This particular posting is rather different for me.
It's an opinion piece on a subject which has been exercising me in the last few weeks.
Many moons ago I was talking with a member of my staff in the Creative Arts department at my old college. He (who shall remain nameless) was a young radically-minded lecturer, who, I suspect, considered me to be a past-it-dodo. (He may well have been right on that one of course).
He was affiliated to the SWP (Socialist Workers Party) who held that racism could only possibly be a white on black phenomena, as non-white races could not possibly be racist!
For some reason we were talking around political matters (although I can't actually remember the subject in hand), when he looked at me and pointedly said "You do know about the slave trade, don't you?" (The implication, I realised, being that there was a glaring hole in my historical knowledge, in the shape of the Transatlantic Slave Trade).
In reply, I answered, "Which one?"
I believed then, as I do now, that he held the standard view that has been taught in our schools and universities for a long time. The narrative being that western, white, civilisation was uniquely responsible for the vile institution of slavery.
I have seen this standard narrative extensively explored in the Liverpool Museum of Slavery, but which had only one small panel mentioning the role of William Wilberforce and other abolitionists (presumably, but inadequately, attempting to set the standard view into some perspective).
It's obviously possible to write a vast book on this subject, and there are some books in print (see below for a recommended one), but here I thought that I would make just a few points, in no particular order, to balance the record somewhat.
A group of Slavs.
(...from which the word 'slaves' derives)
1
The term 'slaves' (in English and other languages) derives from the Slavs, the white Europeans who were captured into slavery over many centuries and by various neighbouring powers.
2
People think of war, famine, or epidemics, as being afflictions that affected the whole human race, throughout the whole of history. But mention slavery and the vast majority of people will immediately think of the enslavement of black africans and their transportation to the USA.
However slavery was not simply the Transatlantic Slave trade, but an institution which has existed in every known society, nation, and empire since the beginning of recorded history.
No other historic horror is now so narrowly construed. Why is this? Is it part of a version of history so constructed as to score ideological points and induce guilt in the western world? You bet!
Here is a visual reminder of some of this extended history....
The tomb of Rekhimire shows foreign slaves making bricks for the Temple of Amun at Karnak.
A depiction of the Slave Market in the Graecostadium in ancient Rome.
Around one in five people living in Viking-Age Scandinavia were slaves.
A photograph of children dubbed 'white' slaves in America in the 1860s, taken as part of a campaign to raise money for public schools for emancipated slaves.
3
It is recorded that more Irish slaves were sold (in the new world) in the 17th century than black slaves. None of them made it back to their homeland. The first imported slaves to the American colonies were 100 white children who arrived during Easter, 1619. They were referred to in mainstream histories as indentured servants, not slaves, because many agreed to work for a set period of time in exchange for land and freedom.
4
Britain was involved in the slave trade and was at one stage the largest slaving nation in the world.
So in this regard we followed the worldwide historical pattern.
But what makes our contribution to the real history of slavery unique is that it was Britain that holds the position of being the frontrunner in the abolition of slavery, firstly by permanently banning it, and secondly by then enforcing it throughout the world via the Empire.
5
The white Europeans who were captured and traded in North Africa were victims of the Corsairs (Slavers from the North African coast).
6
It has been estimated that 80% of african slaves remained in slavery (to other Africans) in Africa itself.
7
After the British banished slavery, they put their money where their mouth is. The British taxpayers spent millions (billions in todays money) paying off the slave masters as compensation, and then spending further millions patrolling the coast of Africa to blockade the continuing slave trade (losing around 1500 marines and sailors in the process).
8
Pre-Columbian slaves; It's worth recalling that slave-owning societies existed in North and South America long before any Europeans or African slaves arrived.
Here is an illustration depicting this slave owning society.
The book I recommend below has a chapter entitled the Real History of Slavery. Written by the famous (black) academic Thomas Sowell, it covers all the above points and much more. And while he is, quite rightly, furious about the importation of african slaves to the US, he manages to keep a balanced perspective, and also to give credit where it is due.
(I understand that he is hated by certain current vested political interests).
Yet he nevertheless continues to point out that without the western powers (who were the first to permanently ban slavery led by Great Britain); that without the Lancashire cotton workers who went out on strike in support of abolition; without the sailors and marines who for years patrolled the coast of western Africa to stop the slave ships and who also blockaded Brazil which was the largest importer of slaves in the Americas; and without the Quakers who underpinned the moral arguments against slavery, etc, the worldwide slave trade(s) would still be with us.
By the by, you may want to take a quick look at this vlog, which is primarily about Bernie Sanders and his future election chances, but in passing makes some pertinent points about slavery reparations (which is a big cause in the USA at the mo).
This particular posting is rather different for me.
It's an opinion piece on a subject which has been exercising me in the last few weeks.
Many moons ago I was talking with a member of my staff in the Creative Arts department at my old college. He (who shall remain nameless) was a young radically-minded lecturer, who, I suspect, considered me to be a past-it-dodo. (He may well have been right on that one of course).
He was affiliated to the SWP (Socialist Workers Party) who held that racism could only possibly be a white on black phenomena, as non-white races could not possibly be racist!
For some reason we were talking around political matters (although I can't actually remember the subject in hand), when he looked at me and pointedly said "You do know about the slave trade, don't you?" (The implication, I realised, being that there was a glaring hole in my historical knowledge, in the shape of the Transatlantic Slave Trade).
In reply, I answered, "Which one?"
It's an opinion piece on a subject which has been exercising me in the last few weeks.
Many moons ago I was talking with a member of my staff in the Creative Arts department at my old college. He (who shall remain nameless) was a young radically-minded lecturer, who, I suspect, considered me to be a past-it-dodo. (He may well have been right on that one of course).
He was affiliated to the SWP (Socialist Workers Party) who held that racism could only possibly be a white on black phenomena, as non-white races could not possibly be racist!
For some reason we were talking around political matters (although I can't actually remember the subject in hand), when he looked at me and pointedly said "You do know about the slave trade, don't you?" (The implication, I realised, being that there was a glaring hole in my historical knowledge, in the shape of the Transatlantic Slave Trade).
In reply, I answered, "Which one?"
I believed then, as I do now, that he held the standard view that has been taught in our schools and universities for a long time. The narrative being that western, white, civilisation was uniquely responsible for the vile institution of slavery.
I have seen this standard narrative extensively explored in the Liverpool Museum of Slavery, but which had only one small panel mentioning the role of William Wilberforce and other abolitionists (presumably, but inadequately, attempting to set the standard view into some perspective).
It's obviously possible to write a vast book on this subject, and there are some books in print (see below for a recommended one), but here I thought that I would make just a few points, in no particular order, to balance the record somewhat.
A group of Slavs.
(...from which the word 'slaves' derives)
1
The term 'slaves' (in English and other languages) derives from the Slavs, the white Europeans who were captured into slavery over many centuries and by various neighbouring powers.
2
People think of war, famine, or epidemics, as being afflictions that affected the whole human race, throughout the whole of history. But mention slavery and the vast majority of people will immediately think of the enslavement of black africans and their transportation to the USA.
However slavery was not simply the Transatlantic Slave trade, but an institution which has existed in every known society, nation, and empire since the beginning of recorded history.
No other historic horror is now so narrowly construed. Why is this? Is it part of a version of history so constructed as to score ideological points and induce guilt in the western world? You bet!
Here is a visual reminder of some of this extended history....
However slavery was not simply the Transatlantic Slave trade, but an institution which has existed in every known society, nation, and empire since the beginning of recorded history.
No other historic horror is now so narrowly construed. Why is this? Is it part of a version of history so constructed as to score ideological points and induce guilt in the western world? You bet!
Here is a visual reminder of some of this extended history....
The tomb of Rekhimire shows foreign slaves making bricks for the Temple of Amun at Karnak.
A depiction of the Slave Market in the Graecostadium in ancient Rome.
Around one in five people living in Viking-Age Scandinavia were slaves.
A photograph of children dubbed 'white' slaves in America in the 1860s, taken as part of a campaign to raise money for public schools for emancipated slaves.
3
It is recorded that more Irish slaves were sold (in the new world) in the 17th century than black slaves. None of them made it back to their homeland. The first imported slaves to the American colonies were 100 white children who arrived during Easter, 1619. They were referred to in mainstream histories as indentured servants, not slaves, because many agreed to work for a set period of time in exchange for land and freedom.
4
Britain was involved in the slave trade and was at one stage the largest slaving nation in the world.
So in this regard we followed the worldwide historical pattern.
5
The white Europeans who were captured and traded in North Africa were victims of the Corsairs (Slavers from the North African coast).
6
7
After the British banished slavery, they put their money where their mouth is. The British taxpayers spent millions (billions in todays money) paying off the slave masters as compensation, and then spending further millions patrolling the coast of Africa to blockade the continuing slave trade (losing around 1500 marines and sailors in the process).
8
Pre-Columbian slaves; It's worth recalling that slave-owning societies existed in North and South America long before any Europeans or African slaves arrived.
Here is an illustration depicting this slave owning society.
The book I recommend below has a chapter entitled the Real History of Slavery. Written by the famous (black) academic Thomas Sowell, it covers all the above points and much more. And while he is, quite rightly, furious about the importation of african slaves to the US, he manages to keep a balanced perspective, and also to give credit where it is due.
(I understand that he is hated by certain current vested political interests).
Yet he nevertheless continues to point out that without the western powers (who were the first to permanently ban slavery led by Great Britain); that without the Lancashire cotton workers who went out on strike in support of abolition; without the sailors and marines who for years patrolled the coast of western Africa to stop the slave ships and who also blockaded Brazil which was the largest importer of slaves in the Americas; and without the Quakers who underpinned the moral arguments against slavery, etc, the worldwide slave trade(s) would still be with us.
By the by, you may want to take a quick look at this vlog, which is primarily about Bernie Sanders and his future election chances, but in passing makes some pertinent points about slavery reparations (which is a big cause in the USA at the mo).
quiz quiz quiz quiz quiz “details, details........,” quiz quiz quiz quiz quiz
Any idea what the original was and who painted it?
And here's the answer from the last posting -
by Delacroix, 1827, Louvre, Paris.
quiz quiz quiz quiz quiz “details, details........,” quiz quiz quiz quiz quiz
Edward Hopper
______________________________________
By the way, recently I've been using some of my naturalistic landscapes, figure paintings and life drawings, alongside some music, in a series of YouTube videos based at
Songs From Wales.
You're very welcome to take a quick look if you have the time.
These songs can also be found on (and downloaded from) iTunes, Spotify, CDBaby, and many other platforms, - (my intention is to upload a different song each month)
Also in the last period I've been recording some songs with some friends -
please have a listen here if you have the time.
please have a listen here if you have the time.
______________________________________
. . and now, a Recommended Read . .
'Black Rednecks & White Liberals: Hope, Mercy, Justice and Autonomy in the American Health Care System'
By Thomas Sowell
Published by Encounter Books
This book presents the kind of eye-opening insights into the history and culture of race for which Sowell has become famous.
As late as the 1940s and 1950s, he argues, poor Southern rednecks were regarded by Northern employers and law enforcement officials as lazy, lawless, and sexually immoral. This pattern was repeated by blacks with whom they shared a subculture in the South. Over the last half century, poor whites and most blacks have moved up in class and affluence, but the ghetto remains filled with black rednecks.
Their attempt to escape, Sowell shows, is hampered by their white liberal friends who turn dysfunctional black redneck culture into a sacrosanct symbol of racial identity. In addition to Black Rednecks and White Liberals, the book takes on subjects ranging from Are Jews Generic? to The Real History of Slavery.
As late as the 1940s and 1950s, he argues, poor Southern rednecks were regarded by Northern employers and law enforcement officials as lazy, lawless, and sexually immoral. This pattern was repeated by blacks with whom they shared a subculture in the South. Over the last half century, poor whites and most blacks have moved up in class and affluence, but the ghetto remains filled with black rednecks.
Their attempt to escape, Sowell shows, is hampered by their white liberal friends who turn dysfunctional black redneck culture into a sacrosanct symbol of racial identity. In addition to Black Rednecks and White Liberals, the book takes on subjects ranging from Are Jews Generic? to The Real History of Slavery.
Review from Amazon.
______________________________________
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