Credit: the author, Google, BBC, Reddit, Quora, The Conversation. Proposed by Ghana, a major victim, 123 UN members have just declared the slave trade to be “the gravest crime against humanity”. The United States, Israel and Argentina voted against it. Fifty-two countries abstained, among them the UK and European states. WTF! Pulling down Confederate statues and renaming buildings doesn’t change the fact that an entire population fought a war to keep their slaves. When the war was over and the slaves were freed, they were worse off. Bonded sharecropper debtors living in poverty at the whim of a master. The master had no obligation to feed or clothe or house them, provide them medical care or education because they were no longer his property. They were still raped and lynched at will. I don’t think Black Africans were enslaved because of the colour of their skin, though that made them ‘inferior’ in the eyes of Whites. It was only about greed. Often their own people sold them. It is most surprising that almost no one questioned the humanity of owning human beings as property. Only the Quakers shouted down the slave trade and formed the Underground Railroad to the free North and Canada beyond. This has nothing to do with ‘it was a different time’. Every human being then knew this was wrong. It was always only about money. Money blinded the owners to any humanity. Across all global slave trades throughout history, tens of millions of people were enslaved. The exact number is difficult to determine, but current estimates break down as follows for major historical trades: Transatlantic Slave Trade This was the largest forced migration in history. Total embarked from Africa: Approximately 12.5 million Africans were forced onto ships between the early 16th and mid-19th centuries. Some estimates range from 12 to 15 million. Died during the voyage (Middle Passage): An estimated 1.8 to 2 million people died during the brutal ocean crossing. Total disembarked in the Americas: About 10.7 million people survived the journey and arrived in the Americas. The primary destinations were: Brazil (approx. 5.5 million) The Caribbean colonies (approx. 4.5 million) North America (approx. 388,000, a smaller percentage, though the population grew to 4 million by 1860 due to natural increase) Other Historical Slave Trades Millions more were trafficked through other, older slave trade routes: Trans-Saharan, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean trades: Between the 7th and 19th centuries, an estimated 10 to 18 million Africans were trafficked along these routes to North Africa, the Middle East, and Indian Ocean islands. Barbary slave trade: Between the 16th and 19th centuries, an estimated 1 to 1.25 million Europeans were captured by Barbary pirates and sold into slavery in North Africa and the Ottoman Empire. This is where the term ‘white slavery’ was coined. During the 1800s slavery changed form. It became tied to European imperialism. Powerful nations such as Britain and France took over land in Africa and other regions. The countries that had been major slave traders became the leading imperial powers in Africa. For example, French forces in the late 1800s still captured people and forced them into service. Laws in French west Africa didn’t truly end slavery. They simply allowed colonial governments to take over land. The colonising countries often claimed they were bringing “civilisation”. Similarly, European colonisers in central Africa – especially under Belgian rule in the Congo Free State (1885-1908) – caused massive suffering and death. Around 10 million people died over about 40 years. MAKE THEM PAY FOR THEIR THEFT! Modern Slavery Slavery continues to exist in various forms today. Current estimates: As of 2021, an estimated 50 million people were living in modern slavery globally, including forced labor and forced marriages. This number is higher than the total number of people involved in the entire transatlantic slave trade era. Although slavery is outlawed in every country, migration, debt, transnational labour, human trafficking both for labour and for prostitution are not only with us but rife. Many of these are bonded debtors including about 30% children under 16. Until the slaves work off their debt, they are not free. As inflated prices are charged them and interest builds up, they will never be free until they’re too old to work. I myself have seen house slaves in Mauritania and Brazil, brick kilns in Pakistan, carpet weavers in India and Turkey shipbreakers in Balochistan, builders in Dubai. There is no opportunity for solidarity or rebellion. The US Founding Fathers owned slaves. Thomas Jefferson had children with one of his slaves. Slaves were owned chattel, they could be beaten or killed but that would have been a bad return on a considerable investment. Women were raped, children born into slavery and families separated. When we think about slavery in the US, we forget about all the wage-slaves, eking out a meagre living, often homeless and in debt. There have been genocides across many countries, ethnic cleansing over territory and beliefs. So whose counts as the worst of the worst? Genocide is not counted in numbers. <deleted> is just another word for antisemitism.
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