Reparations: Overlooking African Complicity in the Slave Trade

CALLS FOR REPARATIONS are all the rage among our contemporary "civil rights" crusaders. These shrewd individuals have chosen to direct their extortion efforts toward such American corporations as Aetna, New York Life, and Chase Manhattan Bank – which are charged with having profited, in one way or another, from slavery more than 137 years ago. They understand that such companies’ deep pockets and fears of bad publicity make them likely to eventually cough up some cash in exchange for the privilege of not having their names perpetually smeared.

What the moral icons of the "civil rights" establishment never mention, however, is that many African societies also profited handsomely from selling slaves to the West, and thus strongly supported the transatlantic slave trade. As one historian points out, the stronger black states of the coastal regions "managed to monopolize the traffic with the hinterland [and] prospered amazingly." Numerous African kingdoms gained their might and prosperity entirely from slaving. It is likely, in fact, that the transatlantic slave trade actually created more employment for African dealers than for their European counterparts. Though the slave trade is generally described as having uniformly demoralized all Africans, the slave-dealing societies of the Gold Coast that prospered because of slavery bitterly opposed Britain’s abolition efforts. Tribal leaders in Gambia, the Congo, and Dahomey actually sent delegations to London and Paris to argue against abolition. The rulers and merchants of Senegal demanded that their territory be classified as a French "protectorate" rather than a "colony," so they could legally continue dealing slaves.

During the middle third of the nineteenth century, African demand for slaves increased tremendously. As Western purchasers dropped out of the market, there was a profusion of African people left vulnerable to slavers in their own homelands. Because of this surplus, slaves became available at sharply reduced prices, thereby making their ownership more attractive to African buyers. Thus, after 1830 vast stretches of the continent saw a dramatic rise in the enslavement of blacks. In the 1830s the slave population of Zanzibar alone exceeded 100,000. In western Sudan, slaves became so numerous that they comprised a majority of the area’s population in the second half of the nineteenth century. As of 1870 in one southern Nigerian city, 104 families owned a combined total of more than 50,000 slaves, an average of almost 500 per family. Overall after 1850, black African purchasers acquired more slaves than were exported to the Occident and Orient combined. The typical African purchaser of the period was determined to squeeze from his slaves all the labor he could, forcing them to work excessively long hours and making their lives almost unbearable.

East Africa’s plantation economy peaked between 1875 and 1884, when the Kenyan coast had some 45,000 slaves – 44 percent of its total population. The Ethiopian highlands and the areas east of Lake Chad, where slaves had comprised only 4 percent of the region’s inhabitants back in 1820, were one-third slave by 1900. Also by the end of the nineteenth century, slaves constituted between one-third and one-half of all people living in the vast Sahelian grasslands stretching from the Atlantic coast of Senegal to the shores of Lake Chad. Near some commercial centers the proportion reached an astounding 80 percent. As of 1900, northern Nigeria’s Sokoto caliphate – an area roughly the size of California – contained at least 2.5 million slaves.

Those who criticize the West for its historical participation in the transatlantic slave trade never mention that abolition was a uniquely Western idea originating in Great Britain, the largest slave-trading nation of its time. In one of the great achievements of human history, Britons united to pressure their own government to legislate slavery out of existence by 1807. Members of Parliament were amazed to find themselves inundated by petitions demanding slavery’s abolition. One particular month, in fact, saw the delivery of more than 800 petitions containing some 700,000 signatures. It was not slavery, but rather this unprecedented moral impulse to ban it, that was truly unique in human history. The fact that the African kings of the nineteenth century shared none of the West’s moral imperative for ending human bondage is somehow dismissed as irrelevant by our "civil rights" messiahs. They focus exclusively on the sins of white society – demanding all manner of payments and apologies – while the black societies that willingly co-created the slave trade escape all moral condemnation.

John Perazzo is the author of The Myths That Divide Us: How Lies Have Poisoned American Race Relations. For more information on his book, click here. E-mail him at wsbooks25@hotmail.com

At one time I believe that Black Slaves did have a legitimate beef with Slave owners & several Big Corp. that still exist today. The problem with this now is that the Companies are no longer owned by the same owners in most cases & the Slave owners are long gone. Slave Reparation supporters also overlook the fact that they were sold by their own people & in some cases Blacks owned Black slaves. I believe that the article is simply trying to point that out, you may understand that perfectly but I have seen a lot of Blacks on T.V. & in the paper that only believe what MaFume & the Rev. JackAss tell them. You can believe that Jesse is not speaking in full truths, that would not put money in his pocket.

Let me ask you this and don't take it as an attack against you, I assure you that is not my intention. Would you rather be in Africa or America? Now I think that I could probably answer that question myself, but you may not see it that way. I am age 37 & as long as I can remember we (the Whites) have been trying to make things right for ya'll since the late 60's to the present. I was bussed to downtown to a black school where I was the Minority, we had racial quota's and I was raised my whole life to get along equally with all minorities. So why should I pay Reparations to any minority? I've never owned any slaves & neither has my direct family, I will not ever pay reparations. It is a wedge that is being pryed in between Black & White Americans & it is sure to cause violence eventually if it is ever enforced.

One other question that I have because you have some insight that I do not, where do the Blacks think that this money is going to come from? Do they understand that the Government money is the People's money, they aren't screwing the Government their screwing us and we don't like it a bit.

Who was the famous african american scholar who basically ripped africa by saying that they had not made a significant contribution to civilization on over a thousand years? He pointed out that almost every black achievment had been made by blacks in europe and america. He was somewhat of a african empowerment movement who felt that africa had let down its people, by both being conquered and then enslaving its own people and selling them to "unknown foreign white folk" something no other civilzation had ever done. Previousley, you made slaves and kept them within your own people. I know he wrote a book, and was on the lecture circuit for awhile and appeared on some shows.

Well, you know, each race has their own talents they bring to civilization. Some work hard to invent wonderful things to enrich our lives, and then some others. . . . .

Yeah, like the first American built striking clock, the first Farmers' Almanac, the initial layout of Washington, D.C., the rotary engine, the "Jenny Coupler" which was used to hook railcars together, the Gong and Signal Chair for Hotels, a device that allowed amputees to feed themselves, an improved electrical resistor used in computers - radios - television sets and a variety of electronic devices and helped reduce the cost of those products, a variable resistor used in guided missile parts, a control unit for heart stimulators, a burglar-proof cash register, a chemical air filter, the first street sweeper (no, not the gun), the first disposable hypodermic needle (syringe), three hundred uses for peanuts, hundreds of uses for soybeans, pecans, and sweet potatoes, the far ultraviolet camera spectrograph, the first moon-based space observatory, the detection of bacteria in urine, blood, spinal fluids, drinking water and foods, the microcomputer system with bus control means for peripheral processing devices, the blood bank and preservation of blood, the folding cabinet bed, the conversion of natural gas to electricity for everyday use, the pioneering and initial research of electrogasdynamics, the world's first patent for a golf tee, the invention of processes for preserving meat using sodium chloride and nitrate and nitrite crystals, the pioneering of the use of antioxidants, the dry-cleaning process, the automatic refrigeration system for long-haul trucks in 1935 (a roof-mounted cooling device), the synthesized physostigmine for treatment of glaucoma and cortisone for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, the patent drawings for Alexander Graham Bell's patent application for the telephone, automatic lubication to solve the problems of engine lubrication and overheating, the first automatic traffic signal, the first gas mask, the improved gas heating furnace that provided central heating, the invention of a sugar processing evaporator and an improved sugar refining process that safely saved time and money in the making of sugar from sugar beets or sugar cane, and many, MANY more.

Oh, wait. I forgot something. These inventions were made by blacks. So much for your assertion...

Seems to me, I've seen a solution to this kind of problem in several articles on FR recently. By that I have in mind the articles noting that Swedes, after decades of socialism, are economically less well off than American blacks.

What's wrong with solving two problems in the world with a single stroke? The United States could purchase Sweden and allow every African American with a legitimate claim that his ancestors were harmed by slavery to own two Swedes. Everybody involved would be better off.

What Richard noggins these individuals are who seek reparations.

They would have everyone believe that the United States was the only final destination of all the slaves, when in fact only 5% ended up in the US. (The lucky 5% ) This is the perception also fostered in our public schools.

History being history does show that the original slave traders were the Muslims and the slave trade got its start from Africa to the East and not from Africa to the West...

If the dudes going after reparation money were smsrt they would go after the MIddle East oil money.

SSSSHHHHHH!!!!! That's not going to help Jesse get more money in his pocket. Why can't or won't the general black public stand up and say it? I have never understood this. They all know they're never going to see any of this money. They all know Jesse is just going to pocket a large share, sort of like his pot at the end of the rainbow. Or at least I hope they do.

As to your point, exactly how will they sort that out? What kind of social structure would arise if we start pointing out the blacks that held slaves for economic gain(and it wasn't to keep families together 99 percent of the time, that lie is over) against those who were the actual slaves?

Let's not forget the Democrat party, party of slavery, secession, the KKK, separate but equal etc. They should be at the front of the list of responsible parties being sued for reparations.

That's a wonderful way to illustrate the absurdity of reparations by being absurd. What could they say, since it is definitely historically accurate, if the RAT party is sued for reparations due to its promotion, condoning, and desire to continue slavery? I'd pay to see that!

Robert Hitt Neill tells of attending a Tennessee Mountain Writer’s Conference years ago with several other authors. Among them was Alex Hailey, celebrated author of “Roots.” Watching a TV news show, a group of them watched a demonstration in a Southern state against the “Rebel” flag incorporated into that state’s flag. The very next report covered a famine in Africa. Graphic images showed dead bodies, starving children with distended tummies and runny noses and dying people covered with flies, too weak to brush them away.

Mr. Hailey intoned in a low, serious voice:
“Every time an American black sees a story like that, they should find a Confederate flag and kiss it.” He then pointed to the TV screen and continued, “Because these would be me and my descendants, except for American slavery. I thank God that my family and I are here instead of there.”

SEEMS LIKE BLACKS INVENTED EVERYTHING BUT THE WHEEL-BUT THE QUESTION IS=====HOW MANY OF THESE INVENTIONS CAME OUT OF AFRICA?

Okay, guys. How do I go about this one?

"SEEMS LIKE BLACKS INVENTED EVERYTHING BUT THE WHEEL..." Hey, those are your words, not mine. Find me a place where I even asserted anything remotely identical to this.

I'll wait patiently.

"HOW MANY OF THESE INVENTIONS CAME OUT OF AFRICA?" What does this have to do with the price of tea in China?

My post was in direct response to Warren's post which stated,

"Well, you know, each race has their own talents they bring to civilization.
Some work hard to invent wonderful things to enrich our lives, and then some others. . . . ."

As you can see, I knocked that hanging curve out the Jake and into Lake Erie. It was his assertion that our race has contributed nothing to society, nor did anything "to enrich our lives."

The point is that the inventions I listed were made by black people, and disproved the poster's assertion. Africa has nothing to do with this.

Lastly, have you no netiquette? Kill the all-caps nonsense.

But rdb3 many.. from many countries and nationalities have contributed. Many of my Ancestors have. As I'm sure many of yours have.

The main point is "reperations" are wrong.

We are all Americans. No matter where our Ancestors came from.. right? What a mess reperations would create. I would pay more taxes.. you would. Why should we?? I didn't do anything!! You didn't! We are all fortunate to be living in America. I totally understand what Alex Hailey was saying. I agree with it. Imagine living in Africa. We are all very blessed to be living where we are. BTW.. Thomas Sowell a distinguished fellow from the Hoover Institute (and one of our favorite writers) would agree totally with Alex Hailey's views. As would Ken Hamblin. Gosh.. quite a few others too.. but their name slip my mind at this late hour.

Believe me.. my people were treated horribly (Cherokee). But I don't think I deserve a free ride for it. It was sad.. but it was so long ago!!

Then there are my Irish Ancestors too.

What about my Ancestors who DIED to abolish slavery? It just goes on and on and there would be no end to reperations for many whose ancestors suffered. Why bankrupt or harm our own wonderful country? The one you and I so proudly served? That I think was the arguement. It wasn't a race thing. Not the way I read it. But the fact that some idiots are going to try to do this. Idiots like Jesse Jackson...and Al Sharpton, etc.

I think we are on the same wave length here.. just making sure I clarify and totally understand your views on this.

BTW.. great pic!!! :o)

I scanned some of your views when I looked at you in this forum. We are very close in our political ideologies. (Besides having served.) Salute! and...

FRegards!!!

Rodney, from one former Clevelander (Lakewood -- left in '62 to join USAF) to another, God bless -- and may your tribe increase!

My mother was born (1913) and raised in your neck of the woods (University Circle area) and lived on ASHBURY Avenue for many years before marrying and moving to the West Side. I lived in Arlington, TX for 4 years and sons born there.

Looks like you've escaped the statist Democrat "plantation."

Perhaps you could help some of my white brothers make a break for it...

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