Arising_uk wrote:Blaggard wrote:Let's not forget who perpetrated the crime of slavery in the first place, ...
That'll be the Arabs and the African tribal leaders then. Although Slavery had been around for thousands of years before them.
was it not European imperial machinations that created a need for somewhere like America and then taxed the bugger into rebellion.
...
Be fair, all we asked them was to pay a bit towards the cost of beating the French and Spanish.
What the Europeans did do was introduce racism as a justification for slavery and increased the trade by a fair chunk. But then they also banned it against their interests and in the name of common Christian humanity. So swings and roundabouts I think.
Actually that would still be the Europeans, supply and demand, if there was no demand for slaves the Arabs/African slave dealers would not of rounded up whole villages of black races and sold them to the Portuquese and others. The new world demanded workers and you couldn't supply enough, so they went to the slave traders and asked for bodies to make up the numbers when Spain and Portugal who were also at war with each other, were seen to make money the rest of Europe quickly tried to get in on the act and the French, The English and the Dutch amongst many others moved in. The 17th century is the age of war for profit, it also created privateering, sailing under a letter of the marque as a sort of mercenary army or armada, which later became piracy which lasted well into the 19th century although it had been stamped out for the most part in the Caribbean by then; it was still lucrative to attack slave ships and cargo ships off West and East Africa and piracy it seems has resurged again in the Arabian peninsular area, FSM will be pleased.
What actually ended the slave trade was the age of liberalism, it was seen as a hypocrisy by the French in particular that all men being created equal entailed that some were clearly, or thought they were clearly more equal than others. Really Christianity did play a part but a more minor part than you would think
(after all the bible condones slavery so it was often used to justify it), the age of enlightenment, and scholarly admonishment was by far the greater reason for the abolishment of slavery in many countries after such sentiments spread.
This creating of a massive market for slaves can only be laid at one door Europe's, the short fall was often filled with identured servitude usually people who had committed crimes that did not warrant the death penalty but also vast numbers of debtors, the more recidivist criminals and or white paid labour and colonists who had gone seeking profit in the new world and the like, clearly though such labour was not favoured for obvious reasons.
It's interesting to note of course after the American war for independence they sent out slave blockades with limited success to try and end the trade, The Amistad I mentioned before was one such ship caught off Africa which eventually lead to the slave trades abolition and then to the American civil war.
Where profit goes the rats follow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZFr4VLPW9Q
You should probably watch this link I gave earlier, it is most interesting.
Of course the speech is a matter of legal and historical record, the artistic flair is a matter of taste.
