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There is only one monument built to commemorate the end of the slave trade (through the British Empire). As it happens this monument just so happens to be at th

There is only one monument built to commemorate the end of the slave trade (through the British Empire). As it happens this monument just so happens to be at the entrance to the school I attended. Consequently we learned more about the slave business than most. Our education was a bit more nuanced and not entirely pious. It is easy to focus on what terrible times slaves had - 'wasn't it terrible' - but the more interesting stories and the bigger picture are elsewhere. For starters, it was not the slaves that freed themselves (Haiti being an exception), the campaign was a Quaker thing, an understanding that God would not have thought it right. Beyond that there was also the economic picture, indentured labour from Bengal (India) was more cost effective. At least slaves could see their chains. They had to be fed and watered, it wasn't as if they had to find the essentials for staying alive out of a paycheck. Those doing the same toil as indentured labour were living that bit more precariously. What I find most interesting about the slave trade and slavery is how analogous it is to the arms trade. In the days of slavery members of parliament would own plantations, councillors would have shares in slave-trade related concerns and every aspect of power was corrupted by some link. If you were against slavery it was hard to clothe and feed yourself without buying slavery products. Think of today and if you wanted to avoid things made in China for some ideological reason - near impossible. So anyway, today's arms trade where all politicians seem to take some back-hander from it is so like the slave trade/slavery in how it corrupts. Equally, nobody thinks or cares about banking with a bank that services the arms companies, or buying something as small as a paperclip from a company that gladly sells to the Pentagon. It was the same in the slavery days. Nobody cared except for some Quakers. That is not entirely true, a lot of factory operatives in places like Manchester realised their struggle for fair pay for fair work was tied into the slavery thing. I particularly like stories that challenge the narrative. In the UK during the post war years a lot of people from the Caribbean were invited over to blighty to be cleaners, bus drivers etc. That is what we like to think. However, some did make it over here to be judges, teachers and other professions. These contradictions and the nuances to the story are what make it interesting for me, and, personally, I think that our history regarding slavery deserves to be more thought provoking than the testimonies provided on the slaverystories.org website.

jfc 13y ago
I think the stories on slaverystories.org are very thought provoking, and your comment leads me to question whether you have read or listened to many of them. For instance, you are incorrect that no slaves freed themselves--here's an example of a woman who sued for her freedom under the Massachusetts Constitution and won (lawsuits from other enslaved people followed--some won) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Freeman_(slave) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Freeman_(slave) There are plenty of other stories such as this, along with numerous accounts of escaped enslaved people, many of whom were not helped by the Quakers, but by other, unexpected groups. The tone of your comment is also at turns appallingly dismissive--you write of enslaved people as being "fed and watered" and indicate that they were cared for. But numerous narratives make clear that slaves were often not fed and clothed sufficiently, not to mention that their health and hygiene was neglected. The idea that they were provided for adequately is a foolish and unwarranted assumption. They were treated, often times, worse than animals. Not to mention the routine sexual assaults that women and men endured--that's in some of the narratives as well. And not merely an assault only from the slave owner, but from his siblings, sons, overseers who worked for him, and the like. A particularly noteworthy account observed that slave owners would interrupt the meals of enslaved families and require the daughters or wives to leave with them to be sexually assaulted and then return the women after they were finished. These would be severe horrors to anyone who had to endure them and can't be ignored because someone doesn't like to hear about them--or thinks something else is more interesting. These enslaved people were human beings. There is no reason to minimize the suffering portion of the narrative, especially since they lived with those horrors daily and accounted for a significant part of their experiences while enslaved. Again, if you've read some of these narratives, you would know that there are lengthy discussions of their lives after becoming free--everything isn't about their suffering. There are certainly other perspectives from which we can look at American slavery. The corrupting influence was (and remains) staggering. Of course people like stories that challenge the narrative of the sufferings of African enslaved people. It is more pleasant not to discuss or even acknowledge the horrors that existed, for a variety of reasons. But these things did happen, and sites like slaverystories.org do a good job of illuminating not only the horrors that existed, but also the variegations of life and humanity.
- 13y ago

jfc 13y ago

I think the stories on slaverystories.org are very thought provoking, and your comment leads me to question whether you have read or listened to many of them. For instance, you are incorrect that no slaves freed themselves--here's an example of a woman who sued for her freedom under the Massachusetts Constitution and won (lawsuits from other enslaved people followed--some won) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Freeman_(slave) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Freeman_(slave) There are plenty of other stories such as this, along with numerous accounts of escaped enslaved people, many of whom were not helped by the Quakers, but by other, unexpected groups. The tone of your comment is also at turns appallingly dismissive--you write of enslaved people as being "fed and watered" and indicate that they were cared for. But numerous narratives make clear that slaves were often not fed and clothed sufficiently, not to mention that their health and hygiene was neglected. The idea that they were provided for adequately is a foolish and unwarranted assumption. They were treated, often times, worse than animals. Not to mention the routine sexual assaults that women and men endured--that's in some of the narratives as well. And not merely an assault only from the slave owner, but from his siblings, sons, overseers who worked for him, and the like. A particularly noteworthy account observed that slave owners would interrupt the meals of enslaved families and require the daughters or wives to leave with them to be sexually assaulted and then return the women after they were finished. These would be severe horrors to anyone who had to endure them and can't be ignored because someone doesn't like to hear about them--or thinks something else is more interesting. These enslaved people were human beings. There is no reason to minimize the suffering portion of the narrative, especially since they lived with those horrors daily and accounted for a significant part of their experiences while enslaved. Again, if you've read some of these narratives, you would know that there are lengthy discussions of their lives after becoming free--everything isn't about their suffering. There are certainly other perspectives from which we can look at American slavery. The corrupting influence was (and remains) staggering. Of course people like stories that challenge the narrative of the sufferings of African enslaved people. It is more pleasant not to discuss or even acknowledge the horrors that existed, for a variety of reasons. But these things did happen, and sites like slaverystories.org do a good job of illuminating not only the horrors that existed, but also the variegations of life and humanity.

13y ago