The evidence of this is that seasoned slaves, those exposed to the environment, sold for up to 50% more than new ones. Shipwrecked off the coast of Africa, he, and other survivors, were taken by an African tribe as captives. 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. There is no reason to single White people out for unique levels of criticism. Britain's role in the transatlantic slave trade is part of the national curriculum, although it is not statutory. Shouldnt Olusoga be writing in Ubangi bantu-language? "The phenomena of which he is iconic is one that we have written out, edited out of our nation. And yes, grand scheme of things, forced choice between living in a central Asian city about to be captured by ticked-off Mongols and an African tribal group about to be captured by profit-hungry slavers then fine, I take the latter hands down. Like I said, as a mental exercise, if I do my best good faith effort to imagine an argument for reparations, I reckon it would concern harms committed by the state (which unlike the slave traders and owners, is still about today) and an argument that it breached some alleged fundamental/universal doctrine of law so that even the states efforts to put the slave industry on a legal footing were null and void. not at all to disparage your ancestors GC. Then the second. I cant see the point of denying it was all pretty awful. From Roots. Was never entirely sure which bits were believed and which bits were just a fun bit of intellectual muscle-flexing couldnt all have been intended seriously since so many posts contradicted each other. Black and British: A Forgotten History addresses one of the greatest silences in British historiography. "They were barely known even to historians. A newsletter showcasing the finest writing from the ideas section, covering political ideas, philosophy, criticism and intellectual history - sent every Wednesday. But oddly enough, people like Olusoga havent given me the cash yet. Societies have had a long history of treating minorities harshly. Maybe heard of Saint Balthild, seventh-century English lass sold into slavery, exported to the Continent, served in a palace and ended up marrying the Frankish King?). The German survivors of Stalingrad were sent to camps and most of them worked to death. This seems rather unlikely. It does not take people long to starve to death and slaves were paid for. Maybe someone should advise him to button his lip before he stirs up something he may not like. Its very noticable how nobodys mentioning that the Spanish Empire were doing this for several centuries before the British got involved. Anyway, I digress, we did have at some point, a gang of pedos turn up and put their case, reasonably, and were tolerated and conversed with. It is a good deed that must not go unpunished. What has he got to say about that? TV historian David Olusoga claims it is "palpable nonsense" to say that removing controversial statues "somehow impoverishes history". Arguably wrong in a crimes against humanity way (similar language of natural justice and universal morality indeed being used by the abolitionists and the UK itself when it tried to enforce a ban on the trade) that made it inherently illegal even when governments tried to put it on a legal footing. 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. The economics of the slave trade may have meant that it was cheaper to work someone to death rather than allowing him a comfortable old age. Back in the heyday of blogging, perhaps ten years ago or so, there was a blogger calling him/herself The Heresiarch who enjoyed running against received opinions. Some were sold to other African tribes and the rest kept as slaves. Like the Nigerian slavers who enslaved and sold the slaves, you mean? My great grandfather fought to end slavery in a war. Required fields are marked *. One of the reasons why the American and Caribbean experiences were very different. Fired by religious feeling, they embarked on a campaign of public education and political lobbying unprecedented in scale and revolutionary in nature. Well whats the point of pretending it doesnt also induce moral disgust in me, just in case someone mistakes it for guilt, or an admission of liability? I just dont really get what Olusoga is saying. Anti-black riots broke out in Liverpool that year. But you need a different approach if you dont think great-grandkids of the Confederacy are still fair game.) I am not so sure about that although it is another argument. That is not true. So how much have considered paedophilia? Sugar was king: originally a luxury, it became one of the main sources of calories for the British poor. The arguments do you want to get shaken down for several trillion?. It died out with the Romans leaving, and its non-legality repeatedly reaffirmed from the reign of the early Normans onwards. Hundreds of White women raped every day. By this logic, we ought to sue the African American community. Welsh slave-raids into England continued until early Norman times. But werent they lucky compared to the other Germans in Stalingrad? The New Statesmans global affairs newsletter, every Monday and Friday. Of course if a rule was instituted that only people with white skins had to pay taxes, it might happen. A fifty quid note in the hand of the first black bloke you encounter. We do not know enough to be sure. For some peculiar reason possibly because theres a section of Western society has become very insecure about its own position its being some credence. "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. Nevertheless, we live in a society that generally regards slavery as an absolute and eternal wrong, and a grave one at that, yet which has historically (at least certain people and places, and including the state itself) benefited from imposing slavery on others.. The vast majority of Americans are not guilty. This is indeed tu quoque. Prof David Olusoga has presented numerous documentaries including A House Through Time and Black and Black and British: A Forgotten History, Olaudah Equiano played a role in Britain's abolishment of slavery, Performer Giles Terera has written a play featuring Equiano, Prof Olusoga said when it was published, people did not believe the book was by an African as it was deemed so well written, Bernardine Evaristo (second left) has launched a series called Black Britain: Writing Back which features novels by black British authors that have been overlooked, Should black history be taught all year round? They may not be happy about Dresden or Hiroshima but their lives are much better. Shouldnt matter whether some long-dead relative fought long ago for or against (not at all to disparage your ancestors GC, who all sound very sound) in terms of whether somethings your fault. Although I would expect the Germans, and perhaps even the Japanese, to be happy they lost the war. Then, in October, came a breakthrough. arguments are pretty weak since relying on a doctrine of virtues of the fathers risks implicitly accepting sins of the fathers.. The best and brightest minds in the UK defended Stalins slavery. Like I said before, tolerance is in the gift of the powerful. BZZZTT!! But any planter who deliberately starved his slaves to death would quickly go bust. Whitey bad, give me cash? BurningEars August 30, 2020 at 3:07 pm Theres a flaw in arguments of the form frankly you should be glad I murdered your sister. Olusoga was born in Lagos to a White mother and a Nigerian father - who, I hate to say nautrally, did a runner. He was born in Nigeria but arrived in the . No? West Indians fought with the Allies more than a hundred were decorated. And I dont think this is what reparations campaigners are calling for either, as I understand it their argument includes systematic legacy issues not just the period of slavery itself, so the harm relates more directly to them not just their ancestors. David Olusoga Historian, broadcaster and film-maker. Pretty sure if you could, implausibly, trace my family tree through various not-very-literate eras youd pass through at least one Anglo-Saxon who owned a bunch of Britons. Over 1000 years in Britain. So there were times when food was expensive, we can call those shortages or famines. 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. All in all your typical West African is far more likely to have ancestral connections to the slave trade than your typical Brit. They included Josiah Wedgwood (the pottery entrepreneur), Granville Sharp and Thomas Clarkson. Even Bill Clinton had affinity for the USA. They did not pay for them and were going to kill a lot of them anyway. You dont have esoteric discussions with paedophiles any more than you would with serial killers. Would, say, Huguenot-descended South Africans suing France over the 1572 St. Bartholomews Day massacre, or Cornish people suing HMG for the suppression of the 1497 Rebellion, deserve compensation? (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.). We pretend we do not like slavery but actually we do not like slave traders. What has Nigeria ever done for him? Its been banned for two centuries in Britain. . Their demands should simply be refused. Olusoga is of half Nigerian descent. In the case of slavery the answer is clear. David Olusoga is a 49-year-old historian and presenter Credit: Getty - Contributor David Olusoga is a British Nigerian historian, broadcaster and writer. Two men managed to escape and were rescued, but not before my great, great, grandfather was beaten, starved and worked to death, his body thrown into the jungle for the animals and insects to dispose of. at scales that were unusual in the long and varied history of slavery, and levels of brutality that stood out too. Although the bottom line is that no Black person remembers slavery. Slavery is bad or it isnt. 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. Now they do. They are now CM scum and couldnt care less about America. First launched in London in 1987, it aims to highlight and celebrate what black people have achieved in Britain throughout history. In the system that made Sloane wealthy, black women sought out herbs, plant species that he carefully identified and categorised, and used them to induce abortions, determined as many were not to bring into the world children who would be born items of property and destined to live short, brutalised lives. Re putting the argument for paedophilia they actually gave Gide the Nobel prize for literature didnt they? Reasonable estimates have some 50% of the inhabitants of the Sokoto Caliphate as late as the late 19th cent being slaves. Over 1000 years in Britain. It was the first of the slave narratives that I'd ever read and I found it astonishing.". Some other buyer would have taken them if they werent shipped out, and Western (or Arab) traders were just changing the ownership and location, the sins of the slave-raiders being theirs alone to bear. A House Through Time returned to BBC Two in May for its third season, and once again is fronted by historian extraordinaire David Olusoga. The answer is money. Heroes of 2020 What Marcus Rashford's campaign for hungry children tells us about . If you had spare cash or could borrow, investment in slavery was a sure winner, never mind slave rebellions or hurricanes that destroyed cane fields. One of his teachers had a coffee mug bearing a National Front slogan and another attacked him during a school trip, he said. As it happens, I dont believe in sins of the fathers passing down the generations. David Olusoga, introduces his book Black and British, an exploration of the relationship between the British Isles and the people of Africa. It seems absurd to me that anyone should be concerned about what happened 200 or 500 years ago. Various among the societies that were agglomerated into Nigeria were more or less involved in that slave trade from the supply end. Vikings took slaves, including exporting Anglo-Saxons (you must have heard the quote Non Angli, sed Angeli about the English slaves being sold in Italy? His book is a product of that childhood terror, and partly an exploration of his condition as a black Briton. The reason why Equiano is not a national name is because slavery is not a part of the history that we teach when it should be because I don't think you can understand the 18th century in particular but also the 19th century without reference to slavery.". You may concede a point here, a point there. 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. One sporting event that has captured your imagination I was fortunate enough to get tickets to see some of the basketball at the London 2012 Olympics, so my brother and I went to watch the GB vs. Spain game. My first reaction, years and years ago, was thats awful. The point about slave descendants in Georgia being better off than descendants of slave sellers from West Africa is reasonably strong (though look back in everyones ancestry and youre likely to find, far back enough, a mix of slaves, owners and probably traders too). Would also apply even if down a different family line there had been beneficiaries of the slave trade. He talks about slavery because YOU care. And the third, fourth, fifth, and so on. Just as how in the 16th century the anti-slavery voices in Europe were overwhelmed, and in the 19th century the abolitionists won out. Oblong, The Celtic version of slavery (which ran to quite a different model) was still going on in the places the Romans didnt reach. But that ignores how the demand of outsiders led inevitably to far more supply being provided. Cheap ass presentism. Get back to me in seven years, when youre ready to order. The following decades were taken up with popular and political rhetoric about immigration and parliamentary acts to limit blacks coming to Britain. Equiano is also mentioned in Incomparable World, a novel by SI Martin, which was selected by Booker award-winning author Bernardine Evaristo for her Black Britain: Writing Back series. That hes able to write this article is because hes living in what is, by historical standards, a remarkably tolerant society. (Britain expended blood and treasure on ending the slave trade, and thereby paid its moral debt already is one way of trying to resolve it, but rather unsatisfactory at righting the wrongs done to those who had already fallen victim to the trade.) They lucky compared to the slave narratives that I 'd ever read and I found it astonishing ``. Is that no black person remembers slavery book black and British, an exploration of the curriculum. To pay taxes, it aims to highlight and celebrate what black have... 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