The English started the slave trade

[Annamaria14]

I just saw a black American woman post online,

"The English started the slave trade. They caused all our problems, they hurt generations of people. I will never set foot in that country".

What do you think? I felt a bit guilty, because the English did cause a lot of problems around the world. Have we learned from our past. How can we do better in the future

Should we all don a hair shirt?

I wouldn't feel guilty if it was. I wasn't there.

Really? I’ve lived in lots of countries round the world, several of them ex British colonies and that hasn’t been a common theme

The British Empire is a massive debate, isn't it. Different perspectives etc.

The idea of slavery didnt start with the British. The British however were huge drivers of the West Africa to Americas slave trade which we like to forget, whereas our eventual rejection of slavery and the slave trade are celebrated.

When Britain abolished the slave trade, it was very careful to pay very generous compensation top everyone that lost out.

Slaveowners that is. Slaves, naturally, got nothing.

Just a little fact that is worth knowing.

I wish that the English race had not caused so many problems all over the world

The Vikings
Normans - look at what they did to the North
The Romans....

How far do you have to go back to feel guilty?

Well that's a pretty racist attitude @Moonmelodies. Shut up or get out eh?

"Ok I guess - never mind who actually started it."

What? I'd rather we did mind before we started with the self hatred.

As for people thinking we destroyed their country, that depends on education levels. People across Africa are told that white people caused all their problems and continue to do so, when internal corruption causes todays problems.

By all means take an interest, by back it up with facts. Pasters tell people that they are cursed, or being poisoned by vaccinations, if you met those people, would you just take that information on board?

If your talking Bangladesh, then yes, we made them poor. Other third world people are being kept poor so we can exploit them. But all races are involved in that.

England did not start the slave trade. Its a pretty global shame to share.

Slavery operated in the very first civilizations (such as Sumer in Mesopotamia,[4] which dates back as far as 3500 BCE). Slavery features in the Mesopotamian Code of Hammurabi (c. 1860 BCE), which refers to it as an established institution.[5] Slavery became common within much of Europe during the Early Middle Ages and it continued into the following centuries. The Byzantine–Ottoman wars (1265–1479) and the Ottoman wars in Europe (14th to 20th centuries) resulted in the capture of large numbers of Christian slaves. The Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese, British, Arabs and a number of West African kingdoms played a prominent role in the Atlantic slave trade, especially after 1600. The Republic of Ragusa became the first European country to ban the slave trade in 1416. In modern times Denmark-Norway abolished the trade in 1802.

Did you know that Cornish people were taken as slaves?

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12/30/memory-cornish-coast-dwellers-kidnapped-slavery-culturally-erased/

How do you feel about Boris unconditionally offering three million people from Hong Kong British citizenship?

But while we had Hong Kong we were the 'terrible British' as far as many were concerned.

And what about the African King who dressed up in a tartan kilt, drank whisky and captured his subjects to sell as slaves. Will his descendants be feeling guilty and apologising?

The Middle Eastern countries participated widely in the Africa>America slave trade along with most European countries.

And not just the Africa to America slave trade. Slaves were taken from the British Isles too.

"When the Moors invaded West Cork and kidnapped Irish slaves"

www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/when-the-moors-invaded-west-cork-and-carried-off-irish-slaves

Yes you are right - we should not feel ashamed for our ancestors actions.

It is more important - to just acknowlege it happened

If she has a visceral reaction to a country due to its role in her ancestor's pain then she does. Whether it might be objectively perceived to be unreasonable is not really the point. My husband will not set foot in South Africa for similar reasons. For those posters who think this is all in the past and because their ancestors were poor they played no part in the slave trade I think that ignores the massive economic payday this country got from slavery. It benefitted everyone. It is sewn into the economic and social fabric of this country. We all profited from slavery.

I know Gandhi had something to say to the workers when he visited.

^

Ok - what did he say, exactly?

Not sure why the "English". British would probably have been a better question. Because the person you quote is from the USA maybe they are confused between English and British

Scotland was disproportionately involved in the tobacco and sugar industry in the West Indies, and parts of were Ireland, under British governance, involved in that industry too.

If the question means the trans Atlantic slave trade then yes Britian was very much involved but the Portuguese more so

Some small African "nations" were involved in the trans Atlantic trade too.

I've been listening to an Irish history podcast and the Vikings were prolific in capturing Irish and English people from around 500AD. Any historians here who can comment on when the English started? I don't think it was that soon.

The commenter was probably referring to transatlantic slaving which the English and Portugese seem to have started.

Lots of countries participated in the slave trade, , all through history.

It happened in the past, it’s what we do now that counts, you can’t rewrite history

As to the black American lady. I suggest she looks at what Americans did to the Indians before she talks about us

The british certainly participated in the slave trade, particularly of those who became Afro Caribbean and AfroAmerican. And greatly profited by it.

But afaik Britain was one of the first countries to abolish slavery. During the American civil war, which had as a side effect the 'cotton famine' in Lancashire, there were workers who maintained solidarity with the enslaved cotton growers.

Perhaps the lady might consider setting foot in Manchester?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LancashireCottonn_Famine#Politics

Did you know that Cornish people were taken as slaves?

Barbary pirates took a lot of people from the south and south west of England until the Royal Navy was powerful enough to stop them.

Scotland was disproportionately involved in the tobacco and sugar industry in the West Indies, and parts of were Ireland, under British governance, involved in that industry too.

Frankie Boyles "Tour of Scotland" recently had a piece with an historian who noted all the place names in Glasgow were connected to the money made from slaves in the Caribbean ...

And a lot of slaves taken from Africa by Europeans were actually captured and sold by other Africans for whom it was everyday business. As some people have noted, sadly slavery is older than recorded history.

We could start making amends by emptying our museums of stuff we stole and giving it back to the people we stole it from.

The commenter was probably referring to transatlantic slaving which the English and Portugese seem to have started.

According to the BBC...

"The Spanish took the first African captives to the Americas from Europe as early as 1503, and by 1518 the first captives were shipped directly from Africa to America."

www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/africa_article_01.shtml#:~:text=The%20transatlantic%20slave%20trade%20began,they%20enslaved%20back%20to%20Europe

As to the American lady. I suggest she looks at what Americans did to the Indians before she talks about us

Why? (Do you mean native Americans/first nations people when you say Indians btw? Because the British killed quite a lot of them too).