INTRODUCTION
WHY TEACH ABOUT SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE?
March 25th 2007 saw the 200th anniversary of the parliamentary abolition of the slave trade in Britain – a significant step towards the ending of slavery. Although Scotland played a prominent part in the abolition of slavery we certainly also profited from the slave trade. It is all too easy to see cities like Liverpool and Bristol as being built on the slave trade while forgetting that the industrial revolution in Scotland had similar roots. Indeed the slave trade provided the capital which set the wheels of our industry moving. The sugar and tobacco brought here from the Americas – especially the West Indies – made fortunes for many and the legacy endures today. The imposing buildings in many of our towns and cities; the large country estates built by the ‘tobacco barons’ and the poor health record of people in Scotland due largely – and ironically – to the copious consumption of sugar and tobacco over the years.
It is no accident that 2007 also saw the 300th anniversary of the Union of the Parliaments of Scotland and England: an event which gave Scottish merchants access to the English trade routes and money markets. Without these, modern Scotland would be a very different place – whether better or worse is a matter for conjecture. By 1796, Scots owned nearly 305 of the plantations in Jamaica and by 1817 they owned 32% of the slaves there. Traces of this history can be found in the numerous ‘Jamaica Streets’ found in many Scottish towns and cities. Much of present day Glasgow and Edinburgh was built on the slave trade, with Glassford Street, Buchanan Street and Dundas Street named after merchants who made or added to their fortunes through the slave trade. Even our national poet, Robert Burns, accepted a position on a plantation in Jamaica before the timely success of his poetry meant he did not take it up.
Slavery had existed throughout history but the Triangular Slave Trade, which evolved in the 17th and 18th centuries, was on an unparalleled scale. African people were enslaved through the triangular slave trade for economic reasons and it was this supply of free labour which made it possible for Europe to generate enormous wealth. With their economies now dependent on African labour, Europeans at home and abroad found it necessary to rationalise and justify this exploitation in racist terms. Many of the myths and stereotypes which are at the root of racist attitudes today derive from the convenient social, cultural and biological ‘theories’ propounded at this time.
The transatlantic slave trade changed Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and South America economically, demographically and culturally. British involvement lasted nearly 300 years during which time it is estimated that between 10 and 12 million African people were forcibly removed from their homes and taken to plantations in the Caribbean and North and South America to work under the harshest of conditions. The impact of this depopulation of African countries and its contribution to the continued exploitation and resulting poverty there cannot be overemphasised.
The Abolitionist movement grew steadily in Europe and the United States. However, it is important to note that the most intense opposition to slavery was by enslaved Africans themselves. Acts of resistance took place at every stage of African enslavement: from struggles in Africa to rebellions during the transatlantic crossing, and the escapes and uprisings at the voyage end in the Americas.
The Abolitionist movement was one of the first mass human rights movements to involve a coalition of people that crossed communities and continents. The tactics developed then – lobbying of MPs, rallies, boycotts and letter writing – are still used in campaigns today. In addition, the reasons why many were opposed (or merely apathetic) to the abolition of the slave trade resonate uncannily with arguments many make today, in response to demands for social justice involving equal pay, the minimum wage, health care and the like.
There is still a vital need to educate pupils about the impact of the slave trade on the African continent and its legacies for today. False and negative views of Africa and Africans were used to justify the Transatlantic Slave Trade and colonisation. However, in reality the civilisations of Egypt, Ghana and Mali among others made many important discoveries in science, medicine, astronomy, mathematics, philosophy, and architecture long before Europeans did. Africans and the African continent made many significant contributions to the shaping of the modern world which have been denied or ignored because of the pervasiveness of the Eurocentric and racist views developed at the time of the slave trade.
Justification for the slave trade involved redefining African humanity to the world: poisoning past, present and future relations with people who know them only through this stereotyping. As such it constituted the destruction of culture, language, religion and, to an enormous extent, human potential.
The ‘export’ of so many people over the centuries of the Transatlantic Slave Trade was a demographic disaster. It left Africa permanently disadvantaged when compared to other parts of the world and is a major cause of the continent's continued poverty. All areas of the economy were disrupted by the slave trade as rulers and merchants abandoned traditional industries to pursue slaving and the working population was depleted and in disarray.
Slavery is not just a part of our past but is still with us in many forms in the present. Although many forms of exploitation are not called slavery now the conditions are the same as people are sold like objects or are forced to work for little or no pay at the mercy of their so called employers. Forms of modern slavery include bonded labour, child labour, people trafficking, early and forced marriage and child soldiers.