Little-known and shocking facts about slavery (16 photos). Arab slave trade in Africa

The website Tehnowar.ru published a very interesting translation of an article by a Canadian researcher from Montreal about white slaves in the American colonies. The original is on . Full text: "John Martin. (translation from English: Tatyana Budantseva)

FORGOTTEN WHITE SLAVES

They arrived as slaves: human cargo transported on British ships to the shores of the Americas. They were loaded with hundreds of thousands - men, women and even small children.

If they rebelled or disobeyed orders, they were punished in the most brutal manner. A master could hang his offending slave by the arms and set his arms or legs on fire as punishment. Some were burned alive, and their heads, mounted on stakes, were displayed in the market square as a lesson to other slaves.

We don't need to go into all the horrific details, do we? We are well aware of the horrors of the African slave trade.

But are we talking about African slaves? Kings James VI and Charles I also worked hard to enslave the Irish. Britain's Oliver Cromwell continued this practice of dehumanizing his immediate neighbors.

The Irish slave trade began when James VI sold 30,000 Irish prisoners as slaves to the New World. His Proclamation of 1625 required that political prisoners be sent overseas and sold there to English settlers in the West Indies.

In the mid-1600s, the Irish made up the bulk of slaves sold to Antigua and Monsterrat. By that time, 70% of Monsterrat's total population were Irish slaves.

Very quickly, Ireland became the main source of human goods for English merchants. The first slaves of the New World were mostly white.

From 1641 to 1652, over 500,000 Irish were killed by the English, and another 300,000 were sold into slavery. The Irish population decreased from 1,500,000 to 600,000 in one decade.

Families were broken up because the British did not allow fathers of families to take their children and wives with them on trips across the Atlantic Ocean. This has created an entire population of unprotected homeless women and children. The British decision was to auction them as well.

"Scientific" Racism From Harper's Weekly, 1899:
"The Iberians are of African origin, spreading over the millennia through Spain throughout Western Europe. Their remains have been found in mounds, or burial places, at various points in these lands. The skulls are of the low type. They came to Ireland and mixed with the local inhabitants South and West, who in turn are supposed to belong to the lower type of origin, being the descendants of the savages of the Stone Age, who, due to their isolation from the outside world, were unable to develop in a healthy struggle for life, and therefore gave way, according to the laws of nature, higher races."

During the 1650s, more than 100,000 Irish children between the ages of 10 and 14 were separated from their parents and sold into slavery in the West Indies, Virginia, and New England. In this decade, 52,000 Irish (mostly women and children) were sold to Barbados and Virginia.

Another 30,000 Irish men and women were also taken and sold to the highest bidders. In 1656, 2,000 Irish children, by order of Cromwell, were taken to Jamaica and there sold into slavery to English settlers.

Many people avoid calling the Irish slaves what they really were: slaves. Terms like "indentured laborer" are suggested to describe what happened to the Irish. In fact, in the 17th and 18th centuries, Irish slaves were, in most cases, little more than human commodities.

For example, the African slave trade was just beginning during the same time period. According to numerous documented accounts, African slaves, untainted by adherence to the hated Catholic doctrine, were often treated better than their Irish fellow sufferers.

African slaves were highly prized in the late 1600s (£50). Irish slaves were much cheaper (no more than £5). If a planter flogged, branded, or beat an Irish slave to death, it was not considered a crime. Death carried a financial loss, but much less than killing a more expensive African.

English slave owners very quickly began to breed Irish women, both for their own pleasure and for greater profit. The children of slaves were also slaves, which increased the free labor force of the owner.

Even if an Irish woman somehow managed to gain freedom, her children remained slaves to their master. Thus, Irish mothers, despite their newfound freedom, often could not leave their children and remained in service.

Over time, the English found a better way to use these women to improve their own market position: settlers began crossing Irish women and girls (in some cases no older than 12) with African men to produce slaves with a certain appearance. The new “mulatto” slaves brought more profit than the Irish, moreover, they saved the settlers the money that would have been required to purchase new African slaves.

The practice of mating Irish women and African men continued for several decades and became so widespread that in 1681 a law was passed "prohibiting the mating of Irish women and African men for the purpose of producing slaves for sale." In short, this ban was introduced solely because it hurt the profits of one large slave shipping company.

England continued to transport tens of thousands of enslaved Irish for over a century. According to evidence, after the Irish Rebellion in 1798, thousands of Irish prisoners were sold to both America and Australia.

There is no doubt that the Irish experienced the horrors of slavery to the same extent (if not more throughout the 17th century) as the Africans. There is also no doubt that the dark-skinned locals you meet on your trip to the West Indies most likely have both Irish and African ancestors.

In 1839, Britain finally decided to abandon this satanic path and stopped supplying slaves. And although this decision did not in any way affect the activities of the pirates, the new law began to gradually bring the story of the suffering of the Irish to an end.

However, if anyone, black or white, believes that slavery was the preserve of Africans, they are deeply mistaken. Irish slavery must not be erased from our memory.

But why then is this topic so rarely discussed? Are the memories of hundreds of thousands of Irish victims not worthy of more than the mention of some unknown writer?

Or should their history become what their owners so desired - complete disappearance, as if it had never happened?

None of the Irish victims were able to return to their native shores to tell about their suffering. These are the lost slaves, those conveniently forgotten by time and erased history books."

Mikhail Delyagin noted: “This article is important not only for explaining the feelings that many Irish people still experience towards the British, but also for understanding the social technologies used by Anglo-Saxon civilization. Its representatives have long been well aware that the wholesale extermination of the victims of their crimes will allow "avoid publicity and will provide them with complete impunity. This is especially important for modern Russia - for understanding the prospects that the masters of the liberal clan that governs us and the offshore aristocracy class as a whole are preparing for us."

“No dogs, no Irish” signs, as noted in the comments here, completely disappeared from English pubs already in the 90s.

zarubezhom.com:

The period from 1688 to 1700 has been completely erased from English history - a BLACK HOLE! Strange? Let's figure it out.

SILENCE about the occupation of England by the Dutch Jews and the establishment of a dynasty of Dutch Jewish kings on the English throne with the simultaneous genocide of the Scots and Irish!

Today it is necessary to refresh some information on BRIT-ania for the current generation of faithologists,

Ireland said it would leave the EU!" ‘They SHAFTED us!’ Ireland will punish Brussels with shock EU exit, says Dublin think tank

In Great Britain in general, Watson, a Catastrophe is brewing! Soon she will be gone! Not only has the UK already voted to leave the EU and should already be leaving; but this is still a controversial issue, because there are very strong forces that don’t want BREXIT and don’t give a damn about referendums!

But Ireland will definitely leave, and the worst thing is that Scotland will definitely leave the UK! This was told to Holmes by a Scottish professor from Edinburgh, who said that this is now the main main process in Scotland.

You see, Watson, this is an unforgivable national grievance of the Scots against the English, and this grievance is 300 years old - at the turn of the 1600-1700s! Then, in order to subjugate Scotland, and Scotland before that was not part of England and there was no Great Britain, and Scotland had its own state flag in the form of a blue oblique CROSS on a white background and was, as they say now, “independent and independent”:
, then when Scotland disappeared, the British gave this flag to Peter 1 and he adapted it for the Russian fleet!

In order to colonize Scotland, and the Scots were freedom-loving highlanders, highland people! Throughout history, England had never been able to colonize Scotland! And then those who rule the country, that is, high-level people, invited Dutch troops to England.

The funny thing about that situation was that the English and the Dutch fought each other to the death in the recently discovered America - the New World, but in order to strangle the Scots, the English and Dutch Jews came to a consensus and Holland sent troops to England at the turn of the 1600-1700s; of course, with the consent of English traitor-Ivers like the Duke of MARLBORO, whose fame dates back to that time.

And the Dutch Jews, and Holland, it has a purely Jewish name - Holland is HOLILAND - that is, in Dutch, the purely Jewish concept of “PROMISE LAND” - “HOLY LAND”!

Holmes will remind you that when the Spanish Queen Isabella expelled her Hasidim, she made a fatal mistake, then the seat of the Evreonal moved to Holland, and the Jewish Clone began to explore the newfound America not from Spain, as at first, but from Holland!

Thus, from that moment on, the fate of the huge Spanish Empire was sealed, and the tiny country of Holland-Hollyland began to rapidly gain strength and the first country that the Jewish Dutch occupied under the wise leadership of the almighty Euronal was England.

In England, the Jew kings first cut off the head of the king, then they killed the entire Stuart dynasty, and a new dynasty of Jew kings was brought to England from Holland in the person of William of Orange!

Therefore, coups d'etat carried out in other countries, carried out under the leadership of Euroonal, began to be called “orange”, because Euroonal always installed his own “William of Orange”!

So the Dutch interventionists "Orangeists" under the leadership of William of Orange, of course with the addition of local English "Jewish Bolsheviks" - completely genocided Scotland! Since that time, since the beginning of the 18th century, the same Scots who lived before have lived in Scotland. But the national resentment towards the British remained. And now the Scots are preparing their forces to finally free themselves from the English yoke!
This is what the professor from Edinburgh told Holmes!

In general, this situation with the Intervention of the Dutch Jews in England and the extermination of the native Scots is very reminiscent of the revolution and the 1917 Intervention in Russia! And just like in Russia, the bloodiest events that lasted for many years and were accompanied by the extermination of tens of millions of Russians were nicely called the “Great Proletarian Revolution,” well, that is, Watson, almost something to be proud of!

So it is in England, this Intervention of the Jewish Dutch in England and the extermination of the Scots, and not only the Scots but also the Irish! Was named by the big-nosed English TORIKS

, they say, "GLORIOUS REVOLUTION! - "GLORIOUS REVOLUTION"!

Whereas in reality it was Intervention and occupation by Dutch troops in internal conspiracy with the English Ivers and genocide of the Scots and Irish!

And very revealingly, Watson, Holmes will tell you an interesting detail. This WIKI article is the only thing you can find on this topic. No historians, including the English ones themselves, study or write at all on the topic of this “GLORIOUS REVOLUTION”. Nobody even touches her!

Here are all the histories of England, multi-volume, Holmes even has a history of England by David Hume - a classic work of the 18th century! So all English history courses graduate from the course "GLORIOUS REVOLUTION"! That is, one volume ends before 1688, that is, before the year of the Dutch Intervention, and the next volume begins AFTER the Dutch Intervention, that is, from the beginning of the 18th century! But this period of “GLORIOUS REVOLUTION” from 1688 to 1700 - it has been completely removed from English history - a black hole! Even David Hume's history of England does not concern him!

Holmes will also add that it is very interesting in this regard that while the Dutch were then very “busy”, exterminating the Scots, the Irish and the previous original English dynasty of kings and aristocracy and replacing it with their own!

Nevertheless, the Dutch Jews found money to finance Peter the Great's war against the Swedish Empire, because the Swedish Empire was at that time the strongest rival of Holland. But the Dutch no longer had the strength to fight against the Swedish Empire themselves! So they signed one very young king of a wild and previously unknown little kingdom, lost at the eastern end of Europe, to do this.
That is why Peter I visited Holland and England at that time at the end of 1600, and it was they who built his fleet!

The Jewish Dutch had just captured England and made a new state, Great Britain, under the new dynasty of their Dutch kings!

And guess what the first thing these “Dutch” did in New Great Britain? They returned the Hasidic Jews to England, who had previously been thrown out of England in 1290, that is, 400 years before, by King Edward II, here we go:

, whom the Jewish Huyliwood portrays in films as a crazy psycho.

Formally, Watson, Jews were invited to England after the head of the English king was cut off by Viceroy Oliver Cromwell (English Trotsky) in 1657. But then the mess was just beginning.

In 1666, the returning Jews, who were not allowed in, completely burned London! There's even an article about it! It's called THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON!

That is, the old Englishmen resisted - they did not let the Jews in and sought to return the old royal dynasty of Stuarts! This resistance of the British to the return of the Jews and the desire of the British to return the old royal dynasty of Stuarts determined the need for the Dutch Jewish intervention in 1688.

The Dutch Jews, in cooperation with the English, destroyed the old royal dynasty of the Stuarts - they cut them to death! And they genocided the Scots and Irish - well, just like 200 years later the Jewish Bolsheviks in Russia, with the help of the Anglo-American Intervention, did the same thing! - RIMAKE! That is, everywhere, Watson, the same stamp and methods.

But now, at the beginning of the 21st century, the Scots and Irish realized that now they could take revenge on the hated English. If Putin were not a complete idiot, he would have been supplying the Scots and Irish with weapons long ago! But now the situation is such that the Euronal is completely confused, and in particular in Great Britain, and the Irish and Scots apparently felt that they could finally get rid of England, which they hated, and without armed struggle!

However, Watson, they are naive, almost a year has passed since the BREXIT referendum in England, and it is precisely the forces against England’s exit from the EU that are pushing back! The same thing will happen when there is a second referendum in Scotland on leaving the UK! The Scots have already lost once! I hope they won’t let themselves be fooled a second time!

Judging by the number of countries involved in the slave trade, for Europeans this business must have been both a profitable business and, given its long duration, a familiar way of life. But even so, in some ports, such as Nantes, the slave traders themselves were in no hurry to call a spade a spade - instead they used veiled terms, such as “deed”. What about Africans? Were they simply victims, or were they conscientious and accommodating partners in organizing a business under the terms of which they were well aware?

CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES

There has always been heated debate about the place of Africans in the slave trade. For a long time, slave traders clung to what they believed to be irresistible evidence that among Africans the sale of their young men was commonplace, and that if the Europeans refused to buy slaves from them, other people - meaning the Arabs - would also practiced black slavery - they would have done it immediately. In modern times, African intellectuals and statesmen argue that this exchange was always unequal (people were bought for small change), and Europeans always resorted to violence to induce Africans to cooperate against their will.

For historians, all this does not look so simple, and primarily because our modern criteria differ from those of 500, and even 150 years ago. We believe that it was enough to transport one slave by ship across the Atlantic, and that is already a lot. But did Africans think the same way? Secondly, trade, which lasted almost four centuries, was a very complex process, which involved a whole variety of power relations and relevant participants; the interests of the latter and their reactions could not but change over time. All this prompted the British historian Basil Davidson to say that “the idea of ​​a slave trade imposed by Europe on Africa is not based on anything in history ... it is as baseless as the European assertion that the institution of slavery was to some extent specific to Africa."

FROM ATTACK ON SLAVES TO SLAVE TRADE

The first way Europeans began to capture African slaves was through simple kidnapping. Striking examples can be found in the famous Cronica dos Feitos da Guine (Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea), written in the mid-fifteenth century by the Portuguese Gomez Ines de Zurara. When the Europeans landed on the African shores, they began to stop in places that seemed suitable for their business, and from there they went to hunt people. However, this action in itself was quite dangerous, as evidenced by the massacre in which almost all members of the expedition led by Nuno Tristao died off the Ken Vert peninsula in the territory of modern Senegal. This is not the only case of such a massacre, but it certainly proves that Africans fought resolutely against their enslavement.

The disadvantage of such attacks was probably that enslavement was not predictable; Thus, it was not possible to satisfy the growing need for slaves, because the plantations and mines of America required more and more slave power.

The Portuguese were the first to move from simply capturing prisoners to actively trading in slaves, following instructions given by Prince Henry the Navigator in 1444; after them, the Portuguese sovereigns resorted to this practice until the end of the fifteenth century. However, even as this trade became commonplace, attacks continued, providing slave traders with an additional source of supply. The so-called "pirate" trade - in which slave ships cruised along the coast and captured more and more slaves until a certain batch was completed - often took the form of armed attacks on villages located near the sea. Countries involved in the slave trade often began by organizing such actions - this was the case in the first half of the seventeenth century with the first ships arriving from the “twelve colonies” (in the future - the United States of America).

However, at the time, leading European nations placed certain ethical restrictions on the slave trade. The British, Portuguese and French agreed to develop a common declaration according to which the slave trade would be considered legal only when it came to slaves duly sold by Africans. Forts were built along the coast to facilitate trade while instilling a healthy sense of fear among Africans. The idea they embodied was quite unambiguous: “Sell us slaves - and then we will let you choose them at your discretion - otherwise we will take the slaves we need at random.”

So, the slave trade was a type of one-sided relationship that arose and developed under the threat of force. Once again we agree with Basil Davidson when he says: “Africa and Europe were involved together... But Europe dominated, it formed and accelerated the slave trade and constantly turned the matter back to the benefit of the Europeans and to the detriment of Africa.”

AFFAIRS OF STATE AND FAMILY SOCIETIES.

The slave trade, in its heyday, was perceived by Africans as a kind of diabolical conspiracy, dooming them to either be accomplices or die. Thus, almost all the tribal or state societies of the African coast were forced to become involved in the slave trade. They did this in different ways and under different conditions, which differed significantly in different areas and during different periods of time.

Social history in colonial Africa shows that slavery was a common institution in those states that sometimes already had their own domestic slave trade, for military or economic reasons. However, one must understand a certain difference between those states that maintained connections with the outside world and those that did not. The former were quicker and better prepared to enter into the slave trade. This was the case with the states surrounding the Sahara Desert; they already had experience selling slaves - along with other goods - to their Arab and Barbary partners, who actually continued to resell some of them to Europeans.

The chronicler Alvise de Cada Mosto, who participated in the Portuguese expedition to Senegambia in 1455-1456, wrote that local sovereigns were great masters of taking advantage of the new competition that spread between trans-Saharan and Atlantic traders for the sale of slaves to Arabs and Barbaries in exchange for horses, and other slaves to the Portuguese in exchange for European goods.

The situation was completely different in those states that did not have trade relations with the outside world; their role in the slave trade indicates an incorrect and contradictory attitude towards the problem and the difficulties they faced. A typical example is the Kingdom of Kongo, one of the most powerful in Africa at the time of its clash with the Portuguese at the end of the fifteenth century. From the point of view of modern historians, the economic, political and social position of the Congo was on par with Portugal. From the time of the first contacts, the Congolese aristocracy began to embrace Christianity, and the king considered it necessary to address the Portuguese king as “my brother.” But the fact is that the slave trade has already begun, in violation of the agreements, both conditional and formal, that these two states concluded between themselves. And many letters have still been preserved in which the King of the Congo protested against the capture of slaves, in particular members of noble families.

But even now there are certain contradictions in determining the real motive of such protests. Some historians perceive them as an outburst of national feelings, while others look at them more as a manifestation of the determination of the aristocracy, refusing to let such a profitable business out of its own hands. One way or another, the kingdom did not last long under the blows of the slave trade. A similar drama - to one degree or another - will be repeated throughout Africa.

The Kingdom of Dahomey also suffered the bitter experience of the slave trade. In the mid-eighteenth century it moved to the port of Oida, one of the leading centers of trade in the Gulf of Guinea. The king of Dahomey considered this port - there was an increasing accumulation of firearms there - as a point that posed a definite threat to the security of his possessions since the slave trade gave him a tactical advantage over his neighbors. Having once taken control of Oida, the leaders of Dahomey found themselves in a vicious circle: to maintain a strong state they needed guns and gunpowder, but to obtain these latter they had to sell slaves to Europeans. The solution was simple: since it was strictly forbidden to sell objects that were the property of the kingdom, they gathered powerful troops to attack neighboring nations; all this is with the goal of capturing slaves.

Unlike state societies, tribal societies did not have any means of obtaining slaves by force. In this case, slavery was built on a complex practice in which various categories of social outcasts, such as criminals, misfits, witches, and victims of natural and economic disasters, were reduced to the category of slaves. And even this would not have been enough to turn the slave trade into the extensive and time-consuming business that it became. Therefore, other means were found to satisfy the needs of the Europeans. For example, in the city of Arochukwu (“the voice of Chukwu”, the deity himself), in the Nile Delta, a famous oracle was summoned, whose authority was recognized by all segments of the population, and he appointed those who - for one reason or another - became doomed to be sold into slavery. This practice continued until the beginning of the 19th century.

In other regions, especially in central Africa, trade networks gradually formed, stretching from the coast inland. All goods that were exported or imported through this network, mostly slaves, passed through the heads of the clan. In Gabon, and especially in Loango, in the societies that were located along the coast and formed the key links in these trading networks, a social order reigned with a high degree of subordination; the basis was the degree of participation of society members in the slave trade. Family relationships, the foundation of clan societies, were gradually replaced by relationships based on wealth earned through trade, and it was such relationships that began to dictate people's place in the social hierarchy.

ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE

On the African side, however, the foundations of the slave trade were very precariously balanced. It is impossible to discuss the role that Africans played in the slave trade without sometimes referring to their role in the abolition of the latter. A one-sided view of history often emphasized the roles of Europeans - philosophers, thinkers, clergy and businessmen - while the influence of Africans remained undervalued. Some went so far as to blame Africans for being the main obstacle to the collapse of this type of trade in the 19th century. It is difficult to imagine an opinion that is further from the truth.

Outside Africa, resistance by victims of the slave trade—and it took various forms, such as the Back to Africa movement, the founding of Maruun communities, and even armed uprising, as in Santo Domingo in 1791—was primarily a means question the entire institution of slavery. Those who managed to escape its clutches took a very active, if often unacknowledged, part in the campaign for the abolition of slavery. One such person was Ottoba Cuguano, who was born in Fentilendi, now modern Ghana, was enslaved in the West Indies, and published his Thoughts and Feelings on the Pernicious and Sinful Advancement of Slavery in 1787 in London.

In 1789, another African, Oloda Equiano, surnamed Gustavus Wassa, who was born in Aiboleni, Nigeria, published, again in London, An Interesting Narrative of the Life of Oloda Equiano or Gustavus Wassa, an African, Written by Himself. These books played an important role in the development of public opinion that led to the abolition of the slave trade.

In Africa itself, throughout the “years of trial”, when the slave trade was rampant, blacks, along with slaves, continued to sell what their land provided, namely: timber, ivory, spices, gold, vegetable oils and the like. It was enough for the needs of Europeans to change - and the Africans switched to an “easy” form of commerce.

The coast of the Indian Ocean is located in the east of Tanzania. It is also called the Swahili coast. Swahili is a unique ethnic group that arose as a result of the assimilation of Arabs from Shiraz among the local black population. In past centuries, the Swahili became famous throughout the world as enterprising traders. To this day, the Swahili coast is the global face of Tanzanian commerce. In ancient times, ships filled with ivory, rhino horn, turtle shells, iron, salt, textiles, mangrove timber, fish and gold from all over Africa sailed from numerous ports. But it was not ivory or gold that was the highlight of successful African entrepreneurs. One of the most profitable areas of the Swahili economy was the slave trade. And even after the slave trade was officially banned throughout the world, commercial slave routes through the Swahili coast continued to operate illegally for a long time.

Sadani National Park and about Bagamoyo city

The slave trade system developed in the 15th century and proved to be a very profitable business. Slaves were sold for money, they were exchanged for products from other colonies. The main slave markets in East Africa were on the Swahili coast, where special caravans arrived daily. The journey to the Indian Ocean from the depths of the Dark Continent took from three to six months. The slaves walked on foot, their hands tied and with wooden stocks placed on their necks. Those who, due to exhaustion, illness or some wound, could not move further were killed on the spot. Further, in the coastal slave markets, Europeans, Arabs, and Americans bought these unfortunates for next to nothing and dismantled them into ships. A huge number of slaves died in the holds from overcrowding, darkness, disease, and poor nutrition. As a result of such thoughtful transportation, one out of five slaves reached their destination alive. The price of a slave at each link in the trade chain increased several times, not only covering costs, but also providing excellent profits from the slave trade. The slave trade was such a profitable business that entire states fought for a monopoly on it.

On the Swahili coast, the most famous slave trading center was the port city of Bagamoyo. Translated from Swahili, Bwaga moyo means “here I leave my heart.” This figurative name reflects the despair of the unfortunate people who were waiting for the slave market in Bagamoyo, and then a journey into the unknown, far from their native continent. At first there was a small settlement on the site of Bagamoyo. But since the world market's need for slaves was great, and the local natural harbor was ideal for shipping and navigation, an entire city eventually developed here, a giant transshipment point for supplies between Africa and the rest of the world. 50 thousand slaves passed through this port on the Swahili coast alone each year. Basically, these were slaves from Mozambique, Lake Nyasa, Uganda, and the eastern regions of the Congo.

Already at the end of the 18th century, opponents of the slave trade appeared. These were passionate people who sincerely believed in the idea of ​​​​freedom for all mankind. And first of all, these freedom lovers rushed with their sermons to where the most famous slave markets on the planet flourished. Thus, spiritual fathers from the French Missionary Brotherhood appeared in Bagamoyo, who founded the Freedom Village and the Catholic Mission. One of the main commandments of the Brotherhood was: “Fight slavery and the slave trade by ransoming as many slaves as possible.” And the missionaries bought the slaves and then gave them freedom. As a rule, children were bought because they were cheaper. As a result of this cheapness, more human souls were saved. The ransomed slaves could stay in Liberty Village or they could go wherever they wanted. Most remained. Soon there were already 300 children and about 30 adult married couples living in Freedom Village. The missionaries taught Swahili, as in a regular church school, to read, write, pray in a Christian way, as well as the basics of all kinds of useful professions. The residents of Liberty Village were farmers, gardeners, tailors, carpenters, builders and painters. They had their own administrative structure and their own set of laws. It cannot be said that life in the wonderful Freedom Village was cloudless. Outbreaks of cholera and malaria, as well as terrible cyclones, regularly claimed the lives of both those freed from slavery and the liberators themselves. But despite all these adversities, Freedom Village was the first sign of hope on the Swahili coast, indicating the advent of new times.

Attention! Under this article read practical information - which ones, as well as about Sadani National Park and about Bagamoyo city, the ancient center of the slave trade.

In the 19th century, the slave trade began to be prohibited at the legislative level by one after another civilized countries of the world. In 1807, such a law was passed by the English Parliament. In 1865, the United States, one of the main consumer markets of the slave trade, adopted the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery throughout the state. In 1886, the slave trade was banned in Cuba. In 1888 - in Brazil. The Convention for the Complete Prohibition of Slavery and the Slave Trade throughout the World was adopted by the League of Nations only in 1926.

Officially, the slave trade disappeared into oblivion. However, in Bagamoyo, children are still frightened in the evenings with tales of evil uncles who illegally make money by trading slaves from the Swahili coast. It is easy to believe in such evil men even in the 21st century, since the entire atmosphere of the city is imbued with the spirit of the slave trade. It can be said that in no other locality in Tanzania is it so clearly in the air as in Bagamoyo. Ancient shackles soldered into stones.. An Arab fort, in the underground tunnels of which crowds of slaves awaited their fate.. Cemeteries of the untimely dead.. However, are children's horror stories really just fairy tales? The slave trade was banned in the last century, but this did not produce any results. The brutal exploitation of people continues to flourish today. There is even a special term “trafficking”, which means human trafficking. Children, teenagers and women are most often trafficked. According to CIA estimates, only 2% of trafficking occurs among men. This gender and age preference in the modern slave trade is associated with the requirements for passivity and weakness of slaves. It is easier to turn children and women into powerless victims in a foreign country. Physical violence and psychological pressure can be applied to them and not meet resistance. The modern slave trade supplies living human material for sweatshops, for agricultural work, for domestic slavery, for organ donation and transplantation, for forced marriage, for forced pregnancy and childbearing, for fictitious adoption, for drug trafficking, for free work in the field of intimate services.

Transnational networks of slave traders spread widely. All countries of the world are divided into “slave suppliers” and “slave recipients”. Unfortunately, as in past centuries, African countries fall into the first category. According to the UN, 12 million people in the world live in slavery. However, some sources consider this information to be just the tip of the iceberg. They claim that more than 200 million people living on the planet have become victims of the modern slave trade. For comparison, Africa's total demographic losses from the slave trade between the 15th and 19th centuries are estimated at 48-80 million people. Europol (the EU's police organization) claims that the slave trade generates $19 billion in profits for transnational crime every year.

The problem of combating the slave trade has not been resolved to this day. And it is unknown how the intense struggle against it will end. A weak legal framework allows many criminals to evade responsibility. But the law is not the only solution to the problem. The slave trade also becomes possible due to the low cultural level of the planet's population. The tourism ministries of many African countries create special tours to terrible places, one way or another connected with the slave trade that flourished several centuries ago, including excursions to such abandoned and now forgotten slave markets as Bagamoyo. And the more such educational work is done, the more realized will be the horror experienced by a human being who has lost his freedom. All the more compassionate and more attentive to any manifestations of enslavement will become all of humanity as a whole.

How to get to Bagamoyo.

Bagamoyo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is located 75 km north of Dar es Salaam, almost opposite the island of Zanzibar. The cities are connected by a good asphalt road. Minibuses and buses run daily. You can get there by rented transport.

Sights of Bagamoyo.

For a long time, almost until the 70s of the 20th century, Bagamoyo was one of the most famous places in East Africa, and now it is taking a break from the glory of past centuries, abandoned and forgotten. This sleepy provincial town can be recommended as a holiday destination for those looking for solitude and wilderness. Bagamoyo these days feels more like a village than a city. Time passes very slowly here. Sometimes there is an illusion that it has stopped completely. After all, each era has left its mark on Bagamoyo:

1. For the first time, Arabs from Shiraz settled on this part of the coast. In 1300 they founded the prosperous city of Kaole. After an attack by cannibals from the Zimba tribe, Kaole fell into decline and was never able to recover. The ruins of Kaole can be seen on the coast in the village of the same name near modern Bagamoyo. These are two mosques and about 30 graves. Some graves have pillars up to 5 meters high.



Then, in the 16th century, the Portuguese came here and left small Portuguese cannons on the streets of Bagamoyo.

2. After the Portuguese, more settlers from the Sultanate of Oman encroached on the territory. What remained from them was an Arab fort, the first stone building in Bagamoyo, which was used for different purposes in different centuries. At one time, this fort was a slave prison, where crowds of slaves awaited their fate in underground tunnels. It was also used as a military garrison and as a police station. It now houses the local office of the Tanzania Department of Antiquities. Also, about 14 mosques testify to the dominance of Arab culture. The oldest are the Jamaat Khana an Ismaili Mosque, the Gongoni Street Mosque and the Friday Mosque at the northern exit.



Many African explorers began and ended their expeditions in Bagamoyo. This was especially true for those African explorers who were looking for the sources of the Nile. Among them are David Livingston, Henry Morton Stanley, James Grant, Richard Burton, John Speke. In this regard, it is interesting to look at the 150-year-old baobab tree at the Catholic Mission. African explorers tied their horses to a chain at the base of a tree during church visits. You can visit the secluded beach house where Henry Morton Stanley lived. In Bagamoyo there is the Church of David Livingstone, where the remains of the famous explorer of Africa were kept before they were sent to London, Westminster Abbey. This same church also long bore the name of the Mother of all churches in East Africa, as it was the first Catholic church on the Swahili coast. David Livingstone's heart was buried under a tree in northern Zambia where he died. But his body, soaked in salt, was carried by slaves for 9 months to Bagamoyo. About 700 Swahili people came to say goodbye to David Livingston's body.



Bagamoyo is the cradle of all Catholicism in East Africa. The Catholic Mission was built here in 1868 and is an open-air museum. Here it is recommended to visit the cross on the ocean shore (the first Christian cross in Africa), the old missionary residence, the Church of David Livingstone, a 150-year-old baobab tree, a cemetery with the graves of missionaries who died at a very young age from tropical diseases, the grotto of the Blessed Virgin Mary. By the way, the Grotto of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a place of pilgrimage from all over Africa, as well as from other parts of the world. It was erected by ransomed slaves as a thanksgiving to the Lord for their liberation. Pope Leo XIII consecrated this Grotto and served a blessed liturgy in it. You can also see the first Catholic seminary in Africa, St. Peter's. For a long time, almost all African priests received their church education in Bagamoyo. Up to 160 people graduated per year. In later years the seminary was moved to Morogoro.

3. During German East Africa, Bagamoyo became the capital. However, the city's port did not meet the requirements of the Germans and was considered inconvenient, so the capital was moved to Dar es Salaam. Several ruined German buildings remain from the German colonial era in Bagamoyo. The Custom House and Warehouse are recommended for exploration. In the ruins of the warehouse you can still see bowls that were filled with kerosene to prevent rats from getting into the food bins. Also interesting is the Liku-House, which housed the first German headquarters. This is one of the oldest buildings in Bagamoyo.
4. Not far from Bagamoyo there is a crocodile farm where visitors are allowed.

Other attractions of the Swahili coast.

The Swahili Coast is a coastal plain 16 km wide and 800 km long, formed on coral reefs and covered with mangrove forests. In general, this is a wild, inaccessible coastline, on which there are only a few bays convenient for navigation and navigation. There are now either major Tanzanian ports - such as Tanga, Dar-es-Salam and Mtwara - or remnants of past civilizations. If you look at the map of Tanzania from north to south, then on the Swahili coast it is recommended to visit:

Semi-colonial town of Tanga. The second largest modern seaport in Tanzania. Located in the northeast of the country, on the Swahili coast. From Tanga you can go on an excursion to the Amboni Caves. The caves are located 7 km from the town center, on the road between Tanga and Horohoro. Their total area is 234 km. There are 10 caves in total, some up to 13 meters high. You can rent a boat at the Tanga pier and go fishing or go to the Totem or Pemba islands. You can hire a guide and go to the Tongoni Ruins. Or take a walk in Jampuri Park with a picturesque view of the harbor.

1. The old colonial outpost of Pangani is 50 km south of Tanga along the Swahili coast. In the 14th century, the Persians and Arabs built many beautiful buildings on the left bank of the Pangani River. Along this river, ships could travel far into the African continent. In the late 19th century, Pangani developed into an important Swahili trading port through which ivory and slave trade were exported. Now it is a charming provincial town, located away from traditional tourist routes. Therefore, the traveler here is guaranteed sweet solitude in the lap of nature. You can go to the waterfall, walk through the ruins, and also lie on the beach.
2. Even further south along the Swahili coast is Saadani National Park. This is a rather wild place, where not every traveler dares to go. However, only here in all of East Africa can you see elephants bathing in the ocean.



In the southeast of Tanzania are the ruins of Kilwa. This is one of the most historically significant buildings on the entire Swahili coast. Dating from the 12th to 19th centuries, the ruins have largely fallen into disintegration, but there are the occasional surprise. For example, the 800-year-old swimming pool is perfectly preserved. The ruins of Kilwa are protected by UNESCO. Ruins cover three modern cities in Tanzania: Kivinje, Masoko and Kisiwani. “The coastal cities of Africa were no different in beauty and amenities from most coastal cities in Europe or India. They stood just as proudly on the shores of the sparkling ocean, their houses were just as high, their walls were just as strong, their embankments were just as paved with stone. The tops of the hills were built up with fortresses and palaces. It seemed that these cities were strong enough to survive forever. And yet nothing remained of them. Almost all of them disappeared from the face of the earth. Only a few scientists now know about their existence. Their ruins, lost in the coastal jungle or among the desert hills, are only the subject of mysteries for lovers of antiquity.” An excerpt from Thea Büttner’s book “The History of Africa from Ancient Times”, M, 1981, translated from the German edition of 1976.

3. The very south of the Swahili coast in Tanzania is the modern port city of Mtwara and next to it the historical town of Mikindani. Mikindani was also once a major slave trading center. These days you can go fishing here. Barracuda, mackerel, tuna, etc. are caught. The bay is a real reef paradise for diving and snorkeling. Snow-white beaches stretch for many kilometers. From Mikindani you can go on a photo hunt south to the Ruvuna River, home of hippos and crocodiles, or to the Lukwila-Lumesule reserve in the southwest. There you can shoot excellent scenes from the life of lions, leopards, and antelopes with your camera. Cruises along the entire east coast of Tanzania from Mtwara to Tanga are also delightful. Especially if you go to sea in the evening, when the moon lies on its back in the velvet sky, and the clouds hang over the mountains like tsunami waves..

Sadani National Park.

How to get to Sadani National Park.

Sadani National Park is 100 km north of Dar es Salaam, 50 km north of Bagamoyo and a short distance south of Tanga. Sadani National Park is considered an ideal day trip from Dar es Salaam. You can book a charter flight from Dar es Salaam or Zanzibar. There is a regular bus from Dar es Salaam to Sadani National Park twice a week; travel time is 4 hours. But it is best to get there by rented transport, preferably an SUV. There is no road that goes from Dar es Salaam along the coast to the north. Therefore, you first need to drive along Moshi road for about 160 km, then turn off and follow the dirt road for another 60 km. The road to Sadani National Park from the towns of Tanga and Pangani (turn from Chalinze along Tanga road to Miono) is impassable during the rainy season.

Adventures of Sadani National Park.

Seasonality of recreation in Sadani National Park.

In general, Sadani National Park is open to visitors all year round. Restrictions are imposed only on communication routes. The best time (when you can drive on the roads) is from April to May. The best months for photo hunting are January-February and June-August. You can stay overnight in a tent camp on the territory of the Sadani National Park. There is a small hotel in the village of Sadani.

Material from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia

Slavery in Africa known on the continent not only in the past, but continues to exist at the present time. Slavery was common in various parts of Africa, as in the rest of the ancient world. Many African communities where slaves made up the majority of the population, they were endowed with certain rights, and were not the property of the owner. But with the advent of the Arab and transatlantic slave trades, these systems changed, and slaves began to be supplied as live goods to slave markets outside Africa.

Slavery in Africa has taken various forms throughout history, sometimes not entirely consistent with the concept of slavery accepted in the rest of the world. Indentured servitude, enslavement as a result of war, military slavery and criminal slavery were encountered in certain parts of Africa.

Although some slave shipments were brought in from the sub-Saharan interior, the slave trade was not a prominent part of the economy and life of most African communities. Human trafficking became widespread after the opening of transcontinental routes. During the colonization of Africa, a new change in the nature of slavery occurred, and the abolition movement began in the early 19th century.

Forms of slavery

Numerous forms of slavery occur throughout African history. In addition to the use of local forms, the slavery system of Ancient Rome, Christian principles of slavery, Islamic principles of slavery, and the inauguration of the transatlantic slave trade were successively adopted. Slavery has been, to varying degrees, part of the economy of many African countries for several centuries. , who visited Mali in the middle of the 16th century, wrote that local residents compete with each other in the number of slaves, and he himself received a slave boy as a gift as a sign of hospitality. In Black Africa, slavery had a complex structure that included rights and freedoms for slaves and restrictions on sales and maintenance requirements for owners. In many societies, a hierarchy was established among slaves, which, for example, distinguished between slaves by birth and slaves captured during war.

In many African societies there was little difference between the free and feudal dependent farmers. Slaves in the Songhai Empire were primarily used in agriculture. They were obliged to work for the owner, but had few personal restrictions. These unfree people, rather, constituted a professional caste.

African slavery was largely a form of debt bondage, although in some areas of sub-Saharan Africa slaves were used in annual sacrifices, such as in the rituals of Dahomey. In many cases, slaves were not property and did not remain unfree for life.

African forms of slavery included the establishment of family ties. In many communities that did not assume land ownership, slavery was used to increase influence and expand connections. In this case, slaves became part of the family of their owners. Children of slaves could achieve high positions in such a community and even become leaders. But more often there was a strict boundary between free and unfree people. Main forms of slavery in Africa:

Spread of slavery in Africa

For thousands of years, African states practiced slavery and forced labor. However, there is no precise evidence regarding the time before the Arab and transatlantic slave trade. Slavery often refers to complex forms of social relationships that do not meet the definition of slavery.

In North Africa, traditional slavery spread during the Roman Empire (47 BC - c. 500). After the fall of Rome, slavery remained in the large Christian settlements of the region. After the Arab expansion, slavery spread to sub-Saharan states (Mali, Songhai, Ghana). During the Middle Ages, the main destinations of the slave trade were southern and western, and the source of slaves was Central and Eastern Europe.

There is only fragmentary evidence about Central Africa, judging by which only captured representatives of enemy tribes were slaves here.

Numerous forms of slavery were common in Western practice before the opening of the transatlantic slave trade. After the supply of live goods to America began, the slave trade became the basis of the economy and politics of the large states of the region: Mali, Ghana and Songhai. However, other communities actively resisted the slave trade: the Mosi Kingdoms tried to capture key cities, and after failure continued to raid slave traders. However, in the 1800s they too joined the transatlantic slave trade.

Until the 17th century, slavery did not play a significant role in the African Great Lakes. Slaves were exported in small quantities to Arab countries and India. The peak of the slave trade occurred in the 19th century, and Zanzibar became the center of slavery. The region also took part in the transatlantic slave trade.

Historical stages

The history of slavery in Afika is divided into three major phases: the Arab slave trade, the Atlantic slave trade, and the abolition movement of the 19th and 20th centuries. The transition to each stage was accompanied by significant changes in the forms, mass scale and economic model of slavery. After the abolition of slavery, thousands of former slaves returned to their homeland and settled in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Slave trade across the Sahara and the Indian Ocean

The Arab slave trade began in the 8th century. The first routes carried slaves from regions east of the Great Lakes and the Sahel. The laws of Islam allowed slavery, but prohibited the enslavement of Muslims, so mainly people from the African border of the spread of Islam were enslaved. The supply of slaves across the Sahara and the Indian Ocean dates back to the 9th century, when Afro-Arab slave traders took control of this route. According to current estimates, only a few thousand slaves were exported from the Red Sea and Indian Ocean coasts each year. They were sold in the slave markets of the Middle East. The increase in volumes occurred with the development of shipbuilding, which made it possible to increase the volume of products supplied from plantations, which necessitated the need to attract additional labor. The slave trade reached tens of thousands of people per year. During the 1800s, there was a sharp increase in the flow of slaves from Africa to Islamic countries. In the 1850s, the supply of slaves from Europe stopped, and there was a new jump in volumes. The slave trade only ended in the 1900s, after European colonization of Africa began.

Atlantic slave trade

The Atlantic slave trade began in the 15th century. This phase marked another significant change in the lives of Africans: previously a small part of the world's slaves, they became the vast majority by the 1800s. In a short time, the slave trade transformed from an insignificant sector of the economy into its dominant component, and the use of slave labor on plantations became the basis for the prosperity of many communities. Among other things, the Atlantic slave trade changed the traditional distribution of forms of slavery.

The first Europeans to arrive on the Guinean coast were the Portuguese. The first transaction to purchase slaves took place in 1441. In the 16th century, the Portuguese, who settled on the island of Sao Tome, began to use black slaves to cultivate sugar plantations, since the island’s climate turned out to be difficult for Europeans. With the discovery of America, the European settlement of São Jorge da Mina became an important center for sending slaves to the New World.

In America, the first Europeans to use the labor of African slaves were the Spaniards, who settled on the islands of Cuba and Haiti. The first slaves arrived in the New World in 1501. The Atlantic slave trade reached its peak at the end of the 18th century. The inhabitants of the interior regions of West Africa were enslaved, sending special expeditions after them. The need for slaves due to the growing European colonies was so great that entire empires arose in western Africa, subsisting on the slave trade, including Oyo and the Kingdom of Benin. The gradual abolition of slavery in European colonies during the 19th century led to the disappearance of such states, based on a militaristic culture and permanent war to ensure the supply of new slaves. As European demand for slaves declined, African slave owners began using slaves on their own plantations.

abolition of slavery

In the mid-19th century, as European powers began large-scale colonization of Africa, laws prohibiting slavery came to the continent. Sometimes this led to contradictions: the colonial authorities, despite the ban on slavery, returned fugitive slaves to their owners. In some cases, slavery in the colonies continued until their independence. Anti-colonial struggles often brought slaves and their masters together, but after independence they founded parties in opposition to each other. In some parts of Africa, slavery or similar forms of personal dependence still persist and are proving an intractable problem for modern authorities.

Slavery, despite being almost universally banned throughout the world, remains a problem. More than 30 million inhabitants of the planet can be considered slaves. In Mauritania, up to 600,000 men, women and children, or 20% of the population, are slaves, in most cases being in bondage. Slavery in Mauritania was declared illegal only in August 2007. During the Second Sudanese Civil War, estimates range from 14,000 to 200,000 people into slavery. In Niger, where slavery was abolished in 2003, almost 8% of the population remains slaves as of 2010.

Write a review of the article "Slavery in Africa"

Literature

• Church Missionary Society.. - London: Church Missionary Society, 1869.
• Faragher John Mack. Out of many. - Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004. - P. 54. - ISBN 0-13-182431-7.
• Reynolds Edward. Stand the Storm: A history of the Atlantic slave trade. - London: Allison and Busby, 1985.
• The Human Commodity: Perspectives on the Trans-Saharan Slave Trade / Savage, Elizabeth. - London, 1992.
• Wright, Donald R.. Online Encyclopedia.

Notes

1. Davidson, Basil.. - P. 46.
2. . - Books.google.co.za.
3. Toyin Falola.. - Westview Press, 1994. - P. 22. - ISBN 978-0-8133-8457-3.
4. Owen "Alik Shahadah.. Africanholocaust.net. Retrieved April 1, 2005.
5. Foner Eric. Give Me Liberty: An American History. - New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. - P. 18.
6. Lovejoy Paul E. Transformations of Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa. - London: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
7. Ibn Battuta in Black Africa / Noel King (ed.). - Princeton, 2005. - P. 54.
8. Fage, J.D. (1969). "Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Context of West African History". 10 (3): 393–404. DOI:10.1017/s0021853700036343.
9. Rodney, Walter (1966). "African Slavery and Other Forms of Social Oppression on the Upper Guinea Coast in the Context of the Atlantic Slave-Trade". The Journal of African History 7 (3): 431–443. DOI:10.1017/s0021853700006514.
10. . Ouidah Museum of History. Retrieved January 13, 2010. .
11. Foner Eric. Give Me Liberty: An American History. - New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012. - P. 18.
12. Snell Daniel C. Slavery in the Ancient Near East // The Cambridge World History of Slavery / Keith Bradley and Paul Cartledge. - New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011. - P. 4–21.
13. Alexander, J. (2001). "Islam, Archaeology and Slavery in Africa". World Archeology 33 (1): 44–60. DOI:10.1080/00438240126645.
14. Paul E. Lovejoy and David Richardson (2001). "The Business of Slaving: Pawnship in Western Africa, c. 1600–1810." The Journal of African History 42 (1): 67–89.
15. Johnson, Douglas H. (1989). "The Structure of a Legacy: Military Slavery in Northeast Africa". Ethnohistory 36 (1): 72–88. DOI:10.2307/482742.
16. Wylie, Kenneth C. (1969). "Innovation and Change in Mende Chieftaincy 1880–1896". The Journal of African History 10 (2): 295–308. DOI:10.1017/s0021853700009531.
17. Henry Louis Gates Jr.. . from the original source April 23, 2010. Retrieved March 26, 2012.
18. Manning, Patrick (1983). "Contours of Slavery and Social Change in Africa". American Historical Review 88 (4): 835–857. DOI:10.2307/1874022.
19. . Britannica.com.
20. Pankhurst. Ethiopian Borderlands, p. 432.
21. Willie F. Page Facts on File, Inc.. - Facts on File, 2001. - P. 239. - ISBN 0816044724.
22. . Countrystudies.us.
23. .
24. Heywood, Linda M.. "Slavery and its transformations in the Kingdom of Kongo: 1491-1800." The Journal of African History 50 : 122. DOI:10.1017/S0021853709004228.
25. Meillassoux Claude. The Anthropology of Slavery: The Womb of Iron and Gold. - Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.
26. Kusimba, Chapurukha M. (2004). "The African Archaeological Review". Archeology of Slavery in East Africa 21 (2): 59–88. DOI:10.1023/b:aarr.0000030785.72144.4a.
27. Fage, J.D. A History of Africa. Routledge, 4th edition, 2001. p. 258.
28. Manning Patrick. Slavery and African Life: Occidental, Oriental, and African Slave Trades. - London: Cambridge, 1990.
29. Manning, Patrick (1990). "The Slave Trade: The Formal Demography of a Global System." Social Science History 14 (2): 255–279. DOI:10.2307/1171441.
30. John Henrik Clarke. Critical Lessons in Slavery & the Slavetrade. A&B Book Pub
31. . Cia.gov.
32. . Of Germs, Genes, and Genocide: Slavery, Capitalism, Imperialism, Health and Medicine. United Kingdom Council for Human Rights (1989). Retrieved January 13, 2010. .
33. Bortolot, Alexander Ives. Metropolitan Museum of Art (originally published October 2003, last revised May 2009). Retrieved January 13, 2010.
34. Gueye Mbaye. The slave trade within the African continent // The African Slave Trade from the Fifteenth to the Nineteenth Century. - Paris: UNESCO, 1979. - P. 150–163.
35. (2011) "". Stichproben. Wiener Zeitschrift für kritische Afrikastudien (20): 141–162.
36. Dottridge, Mike (2005). "Types of Forced Labor and Slavery-like Abuse Occurring in Africa Today: A Preliminary Classification." Cahiers d'Études Africaines 45 (179/180): 689–712. DOI:10.4000/etudesafricaines.5619.
37. , BBC News (27 May 2002). Retrieved January 12, 2010.
38. "". CNN. October 18, 2013.
39. , BBC World Service. Retrieved January 12, 2010.
40. Flynn, Daniel. , Reuters (1 December 2006). Retrieved January 12, 2010.
41. , BBC News (9 August 2007). from the original source January 6, 2010. Retrieved January 12, 2010.
42. . US Department of State (22 May 2002). Retrieved March 20, 2014.
43. Andersson, Hilary. , BBC News (11 February 2005). Retrieved January 12, 2010.
44. Steeds, Oliver. , ABC News (3 June 2005). Retrieved January 12, 2010.

Excerpt describing Slavery in Africa

The chief manager, to console these losses, presented Pierre with a calculation that, despite these losses, his income not only would not decrease, but would increase if he refused to pay the debts remaining after the countess, to which he could not be obliged, and if he does not renew the Moscow houses and the Moscow region, which cost eighty thousand annually and brought nothing.
“Yes, yes, it’s true,” said Pierre, smiling cheerfully. - Yes, yes, I don’t need any of this. I became much richer from ruin.
But in January Savelich arrived from Moscow, told him about the situation in Moscow, about the estimate that the architect made for him to renovate the house and the Moscow region, speaking about it as if it was a settled matter. At the same time, Pierre received a letter from Prince Vasily and other acquaintances from St. Petersburg. The letters talked about his wife's debts. And Pierre decided that the manager’s plan, which he liked so much, was wrong and that he needed to go to St. Petersburg to finish off his wife’s affairs and build in Moscow. Why this was necessary, he did not know; but he knew without a doubt that it was necessary. As a result of this decision, his income decreased by three quarters. But it was necessary; he felt it.
Villarsky was traveling to Moscow, and they agreed to go together.
Pierre experienced a feeling of joy, freedom, life throughout his recovery in Orel; but when, during his travels, he found himself in the free world and saw hundreds of new faces, this feeling intensified even more. Throughout the trip he felt the joy of a schoolboy on vacation. All the faces: the driver, the caretaker, the men on the road or in the village - everyone had a new meaning for him. The presence and comments of Villarsky, who constantly complained about poverty, backwardness from Europe, and ignorance of Russia, only increased Pierre's joy. Where Villarsky saw deadness, Pierre saw an extraordinary powerful force of vitality, that force that in the snow, in this space, supported the life of this whole, special and united people. He did not contradict Villarsky and, as if agreeing with him (since feigned agreement was the shortest way to bypass reasoning from which nothing could come of it), smiled joyfully as he listened to him.

Just as it is difficult to explain why and where ants rush from a scattered hummock, some away from the hummock, dragging specks, eggs and dead bodies, others back into the hummock - why they collide, catch up with each other, fight - it is just as difficult It would be possible to explain the reasons that forced the Russian people, after the French left, to crowd into the place that was formerly called Moscow. But just as, looking at the ants scattered around a devastated hummock, despite the complete destruction of the hummock, one can see from the tenacity, energy, and countless swarming insects that everything has been destroyed except for something indestructible, immaterial, which makes up the entire strength of the hummock - so too and Moscow, in the month of October, despite the fact that there were no authorities, no churches, no shrines, no wealth, no houses, Moscow was the same as it was in August. Everything was destroyed, except for something insubstantial, but powerful and indestructible.
The motives of people rushing from all sides to Moscow after its cleansing from the enemy were the most varied, personal, and at first mostly wild, animal. There was only one impulse common to everyone - this desire to go there, to that place that was formerly called Moscow, to carry out their activities there.
A week later there were already fifteen thousand inhabitants in Moscow, after two there were twenty-five thousand, etc. Rising and rising, this number by the autumn of 1813 reached a figure exceeding the population of the 12th year.
The first Russian people who entered Moscow were the Cossacks of the Wintzingerode detachment, men from neighboring villages and residents who fled from Moscow and were hiding in its environs. The Russians who entered devastated Moscow, finding it plundered, also began to plunder. They continued what the French were doing. Convoys of men came to Moscow in order to take away to the villages everything that had been thrown along the ruined Moscow houses and streets. The Cossacks took what they could to their headquarters; the owners of the houses took everything that they found in other houses and brought it to themselves under the pretext that it was their property.
But after the first robbers came others, third ones, and the robbery every day, as the number of robbers increased, became more and more difficult and took on more definite forms.
The French found Moscow, although empty, with all the forms of an organically correctly living city, with its various departments of trade, crafts, luxury, government, and religion. These forms were lifeless, but they still existed. There were rows, benches, stores, warehouses, bazaars - most with goods; there were factories, craft establishments; there were palaces, rich houses filled with luxury goods; there were hospitals, prisons, public places, churches, cathedrals. The longer the French stayed, the more these forms of urban life were destroyed, and in the end everything merged into one indivisible, lifeless field of plunder.
The robbery of the French, the more it continued, the more it destroyed the wealth of Moscow and the forces of the robbers. The robbery of the Russians, with which the occupation of the capital by the Russians began, the longer it lasted, the more participants there were in it, the faster it restored the wealth of Moscow and the correct life of the city.
In addition to the robbers, the most diverse people, drawn - some by curiosity, some by duty of service, some by calculation - homeowners, clergy, high and low officials, merchants, artisans, men - from different sides, like blood to the heart - flowed to Moscow.
A week later, the men who arrived with empty carts to take away things were stopped by the authorities and forced to take the dead bodies out of the city. Other men, having heard about the failure of their comrades, came to the city with bread, oats, hay, lowering the price for each other to a price lower than the previous one. Artels of carpenters, hoping for expensive earnings, entered Moscow every day, and new ones were cut from all sides, and burnt houses were repaired. Merchants opened trade in booths. Taverns and inns were set up in burnt houses. The clergy resumed services in many churches that had not burned. Donors brought looted church items. The officials arranged their tables with cloth and cabinets with papers in small rooms. The higher authorities and the police ordered the distribution of the goods left behind by the French. The owners of those houses in which a lot of things brought from other houses were left complained about the injustice of bringing all the things to the Faceted Chamber; others insisted that the French had brought things from different houses to one place, and therefore it was unfair to give the owner of the house those things that were found with him. They scolded the police; bribed her; they wrote ten times the estimates for the burnt government items; demanded assistance. Count Rastopchin wrote his proclamations.

At the end of January, Pierre arrived in Moscow and settled in the surviving outbuilding. He went to see Count Rastopchin and some acquaintances who had returned to Moscow, and was planning to go to St. Petersburg on the third day. Everyone celebrated the victory; everything was seething with life in the ruined and reviving capital. Everyone was happy to see Pierre; everyone wanted to see him, and everyone asked him about what he had seen. Pierre felt especially friendly towards all the people he met; but now he involuntarily kept himself on guard with all people, so as not to tie himself to anything. He answered all questions that were put to him, whether important or most insignificant, with the same vagueness; Did they ask him: where will he live? will it be built? when is he going to St. Petersburg and will he undertake to carry the box? - he answered: yes, maybe, I think, etc.
He heard about the Rostovs, that they were in Kostroma, and the thought of Natasha rarely came to him. If she came, it was only as a pleasant memory of the long past. He felt free not only from everyday conditions, but also from this feeling, which, as it seemed to him, he had deliberately brought upon himself.
On the third day of his arrival in Moscow, he learned from the Drubetskys that Princess Marya was in Moscow. Death, suffering, and the last days of Prince Andrei often occupied Pierre and now came to his mind with new vividness. Having learned at dinner that Princess Marya was in Moscow and was living in her unburned house on Vzdvizhenka, he went to see her that same evening.
On the way to Princess Marya, Pierre kept thinking about Prince Andrei, about his friendship with him, about various meetings with him, and especially about the last one in Borodino.
“Did he really die in the angry mood he was in then? Wasn’t the explanation of life revealed to him before his death?” - thought Pierre. He remembered Karataev, about his death, and involuntarily began to compare these two people, so different and at the same time so similar in love that he had for both, and because both lived and both died.
In the most serious mood, Pierre drove up to the old prince's house. This house survived. It showed signs of destruction, but the character of the house was the same. An old waiter with a stern face who met Pierre, as if wanting to make the guest feel that the prince’s absence did not disturb the order of the house, said that the princess deigned to go to her rooms and was received on Sundays.
- Report; maybe they’ll accept it,” said Pierre.
“I’m listening,” answered the waiter, “please go to the portrait room.”
A few minutes later the waiter and Desalles came out to see Pierre. Desalles, on behalf of the princess, told Pierre that she was very glad to see him and asked, if he would excuse her for her impudence, to go upstairs to her rooms.
In a low room, lit by one candle, the princess and someone else were sitting with her, in a black dress. Pierre remembered that the princess always had companions with her. Who these companions were and what they were like, Pierre did not know and did not remember. “This is one of the companions,” he thought, looking at the lady in a black dress.
The princess quickly stood up to meet him and extended her hand.
“Yes,” she said, peering into his changed face after he kissed her hand, “this is how you and I meet.” “He’s often talked about you lately,” she said, turning her eyes from Pierre to her companion with a shyness that struck Pierre for a moment.
“I was so glad to hear about your salvation.” This was the only good news we received for a long time. - Again, the princess looked back at her companion even more restlessly and wanted to say something; but Pierre interrupted her.
“You can imagine that I knew nothing about him,” he said. “I thought he was killed.” Everything I learned, I learned from others, through third hands. I only know that he ended up with the Rostovs... What a fate!
Pierre spoke quickly and animatedly. He looked once at the face of his companion, saw a carefully, affectionately curious gaze fixed on him, and, as often happens during a conversation, for some reason he felt that this companion in a black dress was a sweet, kind, nice creature who would not disturb him. intimate conversation with Princess Marya.
But when he said the last words about the Rostovs, the confusion in Princess Marya’s face was expressed even more strongly. She again ran her eyes from Pierre’s face to the face of the lady in a black dress and said:
– Don’t you recognize it?
Pierre looked again at the pale, thin face of his companion, with black eyes and a strange mouth. Something dear, long forgotten and more than sweet looked at him from those attentive eyes.
“But no, this can’t be,” he thought. – Is this a stern, thin and pale, aged face? It can't be her. This is just a memory of that.” But at this time Princess Marya said: “Natasha.” And the face, with attentive eyes, with difficulty, with effort, like a rusty door opening, smiled, and from this open door it suddenly smelled and doused Pierre with that long-forgotten happiness, which, especially now, he did not think about. It smelled, engulfed and swallowed him all up. When she smiled, there could no longer be any doubt: it was Natasha, and he loved her.
In the very first minute, Pierre involuntarily told both her, Princess Marya, and, most importantly, himself a secret unknown to him. He blushed joyfully and painfully. He wanted to hide his excitement. But the more he wanted to hide it, the more clearly—more clearly than in the most definite words—he told himself, and her, and Princess Marya that he loved her.
“No, it’s just out of surprise,” thought Pierre. But just as he wanted to continue the conversation he had begun with Princess Marya, he looked at Natasha again, and an even stronger blush covered his face, and an even stronger emotion of joy and fear gripped his soul. He got lost in his words and stopped mid-speech.
Pierre did not notice Natasha, because he did not expect to see her here, but he did not recognize her because the change that had happened in her since he had not seen her was enormous. She lost weight and became pale. But this was not what made her unrecognizable: she could not be recognized in the first minute when he entered, because on this face, in whose eyes before there had always shone a hidden smile of the joy of life, now, when he entered and looked at her for the first time, there was no there was a hint of a smile; there were only eyes, attentive, kind and sadly questioning.
Pierre's embarrassment did not affect Natasha with embarrassment, but only with pleasure, which subtly illuminated her entire face.

“She came to visit me,” said Princess Marya. – The Count and Countess will be there one of these days. The Countess is in a terrible situation. But Natasha herself needed to see the doctor. She was forcibly sent with me.
– Yes, is there a family without its own grief? - Pierre said, turning to Natasha. – You know that it was on the very day we were released. I saw him. What a lovely boy he was.
Natasha looked at him, and in response to his words, her eyes only opened more and lit up.
– What can you say or think for consolation? - said Pierre. - Nothing. Why did such a nice boy, full of life, die?
“Yes, in our time it would be difficult to live without faith...” said Princess Marya.
- Yes Yes. “This is the true truth,” Pierre hastily interrupted.
- From what? – Natasha asked, looking carefully into Pierre’s eyes.
- How why? - said Princess Marya. – One thought about what awaits there...
Natasha, without listening to Princess Marya, again looked questioningly at Pierre.
“And because,” Pierre continued, “only that person who believes that there is a God who controls us can endure such a loss as hers and ... yours,” said Pierre.
Natasha opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but suddenly stopped. Pierre hastened to turn away from her and turned again to Princess Marya with a question about the last days of his friend’s life. Pierre's embarrassment had now almost disappeared; but at the same time he felt that all his former freedom had disappeared. He felt that over his every word and action there was now a judge, a court that was dearer to him than the court of all people in the world. He spoke now and, along with his words, reflected on the impression that his words made on Natasha. He did not deliberately say anything that might please her; but, no matter what he said, he judged himself from her point of view.
Princess Marya reluctantly, as always happens, began to talk about the situation in which she found Prince Andrei. But Pierre's questions, his animatedly restless gaze, his face trembling with excitement little by little forced her to go into details that she was afraid to recreate for herself in her imagination.
“Yes, yes, so, so...” said Pierre, bending forward with his whole body over Princess Marya and eagerly listening to her story. - Yes Yes; so has he calmed down? softened? He always sought one thing with all the strength of his soul; be quite good that he could not be afraid of death. The shortcomings that were in him - if there were any - did not come from him. So has he relented? - said Pierre. “What a blessing that he met you,” he said to Natasha, suddenly turning to her and looking at her with eyes full of tears.
Natasha's face trembled. She frowned and lowered her eyes for a moment. She hesitated for a minute: to speak or not to speak?
“Yes, it was happiness,” she said in a quiet chesty voice, “for me it was probably happiness.” – She paused. “And he... he... he said that he wanted this, the minute I came to him...” Natasha’s voice broke off. She blushed, clasped her hands on her knees and suddenly, apparently making an effort on herself, raised her head and quickly began to say:
– We didn’t know anything when we drove from Moscow. I didn't dare ask about him. And suddenly Sonya told me that he was with us. I didn’t think anything, I couldn’t imagine what position he was in; I just needed to see him, to be with him,” she said, trembling and gasping for breath. And, not allowing herself to be interrupted, she told what she had never told anyone before: everything that she experienced in those three weeks of their journey and life in Yaroslavl.
Pierre listened to her with his mouth open and without taking his eyes off her, full of tears. Listening to her, he did not think about Prince Andrei, or about death, or about what she was telling. He listened to her and only pitied her for the suffering she was now experiencing as she spoke.
The princess, wincing with the desire to hold back tears, sat next to Natasha and listened for the first time to the story of these last days of love between her brother and Natasha.
This painful and joyful story was apparently necessary for Natasha.
She spoke, mixing the most insignificant details with the most intimate secrets, and it seemed that she could never finish. She repeated the same thing several times.
Behind the door, Desalles' voice was heard asking if Nikolushka could come in to say goodbye.
“Yes, that’s all, that’s all...” said Natasha. She quickly stood up just as Nikolushka was entering, and almost ran to the door, hit her head on the door covered with a curtain, and with a groan of either pain or sadness burst out of the room.
Pierre looked at the door through which she went out and did not understand why he was suddenly left alone in the whole world.
Princess Marya called him out of his absent-mindedness, drawing his attention to his nephew, who entered the room.
Nikolushka’s face, similar to his father, in the moment of spiritual softening in which Pierre was now, had such an effect on him that he, having kissed Nikolushka, hastily stood up and, taking out a handkerchief, went to the window. He wanted to say goodbye to Princess Marya, but she held him back.

CONCLUSION

The slave trade was an unprecedented economic, social and political disaster in the history of mankind... Caused by the demand of America and Europe, it bled the whole of Africa and placed it outside of civilization.

William Edward Burghardt DuBois

I’m thinking about Othello again: what a brilliant idea to create Othello as black, mulatto, in a word, destitute.

Alphonse Daudet

The transatlantic slave trade - the forced removal of African slaves from Africa to the plantations and mines of the colonies of the New World and some other colonies of European powers - lasted more than 400 years in total. Its beginning dates back to the middle of the 15th century, when the first Portuguese sailors reached the West African coast. The end of the era of the European-American slave trade - the 70s of the 19th century. - coincides with the beginning of the colonial division of the African continent.

It is wrong to talk about the place of the slave trade only in the history of Africa. She is part of the history of Africa, Europe and the Americas.

The slave trade was one of the “main moments” of primitive accumulation; it had a great influence on the development of capitalism in Europe and America. Its role in the history of Africa is extremely complex and tragic. Its consequences are still not fully understood. They are also evident today, and therefore the history of the slave trade does not belong to the past, but is one of the pressing problems of today.

It is often written that the slave trade slowed down the development of Africa, throwing it back compared to the level of development at which African peoples were before the arrival of Europeans. This is not entirely accurate. The slave trade really slowed down the development of Africa and interrupted its independent development, but at the same time it directed this development in many ways along an ugly, unusual path that had no prerequisites in African society. In addition, the slave trade subjugated the general process of development and adapted it to the “slave trade” needs.

Africa, as already mentioned, knew slavery and the slave trade before the arrival of Europeans. Slavery here was domestic, patriarchal in nature. The slave trade, especially on the west coast, where it was not associated with the trans-Saharan and Arab trade, was internal in nature and determined by local demand for slaves. There is no data for the 15th–16th centuries. about a sharp increase in the export of slaves from the West Coast. The subsequent monstrously rapid development of the slave trade was a direct consequence of European policies aimed at developing the slave trade. This is especially clear in the example of the development of the slave trade in Angola and the Congo.

The slave trade before its official prohibition at the beginning of the 19th century. was a legal, universally recognized and profitable branch of trade, with a clear organization by European and American trading houses. The Africans, for their part, also created a fairly organized system of buying and selling their compatriots on the coast. The chaos of the slave trade should only be discussed in relation to those areas of the hinterland where slaves were captured.

At the same time, the rapid increase in the volume of the slave trade, due solely to external reasons, did not lead to the development or strengthening of the slave system among the peoples of Africa.

There were no changes in the African economy during this time that would require greater use of slave labor than was the case before the arrival of Europeans.

Before the arrival of the slave traders, all slaves were kept in a state of complete “readiness” for sale - chained and locked in special rooms. Only in some areas, such as the Congo or Angola, were slaves awaiting shipment overseas used by local slave traders. It is incorrect to talk about the expansion of local slavery, meaning slaves awaiting sale.

It is sometimes argued that the consequence of the slave trade was the so-called secondary development of the slave system after the prohibition of the slave trade. This is not entirely true. After the prohibition of the slave trade, or rather, after the export of slaves from West Africa began to really decrease, some large slave traders for some time turned into slave owners. Indeed, in the interior of the continent, the slave trade continued. Slaves were captured, sent to the coast, and here, due to the impossibility of sending overseas, they “settled” with slave traders. The most enterprising traders purchased these slaves and used them in their households. However, this process has not been widely developed. The struggle to prohibit the export of slaves grew into the seizure of colonies, and the influx of slaves to the coast gradually ceased.

The development of the slave trade with Europeans everywhere led to a worsening of the situation of “house slaves.” By threatening slaves with sale to Europeans for the slightest disobedience, slave owners intensified their exploitation.

The slave trade contributed to property stratification and social differentiation. It led to the disintegration of community ties and undermined the intra-tribal organization of Africans.

Chiefs, priests and other members of the tribal nobility, enriched by the slave trade, formed part of the new nobility. In an effort to get more weapons, various goods and strengthen their power, they were interested in developing the slave trade and strengthening trade relations with Europeans.

Gradually, all power was concentrated in the hands of slave traders, and the lives of Africans largely obeyed the demands of the slave trade.

By pitting one tribe against another, fueling endless internecine wars, the slave trade led to the isolation of African peoples, to aggressiveness and mistrust.

The slave trade was one of the factors that hampered the development of agriculture and some crafts. The widespread import of European goods, especially manufactured goods, which were exchanged for slaves, interrupted the development of a number of crafts, for example, weaving, weaving, jewelry and others, and contributed to the deterioration of the quality of manufactured goods.

In some areas (for example, the ocean coast of modern Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Tanzania, areas near Lake Tanganyika), which were large transshipment points for the purchase and sale of slaves, Africans abandoned their traditional crafts and were actively involved in the slave trade, which gave them the opportunity to “easy by selling their fellow tribesmen to obtain the necessary goods. D. Livingston talked about how Africans stopped, for example, cultivating cotton. It was much easier to catch some passer-by and, having sold him, get the necessary fabrics and other products from the Europeans or Arabs.

The slave trade undoubtedly contributed to the development of trade and exchange. Through it, Africa was drawn into the world market. However, receiving various goods from slave traders (we will not discuss their value here), Africa gave in exchange a “good” whose value is incomparable to anything else - people. For more than four centuries, West and East Africa were areas for the export of a single “monoculture” - slaves.

And at the same time, the slave trade tightly isolated Africa from the rest of the world. For centuries, what came from outside was associated, as a rule, only with the slave trade. Nothing else could have broken through the stockade of the slave trade, and Africa could not have interested the world in those centuries in anything other than slaves for export.

In general, the slave trade undoubtedly acted as a hindrance to the creation of local statehood. It accelerated the collapse of, for example, Benin, the state of Congo, etc. But, having arisen at the intersection of trade routes, city-states such as Vidah, Ardra, Bonny, Old Calabar and others grew up around slave markets during the slave trade - intermediaries between Europeans and slave traders interior of Africa. Some state formations, for example in the Yoruba lands, owed their emergence to the slave trade, and after some time their population themselves became victims of slave hunters. Dahomey and the Zanzibar Sultanate grew rich from the slave trade, making profits from the sale of their compatriots and neighboring peoples the main source of state income.

According to W. Dubois, who relied on Dunbar’s figures, it was generally accepted that the entire slave trade cost Africa 100 million human lives, including people who died during the slave trade wars, in slave caravans, during the “middle transition,” etc. d. Of these 100 million, according to Dubois, 40 million are victims of the Muslim slave trade and 60 million of the European one; The calculations of R. Kuczynski are close to the figures of W. Dubois. Other researchers brought the death toll from the slave trade to 150 million people.

Of course, there is no demographic or statistical information about the population of Africa in the past. There are only some conditional calculations, which, although not fully reflecting reality, still give some idea of ​​​​the dependence of the population of the African continent on the slave trade.

This is an unprecedented case in the history of mankind, when over 200 years the population of an entire continent, where no cataclysms occurred, remained at the same level or even decreased.

According to our calculations, at least 16–18 million people were taken from Africa to the countries of the New World during the entire period of the slave trade by European and American slave traders, and the total number of deaths as a result of the Atlantic slave trade was at least one hundred and fifty million people.

In recent decades, foreign researchers have been inclined to name other, much smaller numbers of deaths from the slave trade, this has already been discussed above. However, African scientists believe that more than 200 million people became victims of the slave trade in Africa.

The loss of such a number of people meant the destruction of productive forces, traditional cultural skills and connections and, as it seems to us, the worst thing - a violation of the gene pool of the race.

The slave trade required the strongest, healthiest, and most resilient. Many other Africans also died during the capture of slaves, but still the slave trade demanded the best from Mother Africa. Let's hope that major research by African historians, ethnographers, anthropologists, and geneticists on the consequences of the slave trade for Africa is ahead.

The psychological consequences of the slave trade turned out to be the most difficult for Africa and Africans both in Africa and beyond.

The slave trade led to a terrible devaluation of human life. Its consequences were moral decay, disfigurement of the psyche, consciousness of complete security for the evil caused to other people, degradation of both slave traders and slaves.

The most terrible legacy left by the slave trade is racism.

In the 18th century With the beginning of the struggle to prohibit the slave trade, a theory about the inferiority of Africans compared to white people was invented to justify it - racism arose. It was needed in order to legalize the continuation of the slave trade and establish the slavery of Africans in the American colonies.

The slave trade led to the fact that from the sphere of social differences the definition of “slave”, belonging to slavery, moved into the sphere of racial differences. “A slave not because he was captured and sold into slavery, but because an African cannot be anything other than a slave” - this racist position became the creed of planters and defenders of slavery.

One of the distinctive features of Africans is their dark skin color. It was declared a sign of an inferior race. The black man was denied the right to human dignity and could be insulted and humiliated with impunity.

At a certain level of social development, slavery existed among most peoples of the globe. We know about the slaves of Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome. There were white Christian slaves in the Muslim countries of the East and Africa, and, conversely, in the economies of European countries until the 16th century. Slaves were used quite widely, among whom were natives not only of African and Eastern countries, but also of neighboring European states. Pirates and slave traders of the Mediterranean captured and sold people into slavery, regardless of the color of their skin or religion.

And yet, to this day, when most people hear the word “slave,” they conjure up an image of a black African. And this is also one of the consequences of the slave trade.

For generations, people have known Africa through the lens of the slave trade. The world has not heard of the magnificent wealth of ancient Ghana, or the power of medieval Benin and Songhai. Africa was known for slave traders and slaves. This is where the concept of the unhistoricity of African peoples largely originated, and in the minds of millions of people, far from having racist views, there was a belief that Africans were people of low mental capacity, capable of doing only unskilled work.

The formalization of racial prejudices into the theory of racism occurred at the end of the 18th century, when in almost all European countries and the United States there was a struggle to ban the slave trade.

From the very beginning of its existence, racism had an “office” character. Its emergence was caused by the desire to justify the oppression of one race by another and prove the necessity of it.

At the beginning of the 19th century. racism did not particularly manifest itself. The beginning of the colonial division of the world served as a new impetus for its further development. Particularly fertile ground for racist ideology and practice was created by the activities of colonialists in Africa and the struggle of slave-owning planters to maintain slavery in the United States. During the territorial division of Africa, racism was adopted by the colonialists to justify the now colonial slavery of Africans.

Modern science, if approached from a truly scientific point of view, easily refutes any speculation of racists. And yet racism - this, in the words of W. Du Bois, “the most terrible legacy of Negro slavery” - still exists.

In 1967, the issue of race and racism was discussed at a UNESCO meeting. The Declaration on Race and Racial Prejudice was adopted, which, in particular, noted that “racism hinders the development of those who suffer from it, corrupts those who profess it, divides nations among themselves, increases international tension and threatens world peace.” .

In 1978, UNESCO returned to the debate on race and racism and adopted the New Declaration on Race and Racial Prejudice. It states, in particular: “All peoples of the world have equal abilities that allow them to achieve the highest intellectual, technical, social, economic, cultural and political development.”

“Racism is a social phenomenon,” says G. Aptheker. “It has its own history, that is, a beginning, development and, I am convinced, an end.” Indeed, racism is not eternal, but if the times of the slave trade are a thing of the past, then racism lives on today.

The slave trade, which had such dire consequences for Africa, contributed to the development and prosperity of the countries of Europe and America.

There was a close connection in the era of primitive accumulation between slavery, the colonial system, the development of trade and the emergence of large-scale industry. “Like machines, credit, etc., direct slavery is the basis of bourgeois industry. Without slavery there would be no cotton: without cotton, modern industry is unthinkable. Slavery gave value to the colonies, the colonies created world trade, world trade is a necessary condition for large-scale industry.

Without slavery, North America, the country of the most rapid progress, would have turned into a patriarchal country." “In general,” wrote K. Marx, “for the hidden slavery of wage workers in Europe, slavery sans phrase (without reservations) in the New World was necessary as a foundation.”

The fabulous wealth of the planters of the West Indies and America was created by the hands of Africans, hundreds of thousands of whom died in the cruelest conditions of plantation slavery.

Both Americas benefited the most from the slave trade. The foundations of today's US economic power were laid during the slave trade on the bones of hundreds of thousands of Africans.

“We owe everything that is good in America to Africa,” said one of the American public figures of the 18th century. “Negroes are the main support of the New World,” his contemporaries supported.

Along with the Indians - the only autochthonous race of America, along with the descendants of Europeans who once immigrated to the New World, the descendants of former slaves Africans can rightfully consider the American continent their native land. Like Indians and Indians, like “white” inhabitants of the American continent, African-Americans were and are the creators of the history of the countries of which they are citizens.

The descendants of African slaves became outstanding scientists and public figures: the names of William Dubois, Paul Robeson, Martin Luther King and others are named among the best representatives of humanity.

Africans, torn from their homeland, sold into slavery and brought to a foreign, harsh land for them, gave their stepmother America not only their labor. They brought their culture, their customs and beliefs, their art to the New World.

It can be assumed that around the beginning of the 19th century. Gradually, in the process of working together on plantations, mines, and fighting against planters, some tribal differences began to be overcome. The languages ​​of the colonialists helped overcome the language barrier, since the slaves were natives of different regions of Africa and did not always understand each other. The subsequent abolition of slavery, the departure of slaves from plantations in some colonies, and the resulting migration within the country contributed to the growth of a sense of ethnic community. Perhaps from this time we can talk about the beginning of the process of the formation of the Afro-Cuban, Afro-Guyanese people, etc.

Of all the peoples who appeared in the New World after it became known to Europeans, Africans brought with them the most profound cultural traditions. The influence of African rhythms and melodies on the music of the peoples of both Americas and the West Indies is undeniable. Some traditional dances of the Yoruba in Brazil and the Mina and Coromantine in Cuba exist almost unchanged. Baya women borrowed some jewelry and elements of festive clothing from the Yoruba.

The folklore of Brazil was enriched by the folklore of slaves from Angola, Congo, and Mozambique. To a lesser extent, the influence of Yoruba folklore can be seen here. In Cuba, the descendants of Africans - Ibo, Coromantine, Yoruba - have preserved the traditions of their peoples. The modern language of Brazil includes many Yoruba and Quimbundu words.

Some Western scholars said that centuries of colonial slavery in the New World led to the almost complete disappearance of African traditions, both in the field of social relations and in the field of traditional art and religious cults.

This is not true. Rather, it should probably be said that in the conditions of the cruelest plantation slavery, slaves kept their religious rituals, cultural traditions, and folklore in the strictest secret from the whites, passing on from generation to generation. Research will show where the truth is. Such work requires field research and joint efforts of scientists from different specialties. Now there are works devoted to the history of slavery of Africans in individual American countries. Perhaps they will answer these questions too.

Encounters with European civilization were disastrous for many peoples of the world. The discovery of new lands and territorial conquests were accompanied by the suppression of resistance of the local population, often leading to the extermination of the aborigines, an example of this is the American Indians, Australians, and Tasmanians. Africa (we are talking here about the areas that were the site of the slave trade) suffered a different fate.

For four centuries, while the slave trade continued, Europeans did not try to penetrate deep into the continent: they did not need it. The struggle for the African continent began when, at a new stage in the development of capitalism, Africa was supposed to become and became a source of raw materials and a sales market for the metropolises, and Africans turned into colonial slaves in their native land.

The slave trade - transatlantic and Arab - and the fight against it, along with other factors, prepared and made it easier for the European powers to carry out the colonial partition.

The slave trade divided and bled Africa, brought colossal destruction to the African peoples, weakened the resistance of Africans to colonial conquest, and gave the colonialists various pretexts and reasons for interfering in the internal affairs of Africans.

The fight against the slave trade was used in various ways by colonialists when conquering Africa. So, under this pretext, expeditions were sent into the depths of Africa. Sometimes they were led by enthusiastic researchers, sometimes by outright colonialists. In both cases, such expeditions prepared the way for further colonial expansion.

And the slave trade, having weakened the resistance of African peoples to Europeans, was also an important factor that slowed down the development of the national liberation movement.

In many areas of Africa, where Europeans acted as the “saviors” of Africa from the horrors of the slave trade, where the slave trade was used as an excuse to seize African territories, they were opposed by local African slave traders who did not want to part with their profits. They were supported by Africans dependent on them, attracted by the promise of a certain reward, and simply lovers of profit and robbery. A paradoxical situation developed.

Capturing, for example, Lagos and other areas of modern Nigeria, the interior regions of Tanzania, Sudan, the British colonialists acted as real champions of the prohibition of the slave trade (it’s another matter what ultimate goals they pursued!). African slave traders and their allies fought in this case to maintain their right to engage in the slave trade. This struggle, outwardly directed against the European invasion, had nothing in common with the liberation movement against the Europeans.

In some areas of modern Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania and other countries, the slave trade served as one of the factors that prevented the formation of the nation, as it brought with it wars and hostility between individual tribes.

In the last decade, publications by African authors have appeared, where African historians give their assessment of the Atlantic and Arab slave trade. They sharply criticize the work of West Africanists who try to prove that the slave trade was only an unfortunate episode in the history of Africa and did not have significant consequences for the African peoples. In February 1992, Pope John Paul II, while touring African countries, visited Senegal. Here, on the island of Gore, near the buildings that still survive, where slaves were once kept, prepared for sale overseas, Pope John Paul II, on behalf of all Christians on Earth, asked the Africans for forgiveness for centuries of the slave trade...

Slave trading is a thing of the past. But to this day, even after going through the suffering of colonial oppression, Africans remember with horror the years when, “numb in a bloody nightmare,” Africa gave its best children to overseas slave traders.

From the book Three Million Years BC author Matyushin Gerald Nikolaevich

13. Conclusion So, we examined stone tools and traces of ancient dwellings. We also “interviewed” witnesses - “baby” from Taung and Lucy from Hadar, Zinj from Olduvai, Australopithecus robustus from Makapansgat and Kromdray, etc. We also met the very first person - his

From the book The Tragedy of the Templar Order by Lobe Marcel

Conclusion Whatever is done, the history of the Templars will always be shrouded in fog, thickened by certain biased considerations. And if, when finishing our essay, we cannot come to formal conclusions, does this mean that our work was useless? We believe that thanks to those

From the book St. Petersburg. A cultural minimum for residents and guests of the cultural capital author Fortunatov Vladimir Valentinovich

Conclusion You can talk endlessly about St. Petersburg. You can walk around St. Petersburg for hours, days, your whole life, enjoying the very fact of being in the great city on the Neva, in the Northern capital, in the cultural capital of Russia. Experienced travelers in every city try

From the book History of Russia. Time of Troubles author Morozova Lyudmila Evgenievna

Conclusion Analysis of the events of the Time of Troubles shows that their essence was the struggle for supreme power. The end of the dynasty of Moscow princes in 1598 presented Russian society with an unprecedented problem - the choice of a new sovereign. Since there are no legal norms for

From the book The Jewish Question to Lenin author Petrovsky-Stern Yohanan

Conclusion They say history books should give serious answers to serious questions. We chose a slightly different path: we posed a frivolous question and tried to find significant and serious answers to it. Some of our answers to the question about

From the book Originally Russian Europe. Where are we from? author Katyuk Georgy Petrovich

Conclusion You and I are of the same blood - you and me. R. Kipling From all that has been said, the following conclusions can be drawn. There were no “peoples” on Earth in the pre-state era. The social formations of that time were so shaky and unstable that we can call them

From the book Russian Freemasonry during the reign of Catherine II [Ill. I. Tibilova] author Vernadsky Georgy Vladimirovich

Conclusion The political role of Russian Freemasonry did not end with the 18th century. Masonic organizations flourished magnificently in Alexander's time. But the meaning of individual areas of Freemasonry has changed. Rationalist liberal organizations, sparsely and poorly represented in

From the book Network of Zionist Terror by Mark Weber

Conclusion As the above information shows, Zionist terrorism has been a problem for more than twenty years. It remains a serious problem today. By asserting Jewish supremacy, the Zionist terrorist network operates in

From the book Russian Universities of the 18th – First Half of the 19th Centuries in the Context of University History of Europe author Andreev Andrey Yurievich

Conclusion “A person acquires wisdom through the experience of life, which is rich in negations, and the longer his experience, the deeper his wisdom: so is an educational institution, as well as any institution that has its own history, that is, one that has developed organically, because history can

From the book Nationalism by Calhoun Craig

Conclusion Nationalism is too diverse to be explained by one general theory. In many ways, the content and special orientation of various nationalisms are determined by historically different cultural traditions, extraordinary actions of leaders and

From the book Winston Churchill: The Power of Imagination author Kersaudy Francois

Conclusion Having arrived at the final destination of our journey, the reader has already learned enough to draw his own conclusions. The first, of course, will be that great upheavals give birth to great men: Churchill, the only warrior among politicians and the only politician among

From the book “The Holy Roman Empire”: claims and reality author Kolesnitsky Nikolay Filippovich

CONCLUSION We still have to answer the questions posed at the beginning of the book. First of all, what circumstances allowed Germany to occupy in the 10th century. dominant position in Western Europe and carry out broad foreign policy expansion, leading to the creation

From the book Atlantis by Seidler Ludwik

Conclusion Having read the last chapter, one could make an unfounded conclusion that the author supposedly believes in Herbiger’s cosmogonic theory and Bellamy’s hypothesis based on it about the cause of the Atlantis disaster, and even more so than in other theories. However

From the book The Death of the Cossack Empire: Defeat of the Undefeated author Chernikov Ivan

Conclusion The Civilian massacre is over. Moscow began its new era by implementing the long-standing thought of decossackization, surrendering Novorossia, the Yellow Province, Poland, Finland, the Baltic states and the Straits. England's War Minister Winston Churchill compared the arrogant "mother" with a huge

From the book Cardinal Richelieu author Cherkasov Petr Petrovich

Conclusion Death overtook Richelieu at the very moment when, after many years of hard work, he finally had hope of seeing the fruits of his efforts in both domestic and foreign policy. Taking control of “dying France” (“La France mourante”) in 1624, he

From the book What Stalin Knew by Murphy David E.

Conclusion Will the future be a repeat of the past? The characterization of Stalin proposed by the author of this book contradicts those put forward by many American, European and Russian historians. It seems doubtful that Stalin's foreign policy was based on