Even discussing it gives your opponents arguments merit. Its extraordinary success rested upon the foundation of sympathy laid down during the previous 70 years of abolitionist activity in Britain. The arguments do you want to get shaken down for several trillion? It's against this backdrop that Black British History Month was created. Maybe someone should advise him to button his lip before he stirs up something he may not like. At the moment it seems to regarded as a good thing. MBE: The problem with the UK paying reparations is that people like Olusoga would have to pay their share of the greatly increased taxes. Whitey bad, give me cash? And the Domesday Book even counts slaves as a separate category below the unfree peasants (villans, bordars and cottars) those owed service to a Lord who could order them to move about and could say yes or no to their proposed marriages, but unlike slaves he didnt own them, couldnt sell them, and they had property rights to at least a smallholding. Looking at what happened in Haiti or Jamaica or chunks of Latin America, I dont find either well, could have been much worse or what do you expect, Early Modern West Europeans, how could they have known better? to be particularly convincing responses. The New Statesmans weekly environment email on the politics, business and culture of the climate and nature crises - in your inbox every Thursday. It was such a brilliantly organised programme of mass protest that slavery was declared abolished in 1833: 46,000 slave owners were given 20m in compensation (17bn in todays money), the largest payout in British history and 40 per cent of all government spending that year. Away from the creative arts, the Equiano Project aims to promote race equality and he was mentioned in Parliament during a debate on Black History and Cultural Diversity in the Curriculum. Like I said, as a mental exercise, if I do my best good faith effort to imagine an argument for reparations, I reckon it would concern harms committed by the state (which unlike the slave traders and owners, is still about today) and an argument that it breached some alleged fundamental/universal doctrine of law so that even the states efforts to put the slave industry on a legal footing were null and void. How could Britain, a civilised and Christian nation, indulge in rape, torture, killing and the forced labour of Africans over two centuries? In America few were castrated, which is why there are now >40 million descendants there. I am not so sure about that although it is another argument. I learned the hard way. Oh man. David Olusoga, 49, is a television presenter and historian. He presented the recent series of A House Through Time on BBC 2, and Black and British: A Forgotten History. BBC Radio 3 - Drama on 3, The Meaning of Zong, Spacious open-plan family home in Muswell Hill, Five Cineworlds across south London still at risk of permanent closure, Residents who have 'suffered for years' to be asked if they want blocks knocked down, Dazzling Thamesmead light festival returns with performances, films and flash mob, Charlton murderer claims prison guards broke his arm and sues for 20k, Children and young people with eating disorders face treatment postcode lottery, Angry protests erupt over Greek rail disaster, How fake copyright complaints are muzzling journalists, 1894 shipwreck confirms tale of treacherous lifeboat. Prof Olusoga says statues, such as those of slave traders . If there were African states with legal continuity to those political entities which established and encouraged the African slave markets, they would be on the hook too, but theres a discontinuity due to colonialism and besides, everyone knows to sue the rich guy not the poor guy. This ignorant fellow should study historical facts, rather than believing and repeating lies and half-truths. Particularly as nowadays anyone who dares even look at someone a few days below the age of consent is believed to be an incorrigible nonce who deserves hanging, castration, or castration by hanging. I havent said anything about my personal sense of guilt or responsibility. Giles Terera, the Olivier award-winning British performer who starred in the popular theatre production Hamilton, has . Flyover Americans arent going to take it. Davids all done. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. See, five years ago I wouldnt have written a crass comment like that, but hey, times achanging and as financially independent with some FU-money, I dont have to worry about cancellation culture, LOL. And that still stands even if there really are a bunch of torturing murderers out there too. Thats fine, BraveFart. Cheap ass presentism. I know. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr_Gide, Less flippantly, Western countries are not of one mind when it comes to the age of consent sex with a 14 year-old is legal in some countries, criminal in others (yes yes, paedophilia versus ephebophilia etc, you got me). Will Britain change? The answer is money. By this logic, we ought to sue the African American community. Fought to STOP southern independence. at scales that were unusual in the long and varied history of slavery, and levels of brutality that stood out too. I know there are posters on here who see stepping into their opponents perspective as a dangerous and pointless endeavour that gives undue worth to a viewpoint they despise, but purely as a mental exercise theres usually something to be said for examining your opponents strongest argument instead of their weakest. Its been banned for two centuries in Britain. That star stuff wont last. people like Olusoga would have to pay their share of the greatly increased taxes Cest de la trs bonne dialectique conomique. He updates Fryer, citing radioisotope analysis of skeletons and craniometrics, which support written documentation of Aurelian Moors guarding Hadrians Wall and settling in places such as Yorkshire. It is a good deed that must not go unpunished. This is nothing to do with slavery or as with black lives matter, blacks being shot, and everything to do with a shakedown of the white man. She wasnt interested in my academic pursuit. Not to say it was nice. Get back to us when your sin/privilege is expunged. But oddly enough, people like Olusoga havent given me the cash yet. They deliberately bought skewed mostly male gender balance. I do not see what is different between a plantation in Africa and a plantation in Virginia. Thats what I dont like about the angle of Tims header. But Muslims were enslaving white Europeans into Africa long before the Atlantic route, usually castrating the males. I havent the faintest idea whether slavery in the Roman controlled areas of Britain was more along the continental Roman model or retained Celtic characteristics. In the late 1800's and early 1900's, 30,000 Jewish migrants from Russia and Eastern Europe settled in Manchester. Prof Olusoga says statues, such as those of slave traders . In that moment, his interest in history overlapped. You might have heard of a Romano-British chap called Patrick, got enslaved and nabbed to Ireland? The Westman Islands of Iceland have an interesting history in terms of European slavery a major rebellion of presumably mostly Irish (Westmen) slaves was put down there in the typically brutal Scandinavian manner, hence the name, but in the 1600s the local inhabitants were themselves enslaved by Barbary pirates and taken to Algiers, from where a few were ransomed back and one wrote about the experience. not at all to disparage your ancestors GC. Anyway, I digress, we did have at some point, a gang of pedos turn up and put their case, reasonably, and were tolerated and conversed with. White people will take it. Surely the US has already spent much more than that on black Americans. The South Sea bubble, the greatest financial crash of the 18th century, was intimately connected to Britains dealings with Africa, though this is rarely acknowledged by historians. David Olusoga is a 49-year-old historian and presenter Credit: Getty - Contributor David Olusoga is a British Nigerian historian, broadcaster and writer. But it is also likely that disease played a role. Not many remember anything about segregation either. The agreement is being touted as a . P rofessor David Olusoga is reviewing a disorientating year from a familiar place: his white-painted study, the one with the guitars hanging from its walls. Black and British: A Forgotten History addresses one of the greatest silences in British historiography. The world has seen more slavery since its abolition than before. The Barbados slave code of 1661 stripped Africans of all human rights, and set out ways in which they were to be punished, to exert control over their labour (mutilation of the face, slitting of nostrils, castration, execution). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jxc5ENT8ajg, https://www.history.co.uk/shows/the-real-vikings/articles/eyewitness-to-the-vikings, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestmannaeyjar, https://www.historytoday.com/archive/normans-and-slavery-breaking-bonds, https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/domesday/world-of-domesday/order.htm, Apparently Essay Mills Must Be Made Illegal, Why Oxfam Can Go Boil Their Heads Over Vaccine Patents, The real point about climate change is how cheap the solution is, The excellent Tim Worstall- The Register, Tim Worstall is a darn good economist- Don Boudreaux, Tim Worstall, you pendant- Polly Toynbee, .more sensible than most right wing nutjob bloggersBob Piper. Equiano is also mentioned in Incomparable World, a novel by SI Martin, which was selected by Booker award-winning author Bernardine Evaristo for her Black Britain: Writing Back series. If black lives really mattered these people would be protesting the 500 shot dead so far by predominantly black men in Chicago this year. As Black British History Month draws to a close, TV historian Prof David Olusoga looks at the impact it's had - and how young people are taking it on. Would the good professor really be so different if genealogical records could prove he had African ancestors who owned African slaves? Slaves were crowded in a new environment with new diseases. Giles Terera, the Olivier award-winning British performer who starred in the popular theatre production Hamilton, has recently staged a play called the Meaning of Zong about the massacre of 132 enslaved Africans aboard the slave ship Zong in 1781 and the impact it had on Equiano. Arguably wrong in a crimes against humanity way (similar language of natural justice and universal morality indeed being used by the abolitionists and the UK itself when it tried to enforce a ban on the trade) that made it inherently illegal even when governments tried to put it on a legal footing. No one has said we should not consider someone elses viewpoint. When the American Civil War interrupted the supply of cotton, hundreds of thousands of British workers were made destitute, dependent on soup kitchens, and the British economy was dealt a thunderous blow, all because an ocean away the forced labour of four million enslaved black Americans had been disrupted. Probably few other societies had as much chance of buying freedom. I was uncomfortable using it. Dr Peter Olusoga is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology. If we went down this route thered be goodness knows how much fun and games to be had with legal claims over the treatment of Irish by Cromwell, the clearing of the Highlands and so on, before you even get on to the globe-spanning imperial stuff. To be honest, I was a bit sceptical about the Olympics coming to London, but the atmosphere across the capital was genuinely wonderful . It isnt happening now. The stars are out as Dr Pete Olusoga explores the psychology of stage and screen with the wonderful British actor (and Coronation Street veteran), Shobna Gulati. Had a vault for the more inflammatory pieces. Shouldnt matter whether some long-dead relative fought long ago for or against (not at all to disparage your ancestors GC, who all sound very sound) in terms of whether somethings your fault. Instead the racket still goes on with endless boatloads of illegals swarming into Europe. 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