[NSC] Slavery Museum

[Icy Gull]

A slave museum would certainly be of interest but if you go to Stone Town in Zanzibar you can actually see the slave town which is far more of an eye opener than any museum could be imo. Really horrific as you are entering areas where slaves were held.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/aug/26/slave-markets-zanzibar

https://nataniatravel.com/en/the-slave-market-zanzibar-island/

 

[Driver8]

Already got one here.


http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/

 

[GOM]

I don't have the figures, but i'd suspect that 99% + of the profits of slavery ended up in UK/US rather than Africa.
And i'd further suspect that, while Liverpool/Bristol were the hubs of activity, a good % of those profits came back to London.

We weren't the only nation profiting from slavery, so I suspect 99% may be a bit high. We must not perpetuate a misconception, that some seem to have that the British were the only nation involved in the slave trade.

By the 1480s, Portuguese ships were already transporting Africans for use as slaves on the sugar plantations in the Cape Verde and Madeira islands in the eastern Atlantic. Spanish conquistadors took African slaves to the Caribbean after 1502, but Portuguese merchants continued to dominate the transatlantic slave trade for another century and a half, operating from their bases in the Congo-Angola area along the west coast of Africa. The Dutch became the foremost slave traders during parts of the 1600s, and in the following century English and French merchants controlled about half of the transatlantic slave trade, taking a large percentage of their human cargo from the region of West Africa between the Sénégal and Niger rivers.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

We weren't the only nation profiting from slavery, so I suspect 99% may be a bit high. We must not perpetuate a misconception, that some seem to have that the British were the only nation involved in the slave trade.

By the 1480s, Portuguese ships were already transporting Africans for use as slaves on the sugar plantations in the Cape Verde and Madeira islands in the eastern Atlantic. Spanish conquistadors took African slaves to the Caribbean after 1502, but Portuguese merchants continued to dominate the transatlantic slave trade for another century and a half, operating from their bases in the Congo-Angola area along the west coast of Africa. The Dutch became the foremost slave traders during parts of the 1600s, and in the following century English and French merchants controlled about half of the transatlantic slave trade, taking a large percentage of their human cargo from the region of West Africa between the Sénégal and Niger rivers.

Not forgetting the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

No doubt it has changed. When I did GCE History Wilberforce hadn't even been invented - not as part of the GCE syllabus anyway! As my daughters went through school (several years apart) the emphasis on slavery (along with the holocaust) increasingly dominated their history courses. In fact, by the time the youngest went through the system, you could almost be forgiven thinking that 'history' was actually 'slavery and the holocaust'.

That depends on whether you did political history or social and economic history. My syllabus started with George IV and finished with Victoria, so didn't cover 20th century history at all.

 

[BBassic]

That depends on whether you did political history or social and economic history. My syllabus started with George IV and finished with Victoria, so didn't cover 20th century history at all.

Sounds better than my GCSE history syllabus. Seem to recall it was:

Medicine through time - interesting enough
A study of a local village - Bramber, meh
The Irish Question - definitely interesting
The American West - Who. The. F**k. Cares? I struggle to think of a subject less relevant to a bunch of English school kids in West Sussex than the history of the f**king American west.

 

[GT49er]

That depends on whether you did political history or social and economic history. My syllabus started with George IV and finished with Victoria, so didn't cover 20th century history at all.

All cases came under the label of 'History' - just history; though obviously in my day that meant more political history, and in the naughties and beyond, more emphasis on social history. Nowhere was there a choice of two different sorts of history courses. Syllabuses change over 50 years!

 

[Thunder Bolt]

All cases came under the label of 'History' - just history; though obviously in my day that meant more political history, and in the naughties and beyond, more emphasis on social history. Nowhere was there a choice of two different sorts of history courses. Syllabuses change over 50 years!

It wasn't a choice as such. Those in the top set for history did political history and those who were in the second set did social and economic history.
You are right insomuch as I did my O levels 55 years ago.

 

[portlock seagull]

Providing our part in the long history of slavery is proportionately represented ie a tiny bit of, so this doesn’t just become a bash Britain monument to the liberal left zealots who are each and every day are crusading against anyone who’s white English and especially male!!

 

[SIMMO SAYS]

Whitehaven in Cumbria has a museum called The Rum Story.
Tells the story of the slave trade and tobacco/rum industry in the 18th century.

www.rumstory.co.uk

 

[Paskman]

Good idea, as long as it includes, for balance, a bit on the West Country villagers who were rounded up and taken as slaves by the Barbary pirates in the 15th and 16th centuries.

 

[SUIYHP]

You could argue it educates about 'modern slavery' - but isn't everyone aware that's very wrong these days anyway?

The problem is not that people aren't aware of why trafficking is bad, the problem is that there is a lack of awareness and education about how serious the situation is. There are thousands of people in the UK who are currently victims of modern slavery right now, the government has only recently taken steps to improve the situation.

As an aside. The point of history is ultimately learn our past mistakes to improve our present, a museum on the slave trade in London I think is really important for this. It's sad to say, but the truth is that the advance to modernity itself was borne by the Slave trade. [MENTION=33872]highflyer[/MENTION] mentioned that the UK made absurd fortunes on the industry, and whilst there was a large number of abolitionists who genuinely believed it was a moral evil, the sad part is that the UK only really finished it when the economic benefits declined and manufacturing rose. I'm not unpatriotic by any means, but I think we need to be conscious of the dark parts of British history and the many, many bad things that happened during the course of the British Empire.

 

[LlcoolJ]

An interesting little side fact. When we made the trade illegal (against strong lobbying from the city) we did agree to pay compensation. Not to the slaves of course, but to slave owners. And we only finished paying that debt off in 2015. And we still do not (yet) know which financial institution was profiting from those payments...

History is a f*cked up place.

Goldman Sachs?

 

[luge]

One of Sadiq Khans feature plans for London is to build a huge slavery museum, possibly the biggest museum in London, because people must be educated of the countrys colonial past, David Lammy has already thrown his weight right behind the proposals.

Sounds like an excellent idea to me.

Good idea??

World Wars aside, There are very few of these major flashpoints / events in history where we have done the right thing or not covered ourselves in shame.

I would suggest that implemented correctly, this would be a very positive thing.

 

[Superphil]

Should be located in West Africa, where the slaves were seized from their homes and villages, rounded up by stronger more aggressive tribes and brought to the coast for sale.

Or spend the money in Africa rather than a project in mega wealthy London. The money would be far more useful in countries that have so little.

 

[joydivisionovengloves]

There was a very good Slavery Museum in Bristol for a while. There was no way you could go and not be shocked by the barbarity of what went on. And yes it did mention how other West African tribes acted as traders.

To say, "Should be located in West Africa, where the slaves were seized from their homes and villages, rounded up by stronger more aggressive tribes and brought to the coast for sale" as has been said earlier, is, in my opinion the equivalent of saying "well, they asked for it"

 

[highflyer]

Goldman Sachs?

I suspect it will be a UK bank. But who knows - I assume it was in the form of government bonds which can be traded? I don't know enough about how such things work in practice to venture a guess!

 

[symyjym]

As long as it includes the whole history of slavery, not just our short part in it, and makes a point of us ending slavery too it would be a good idea.

There was no way that we turned up on the shores of Africa and started catching the the indigenous people in nets as we are led to believe.

We bought the slaves from slave markets that had been a brutal part of the Arab economy long before we showed up.

The Arab Muslim Slave Trade Of Africans, The Untold Story

https://youtu.be/i97EIngUhec

So as long as Sadiq Khan doesn't cherry pick the history of slavery since the rise of the Arab Empire to the current slave trade in Africa today it can only be a good thing.

 

[Chicken Run]

Should be in Bristol

https://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/stories/bristol-transatlantic-slave-trade/

 

[Chicken Run]

As long as it includes the whole history of slavery, not just our short part in it, and makes a point of us ending slavery too it would be a good idea.

There was no way that we turned up on the shores of Africa and started catching the the indigenous people in nets as we are led to believe.

We bought the slaves from slave markets that had been a brutal part of the Arab economy long before we showed up.

The Arab Muslim Slave Trade Of Africans, The Untold Story

https://youtu.be/i97EIngUhec

So as long as Sadiq Khan doesn't cherry pick the history of slavery since the rise of the Arab Empire to the current slave trade in Africa today it can only be a good thing.

This, the Arabs have as much to answer for as us, they however won’t be as liberal in their stance the fascists.

Edit forgot to say nice excrement mixing Crodo..... Just when people were starting to feel positive about the Albion and people generally being nice to each other eh?