The Transatlantic Slave Trade: Overcoming the 500-Year Legacy ~ A book review: Chapter 1
- samflynn0514
- Mar 4
- 6 min read
Updated: Mar 23
The very beginning of this chapter addresses slavery in the Caribbean and not North America.
"UN Officials said it provides an opportunity to think about the historic causes, the methods, and the consequences of slave trade that must never be forgotten."
Is this opportunity including ALL historical incidents of slavery?
No, of course not, just the Transatlantic Slave Trade, since the UN and Africans, namely North American blacks, only believe and argue that that slave trade was the only one in human history, at least the only one that matters, since after all, they want a lottery payday despite no slave or slave owner being alive today to justify reparations in 2025.
"And, with the approaching 500th anniversary of the date Africans were first forced into slavery in America, many like Felicia M. Davis, the director of the HBCU Green Fund, which invests in sustainable campus solutions for historically black colleges and universities, said she believes African enslavement demands reexamination."
First and foremost, it's only been less than 405 years since the first African "slave" was brought to North America.
Secondly, less than 335,000 Africans were even bought to then North America for slavery purposes.
Third, Felicia M. Davis was never a slave from the 1600-1865, a complete disingenuous claim on the author's part. Moreover, what Davis feels, thinks, and/or believes is completely irrelevant. The only thing that matters is what can be proven.
Finally, African enslavement has been going on long before the discovery of the Americas, and long before Europeans got involved in slavery whereas the Arabs and Africans themselves were knee deep in African slavery.
An inconvenient fact that the author fails to mention is that European whites were enslaved in far greater numbers than Africans were ever brought to North America. All this author is doing is spewing misinformation and disinformation in order to place those involved in the Atlantic Slave Trade in a darker light without giving any historical context to slavery within and beyond the neighboring shorelines of Africa.
""The fact that slavery was underway for a century in South America before its introduction in North America is not widely taught nor commonly understand," Davis said."
The author, again, conveniently leaves out an important fact here. The slavery he speaks of involved the indigenous peoples native to South America and not black Africans. This fact is affirmed with his very next statement:
""It is a powerful historical fact missing from our understanding of slavery, its magnitude and its global impact. Knowledge that slavery was underway for a century provides deep insight into how enslaved Africans adapted," Davis said."
Davis is lacking intellectual honesty here clearly asserting that Africans were taken to South America a century before they landed in North America. This assertion is just flat out factually inaccurate.
"Moreover, the rise in police profiling and brutality of Black men and the resulting rates of incarceration for African Americans highlight the ongoing oppression that was initially born in the crucible of slavery."
The fact that police profiling was even mentioned demonstrates that the author does not know what they are talking about, what they are referring to, and/or what the actual criminological factual data shows. There is no so-called police (i.e. - racial) profiling. It is illegal and has been illegal for decades. What the author and those he cited are loosely referring to is offender profiling. It is a very valid and effective tool of proactive law enforcement. Mischaracterizing a legal tool used by law enforcement to curb criminality as some devious racist motive to lock of black and brown people is not only intellectually dishonest, but also pure intellectual cowardice.
"Each year the UN invites people from all over the world, including educators, students, and artists, to organize events for the International Day of Remembrance of Victims of Slavery & Transatlantic Slave Trade."
This is patently absurd, to highlight and sell some form of "remembrance" of slavery isolated to strictly the Transatlantic Slave Trade, despite asserting "victims of slavery," history of pushing the victimhood mentality that focuses strictly on slavery in North America while ignoring the historical facts of global slavery across every race, nation, religion, and cultural based slavery, whether indentured or straight ownership of others as property, even in Africa in and of itself, demonstrates clearly that the author, to include those on the left and Democrats, use the emotive nature of history to divide its constituents merely for political gain.
Cambridge defines or explains worldwide history of slavery as follows:
Slavery has been among the most ubiquitous of all human institutions, across time and place, from earliest history until, some would argue, the present day. This new four-volume History is the first to survey the entire history of slavery across the world, from antiquity to the present day. It is written by an outstanding international team of scholars working under editors who are the leading experts in the field.
ALL HUMAN INSTITUTIONS!
Let me type that again, "all human institutions."
Slavery has never been created by white people, as in European or Eurocentric origination. Slavery began long before, and throughout the continent of Africa, it was already in existence.
"The transatlantic slave trade remains a pivotal, harrowing episode in human history, with profound and lasting impacts on individuals, societies, and nations."
"The transatlantic slave trade emerged in the 15th century, involving the forced transportation of millions of Africans to the Americas for labor under brutal conditions. It spanned over five centuries, with an estimated 12.5 million Africans forcibly transported."
The transatlantic slave trade "emerged" in the 16th century, not the 15th c., beginning with Portugal merchants. What they really don't teach anyone in school is the fact that these merchants, beginning with the Portuguese than the following were all involved:
Britain
Spain
France
The Netherlands
The United States
Denmark
Dahomey (located in present-day Benin).
And yet the author of this book, those he cites, and others likeminded come across as though no other country but the United States was ever involved in the transatlantic slave trade. This is clearly patently false as other countries were involved, namely those African Kingdoms (and countries) that captured other Africans in order to sell them into the transatlantic slave trade. The so-called merchants were too cautious to travel inland in fear of violence and tropical diseases they were not acclimated to. So, the tribal leaders brought the African slaves to the merchants, along with gold and ivory.
Also, the transatlantic slave trade ended in the mid-19th century, so it only lasted over four centuries, not five. Authors of books like this who print clear historical misinformation do so on purpose in order to exaggerate their unsubstantiated claim(s) in order to make the United States far more culpable than they really were.
Of the 11 million or so Africans that survived the transatlantic journey, only about 335,000 were taken to North America. The remaining roughly 10.7 million others were taken to South America and the Carribean islands. And yet all the world ever hears about since the mid-1900s is how bad black Africans have had it in North America and demand "reparations" for historical wrongs that have had no direct effect on any of them in the present. The race hustlers and grifters keep feeding into the emotive side of their less intelligent peoples, keeping them in a cyclical cycle of despair wallowing in the victimhood mentality.
Slavery was nothing novel or unique to North America, as it happened all around the world long before North America was even discovered. In fact, it happened in North America too, but it wasn't known as North America, but the Natives knew it to be a land they occupied and fought and enslaved other natives as they existed for centuries before Europeans arrived.
The notion that the transatlantic slave trade was a pivotal, harrowing episode in human history is pure exaggeration at best, hyperbole at worst. It is well-known and established fact that slavery has existed before there were written records of human societies, cultures, religions, and/or tribes (i.e., nations).
Slavery has been a part of African history since humanity has ever existed in/on that continent. In fact, it still exists through present day despite the United States and Britian abolishing it in the late 1800s (1865 in the United States).
The author, like so many others grifting on the victimhood mentality, push these false narratives against "white" Americans when it simply wasn't "white" Americans involved in selling OR transporting captured Africans to North or South America, let alone the Carribean Islands. The focus on North America as the sole county involved, demanding reparations, demanding "DEI" from whites in America, is the biggest historical farce ever perpetrated upon the United States of America by such a small minority given so much over time to prosper and prevail. Even in mere poverty, black Americans live a far richer life than Africans in Africa, Arabia, India, and many other places, especially where slavery still exists.
"Most agree that knowledge of the Era of the Transatlantic Slave Trade provides a powerful lends to examine systemic inequalities and injustices."
"This debate underscores the complexities of reconciling past atrocities with present-day responsibilities."
Work in Progress as of 3/23/25
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