White populations. (As the first person to mention the Sokoto Caliphate ahh, forget it.). No? So this race baiter can try his guilt trip on someone else. To be honest, I was a bit sceptical about the Olympics coming to London, but the atmosphere across the capital was genuinely wonderful . The novel became the bestselling book of 19th-century Britain; it was adapted for the theatre and generated mass-produced merchandise playing cards, jigsaws, tableware. That may have caused more violence. I assume he is not very bright and Race Hustling is very lucrative. In 1796, a bill was defeated by only four votes: a group of abolitionist MPs went to the opera and missed the vote. "We are on a journey in this country and other countries are on similar journeys to try and reconnect to parts of our history that had traditionally been edited out," adds Prof Olusoga. Get back to us when your sin/privilege is expunged. She wasnt interested in my academic pursuit. If you are wracked with guilt, ashamed of your forebears, do it! Ive always agreed that the Africans should pay reparations to the rest of us for dumping all those people they wanted to get rid of on us. Anglo-Saxons had slaves. I know there are posters on here who see stepping into their opponents perspective as a dangerous and pointless endeavour that gives undue worth to a viewpoint they despise, but purely as a mental exercise theres usually something to be said for examining your opponents strongest argument instead of their weakest. Get back to us when youve developed your historicalguiltometer. White people will take it. Those aged 11-14 have to be taught about the British Empire between 1745-1901, however the slave trade is one of nine examples given by the Department of Education on what can be taught. The thing we British are ancestrally responsible for is beginning and continuing to pursue the extinction of the sordid business of slavery. Perhaps Im a bit more culturally relativist these days, but just read it again, still absolutely awful. "Equiano is the most important voice that we have from the British experience of slavery and the slave trade," he said. In 1986 I came across the book Staying Power by the British journalist Peter Fryer. Sloane witnessed and later became part of a system ruled by terror. MyBurningEars August 30, 2020 at 3:31 pm Deliberately shipping that many people that far in order to participate in a newly-created society whose economic system was designed, pretty much from the ground up, around slave labour?, True that unlike certain other examples of slavery, you werent likely to be killed as part of a religious sacrifice or as part of your owners funeral., But there have been other societies with slavery where slaves had more autonomy and a greater chance of buying their freedom.. They are stupid false for America. Sugar was king: originally a luxury, it became one of the main sources of calories for the British poor. At the moment it seems to regarded as a good thing. He saw how enslaved people who had risen up were burnt to death, castrated or mutilated, punishments he regarded as merited. In the USA? Although the bottom line is that no Black person remembers slavery. The publication in 1852 of Uncle Toms Cabin, by the American abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe, swelled national sympathy for the plight of black slaves. Britain's role in the transatlantic slave trade is part of the national curriculum, although it is not statutory. Needless to say they should pay us reparations for this too. I can then give him the details of other descendants, he can apologise to and compensate. They organised a boycott of sugar, produced more petitions and hosted meetings. Societies have what morals suit them. It seems absurd to me that anyone should be concerned about what happened 200 or 500 years ago. Then a young teenager, he was driven out of his council home, together with his grandmother, mother, two sisters and younger brother, by a sustained campaign of nightly stoning of their windows. It doesnt end with the parties saying Well that was pleasantly intellectually stimulating, now lets have a nice game of cricket Youre opponents are not playing by the same rules as you are. Tim may be wrong about stuff, but ..that, ultimately, makes up for his beating squirrels to death for a hobby, Tim Worstall a horrid man who is anti-minimum wage among other repugnant things Socialist News. His choice of subject and his choice of material make that very clear. I dont think the traders can be given a pass on this front either., Just means they werent alone in being in the wrong.. So there were times when food was expensive, we can call those shortages or famines. I know. and while the responsible state still exists, Theres a fundamental weakness with all theories of universal law or justice, which is that across time and space, the human conception of what is right and just seems to be extremely varied and rarely (to modern Western eyes) pleasant.. The South Sea bubble, the greatest financial crash of the 18th century, was intimately connected to Britains dealings with Africa, though this is rarely acknowledged by historians. And tolerance is not a given. It was an apt university to experiment with such developments, since Lord Scarman, who reported on the Brixton riots of 1981, was its chancellor. White communities suffer huge losses from Black crime. This is indeed tu quoque. So how much have considered paedophilia? We do not know enough to be sure. A renowned economist has said that $12 trillion should be afforded to black Americans in reparation for slavery to help the close wealth gap.. Whoever has the upper-hand in power political, cultural, economic, military or whatever other form is decisive at that moment. Dont even get me started on the Moors, Arabs and Ottomans, As for getting rich many African tribes kept slaves and their societies did not get rich. If their ancestors had remained in Africa would they be better off than they are now? "The way history is viewed is changing. He also studied at the University of Liverpool and so benefits from slavery as much as anyone else. He adds: "The reason Equiano's story, Equiano's voice, is not as well known as it should be, is because we have a long habit in this country of not wanting to talk about slavery. Shouldnt Olusoga be writing in Ubangi bantu-language? The strongest case I can see against reparations is not fundamentally a legal one but perhaps one degree abstracted the law if we can litigate that, we can litigate a heck of a lot of stuff from centuries past, tie our legal systems up in knots with no obvious limits in sight. Theres no point pretending Europeans who profited from either the transatlantic slave trade or the use of slave labour in the Americas were somehow doing a favour to the slaves involved. He has discovered new and exciting research materials in African archives, among them the Register of Liberated Africans in Sierra Leone, which list names, bodily details, ethnicity and origins, thus putting a human face on people otherwise treated as fodder and statistics. Well the universe has a law of gravity but it doesnt have a law of should there be reparations. Various among the societies that were agglomerated into Nigeria were more or less involved in that slave trade from the supply end. Make sure it doesnt happen in the least costly way. Video, 00:02:30. Prof Olusoga is not the only person who has been drawn to Equiano's story. I doubt that they are now firmly united in a common cause. That involved killing the adult men. West Indians fought with the Allies more than a hundred were decorated. Because it isnt about who you are, its about who your ancestors were. I think it's an astonishing achievement.". A fifty quid note in the hand of the first black bloke you encounter. "They were barely known even to historians. Now sixteen sounds about okay to me if youre going to stick a limit somewhere, but then being British I suppose Im more likely to think the system Im accustomed to is normal and reasonable. Prof Olusoga is not the only person who has been drawn to Equiano's story. "They're not looking to history only to make them feel good and give them comfort, but they're looking to history to tell them things about truths about their society that we have traditionally edited out of British history.". Viking Dublin was a major slave-trading centre (English, Irish, Scots, anyone else they could get their hands on). One person who had a huge impact on Britain was Olaudah Equiano, an enslaved man who bought his freedom and wrote compellingly about his experiences. Then dont discuss it. Youre right, MBE. No one has said we should not consider someone elses viewpoint. "They look to history not just for inspiration and comfort, not just for heroes and for glorious chapters; they look for history expecting to find challenging stories, painful stories, dark truths, villains as well as heroes. Very little sugar on the mainland. As it happens, I dont believe in sins of the fathers passing down the generations. The historian and producer said he wanted to. Then a young teenager, he was driven out of his council home, together with his grandmother, mother, two sisters and younger brother, by a sustained campaign of nightly stoning of their windows. We could just cut to the chase, and impose a reparations tax on anyone who is descended from from anyone who did something, er, wrong. Over 1000 years in Britain. I am of Ulster Scot heritage, who were originally John Knoxs Cumberland Presbyterians, VERY MUCH against slavery. I hadnt gotten far when she stopped me cold, pointing out that her best friend, a 15 year old girl knitting beside a window in her house, was machine gunned by an American P-51 pilot. I cant see the point of denying it was all pretty awful. His rhetoric is to inflame the reader. The world has seen more slavery since its abolition than before. Theres no point pretending Europeans who profited from either the transatlantic slave trade or the use of slave labour in the Americas were somehow doing a favour to the slaves involved, even if, as it happens but their owners could not have predicted, their surviving descendants ended up financially better off on average than the counterfactual of remaining in Africa. Should black history be taught all year round? There is an alternative argument that it is their ancestors who were wronged hence deserve compensation and as descendants theyre entitled to an inherited share (so their portion depends on how many slaves at what position in the family tree) plus interest, regardless of how well theyre doing now. (Im just presenting the case here in reality there are obviously some big questions about the logic of Nuremberg etc, just as there are questions about how judges in Common Law occasionally summon up things as if they had always and forever been a part of the Law, albeit previously unrecorded, rather than something the judge just made up.). Eventually, 11,000 separate British slave-trading expeditions resulted in the trafficking of three-and-a-half-million Africans to the New World plantations, the greatest forced migration in modern history until the 20th century. The rest of this looks like the usual white washing (so to speak) of African slavery. 5 quotes from David Olusoga: 'On a peninsula protruding into one of the great highways of the Atlantic slave trade, a few hundred refugees from British slavery in North America were attempting to recreate the social structures of Northern Europe in the Middle Ages.', 'Time and again events and phenomena that we think we know and understand contain within them lost or camouflaged connections to . Under English law, damages are assessed as being that amount needed to restore them to the position they would have been, had the event claimed against not occurred. The answer is money. When the American Civil War interrupted the supply of cotton, hundreds of thousands of British workers were made destitute, dependent on soup kitchens, and the British economy was dealt a thunderous blow, all because an ocean away the forced labour of four million enslaved black Americans had been disrupted. 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