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Apologize for Slavery?

November 27, 2006 by: UKStevieB

It seems that 200 years after slavery began its final death throes in the former British Empire that some feel a more formal apology for what went before is needed and reparations need to be paid. I am not a history major, nor am I very knowledgeable about the Politics of the situation, and perhaps as a white male I should stay well away from any comment that could be construed as racist, but I must confess to being a little confused as to what this all means. As far as I am aware the vast majority of slaves that were brought to this country and other parts of the then empire were already slaves when they were bought. If this is the case, should it not be the ones who enslaved the individuals and sold them on that should make recompense? Were these ones not themselves black tribesmen who had conquered their neighbours or captured the slaves in raids on rival villages? This may not be the case in every single instance, consider the Amistad case, but it surely is what occurred in the vast majority of instances. Even the Amistad case shows that Western society had already rejected what was still considered a normal way of life in Africa, the capture of freemen purely for the purpose of sale. So many of the ethics of modern-day do not sit well when transported into the past, the modern day Native Americans feeling that their ancestors were hard done-by when the white man took their land, where as there seems to be no rush on their own part to issue formal apologies to the peoples their tribes displaced as they migrated into the Americas. The mistreatment of the peaceful peoples and breaking of the treaties is, of course, an entirely different matter. I realise that a lot of what I have said is an over-simplification of very complex issues, and I am sorry if what I have said is inaccurate, I am happy to receive any feedback that helps me increase my understanding of these issues.

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