Jeremy Black on Slavery

Professor Jeremy Black is very eloquent on 18 Doughty Street here discussing slavery and the way that we should respond to slavery. He beleives, and I think he is right that politics should be about the present so that we should take slavery and not apologise for it but make sure that it doesn't happen here say around prostitution or abroad in Darfur. But he blows apart the whole notion of an apology for slavery to say Africa or for the reconquista to say Spain. Noticing that say apologising to the President of Gambia seems a little odd given that Gambians were selling slaves from the African interior to Europe. His point though is broader than that- the world has moved on since 1600- but most civilisations in 1600 adopted and used slavery- Ottoman Turkey did, African societies did- indeed as a hypothesis many slaves taken away from Africa may have been men sold into slavery by victors in war or lower status men sold by their tribes. Most societies in human history have. Coercion in labour built the pyramids and constructed most of the ancient monuments of the world. Apologising for it as opposed to trying to do something about greivances in the present is almost an easy option. Professor Black makes some very interesting points about the situation in the United States- where blacks have been disadvantaged by government policy but not neccessarily through slavery- later policies may have contributed to maintaining a legacy of slavery. The problem of slavery is something that creates incredible emotions- but simply talking about people in stark terms of colour and saying that one lot need to apologise to another- is simply historically inaccurate. Slavery Black argues is the most 'extreme form' of a series of involuntary forms of labour- serfdom would be a kind of slavery, indentured labour might also be a kind of slavery. Liberty is only a recent phenomenon- rights of workers are only a recent phenomenon- slaves probably had it worst than all others within pre modern societies- but it isn't right to say that there was one group enslaved and the rest of the world was free. Even slavery differed- galley slaves in the Meditereanean most of whom were white were very badly treated, house slaves say in Virginia had a much nicer life as they did in Constantinople, Mecca or even Beijing.

Using history as a cudgel to bash other people is not very productive- its often very erroneous- no nation has a uniquely good or bad history. Unless you are directly involved its very complicated to assert how you have lost through that act but not gained through something nasty your ancestors did further back in the past.

Using history to cudgel onesself- if Europeans feel guilty about slavery in the New World, Muslims about slavery in Africa, Africans about tribalism etc though is a good thing. National pride in my book is normally a source of conflict and folly- it leads to the idea that there is something good about this collection of human beings and not about others. Reflecting and reminding oneself about what one or one's ancestors did badly in the past is a good way to force onesself to recognise that we are all human beings and that means that we are all morally and intellectually flawed.

And that brings me to my last point, for everyone to swap insults about slavery loses I think the primary purpose of history which is to understand and converse. We need in the modern world more than ever to try and understand other human minds- history is one means of doing that, of reintroducing ourselves to our ancestors who as soon as we look at them honestly look very strange, so strange that though they are part of us, mentally they seem worlds away. Trying to understand them despite that distance enables us to understand the world in a better way and consequently can enable us to understand our contemporaries. That more than any condemnation of the past will help us persuade people now to give up slavery themselves- we may not need history to tell us that slavery is wrong- we might need it to understand how people become slave owners and how we might be able to persuade them or force them to liberate their slaves.