☔DISCLAIMER☔ It should be obvious but: I abhor and detest all acts of slavery indiscriminately. No one should be kidnapped, forced into any sort of labour, assaulted physically or sexually. I will defend all individual freedoms/rights accorded to us by God, to death.
How it started
Back in the ancient times, human beings knew only one race. They used to hunt, grow, eat, drink, make merry, make children, and live in peace together as a race. Wrong. True, they knew only one race, but it had always been at war with itself, and slavery has existed as long as humans have existed.
In the introduction, we asked why it’s a big deal today so let’s get into it. When people talk about slavery today they tend to associate it with Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The African (black) men, women and children were kidnapped from their homes, beaten and tortured, sexually assaulted, killed, and sold by the European/American (white) man. This is the picture that is painted, at least by the movies like ROOTS.
I recently visited the museum of illusions and in there, was an art piece. At a close range it made little sense to me; it seemed to be just several beautiful glass panels. Beside it, there were instructions to take a step back and look again at the whole thing so to see that the panels were aligned to produce an image. I took a step back. Nothing. Went round it, took many steps back. Nothing. “Do you see it?” I asked someone close by. “Yes, but only because it’s my second time here.” We shared a laugh. “It’s supposed to be an eye, give it a minute, you’ll see it.” She encouraged me as she left me to my puzzle. It was only when I took out my camera, right through the lens, that I saw it, it was not only an eye but a whole-half of a face.
My point is, things are not always clear up-close, sometimes we have to take many steps back, go round, and even look through different lenses of other people’s experiences or a camera’s perspective to see the true and full picture. To get the full and true historical picture, I’d love to invite us to take a similar approach when looking at this subject.
I’m yet to figure out exactly why the Trans-Atlantic slavery has received so much focus today, as it’s just one of the glass panels. The full picture shows other panels of millions of Europeans enslaved by North African pirates in 1500s-1800s. Another shows an auction block trading slaves including Europeans and Africans in Egypt even years after proclaimed emancipation freed the blacks in America. (Selling of white slaves, and importation of Sudanese and Abyssinia slaves was prohibited in a treaty in 1885). Another panel shows Slav’s enslavement by the Europeans and Islamic state being so common that it arguably gave us the name slave, China was once described as the largest and most comprehensive slave market in the world, India was estimated to have had more slaves than the west in total, and do I need to remind you about the ottoman empire and the Balkans? More panels have been presented by history for us to look at but you get the picture, right?
Why do you think people focus only on the Trans-Atlantic salve trade?
Slavery and Race
There is this notion presenting racism as a cause of slavery; that people to be enslaved were selected because of their skin colour. When we step back again, long before Trans-Atlantic slavery -during and after, we observe that humans have always been enslaving each other. It’s human culture; Africans were enslaving fellow Africans, Europeans were enslaving fellow Europeans, Asians enslaved Asians etc. That wasn’t based on colour, was it? Slavery in the ancient and mid ages was rooted in poverty and vulnerability. Much like today, it was the strong against the weak. Slaves have always been despised by slave masters regardless of tribe, nation, race or religion: slavery based on race is fairly recent; started when the status of the slaves aligned with race in the west. (Historian Daniel Boortsin puts it in the 1680’s in America). Slavery birthed racism, I think.
If racism led to slavery, how do you account for the fact that, as mentioned before that Africans raided their neighbours all the time, kidnapped, beat and sold them to fellow Africans, to Arabs and Europeans? For example, in my roots; it was very common for the Maasai to raid, capture and sell the Agikuyu in East Africa. Sometimes they worked with the Arabs to capture them. West Africa wasn’t innocent of this either, in fact the region was one of the largest slave trading regions. By the way, Arabs dominated slave trade in East Africa and reigned over an area bigger than Europe itself.
The bitter truth is that, with the exception of the Portuguese, it was rare for Europeans to raid the interior Sub-Saharan Africa because they couldn’t handle tropical diseases like Malaria. Mostly, the slaves were brought to the shores by other Africans who did the raiding and set sales conditions. Trading was done ASAP. No sooner had quinine and other medicine been invented, which facilitated entry for some time, than the slave trade ended.
Did you know Africans opposed the end of slave trade in Africa?
How and why the institution of slavery died
It was a long, slow, bloody process that lasted for almost a century: A worldwide crusade against slavery. First the formation of independent nations with armies and navies reduced vulnerability to slave traders and secondly, because, ironically for ‘some reason’, an anti-slavery movement began in Britain- the leading empire in slave trade with 1/4 of the world as colonies- in the 18th century that spearheaded the world out of the evil institution of slavery. They started in their backyards; freeing their own slaves and by the early modern era, Europeans selling other Europeans had stopped, and Sub-Saharan Africa was one of the last regions left where a large group of people could be enslaved.
What had changed? What do you suppose to be the reason why the anti-slavery movement started, in Britain?
The thing that surprised me and that I had not learnt until recently is how much opposition they faced because of this. It was war: British empire against the world. Some efforts included: destroying Brazilian ships used in slave trade, pressuring the ottoman empire against African slave trade and threatening to board their ships in the Mediterranean if they didn’t police the ban properly, they even paid slave traders money to release slaves, faced friction with the Americas and France who joined in gradually. Finally and embarrassingly, Brazil was last to end slavery as an institution in the 19th century. It has been recorded that by the time it was declared official, most slaves in Brazil were already free because people were pressuring slave owners by via isolation. When it was made official, the whole nation broke into celebration as recorded by Machad de Asis.
Tell me again about repatriations? Who’s to pay who? What should be considered fair pay?
I want to leave you with this picture; in 1855 the ottoman empire announced emancipation; Revolt erupted in Mecca, Turk officials including the announcer were murdered. Granted, another announcement was made in 1864 but due to the fear of a repeat of 1855, no one dared enforce it, they also lacked the resources to do so plus other communities willingly and gladly sold their daughters to them. So the slave trade continued. Could it be because the Quran supports and justifies slavery?
In the next post, we will look into the role of the church in slave/anti-slave movement so keep reading🤗🤗🤗 Leave your thoughts below.
Note: not all slave traders in Britain or America, White or black, supported the anti-slave movement
A white man was likely to catch malaria than a slave in interior Sub-Saharan Africa
– Thomas Sowell
Definitely waiting for the next post.
Thanks. Keep reading🤗