SLAVERY HISTORY & THE AFRICAN COMPLICITY: Africans Captured and Sold Other Africans into Slavery

FactReal ^ | 7/14/2010 | FactReal

[FactReal]

"...[M]any Africans...accumulated enormous wealth and power as a result of the trade of their fellow Africans."
"Not only was slavery an established institution in West Africa before European traders arrived, but Africans were also involved in a trans-Saharan trade in slaves along these routes."

CONFRONTING THE LEGACY OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE By Zayde Antrim
...While the Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, English and French slave traders were often brutal, they were not always working alone -- many Africans were also complicit in this victimization. Precolonial empires such as Dahomey and Ashanti (located in what is now Benin and Ghana), where slave ports at Ouidah and Elmina flourished, accumulated enormous wealth and power as a result of the trade of their fellow Africans. In fact, Europeans often acted as junior partners to African rulers, merchants, and middlemen in the slave trade along the West African coast from the mid-15th century on...

[chipper dave]

Yep, but what blacks know or believe this?

[Paladin2]

Don’t forget the current Muslim Slave traders/owners.

[afraidfortherepublic]

So?

And Obama’s family were part Arab and most likely were slavers themselves. What difference does it make to us today?

[svcw]

To the headline: who doesn’t know this except liberals, democrats and blacks?

[Enchante]

(1) African slavery had been conducted by ARAB and MUSLIM slave traders for many centuries before it ever began to spread toward the Americas;

(2) OF COURSE the European slave traders were not “working alone” -— they were tapping into existing “slave markets” of the African empires which then grew further in response to the “demand” for slaves in the Americas;

Nothing excuses any slavery and brutality in the “west” but the prevalent propaganda against everything associated with DWEMs (”dead white European males”) is rancid political correctness gone amok.

Arab, Muslim, and “black” African sources of the slave trades provided many many centuries of the worst kinds of depravity, for long before and indeed well after the duration of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

[Maverick68]

Africans are still trading slaves...

[5thGenTexan]

Actually, slavery was a large part of African society long before the Colonies existed. It was a common practice between tribes. Generally, slaves were taken/returned at the conclusion of inter-tribal wars and conflicts just like land.

The Colonies were just the first place they "exported" slaves to. And since there needed to be something to exchange, the trade aspect came into the equation.

I am old enough to have actually read this in a history book in school. It was not a huge part, but it did show up in the text setting the stage for the slave trade discussion.

[Sister_T]

Nothing excuses any slavery and brutality in the “west” but the prevalent propaganda against everything associated with DWEMs (”dead white European males”) is rancid political correctness gone amok.

Your whole post was excellent but this quote points out why this information is necessary. Are we really to suppose that a bunch of Europeans, who probably never set foot in Africa, knew exactly where to "kidnap" these people to make them slaves? Or perhaps they just grabbed them from off the coastline? No, these guys had help and it is important that this information provided in the opening post gets out there.

It galls me that there is this hatred preached towards whites for slavery by some in the black community yet Muslims, Arabs and Africans get a pass. Arabs probably started the slave trade in Africa, but there is no outrage directed at them from the black community overall.

There is this push to "go back to Africa", in terms of hairstyles, dress and "knowing our heritage" yet there is no outrage directed at the Africa countries who participated in the slave trade.

Heck, Muslims of the past enslaved and are enslaving Africans TO THIS DAY, yet there is no outrage towards them in the black community. Indeed, there are some in the black community who feel we should cast off the "white man's religion" of Christianity because of its supposed role in slavery and that we should embrace Islam yet the Muslim's role in the slave trade predates the supposed Christian's role in it.

I don't get it.

[cld51860]

Native American and South American tribes also indulged in slavery, but usually as a result of war/prisoners, etc. Not necessarily a “trade,” per se. They preyed on each other constantly, then took whites as slaves when the Europeans arrived. Slavery is as old as mankind.

[popdonnelly]

So did muslims - and they held black African lives to be extremely cheap.

[999replies]

The headline should have mentioned Muslims as the first slave sellers of blacks, which they were.

[Dick Bachert]

Reparations for slavery?

When a black woman is one of the richest people in America?

When a black man was Secretary of State??

When a black woman was Secretary of State?

When black men have sat — and do sit — on the Supreme Court??

When a black would-be despot sits in the White House?????

When countless black men have risen to the top of the ranks of the richest in professional sports and show business?? Men like Hank Aaron. Men like Bill Cosby who... (Never mind. As we all know, Bill’s either an Uncle Tom or Oreo Cookie, depending on which black race pimp you listen to.)

And, how about Liberation Theology?

Liberation from WHAT? The chance to achieve and succeed??

Give me a break!!

Let me make it clear right up front: I am NOT a racist. I supported Herman Cain in his run for the Senate. And if he ever runs again, I would probably support him again.

I also consider Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams two of the finest economists and minds extant today. In case you don’t know them, both are black.

Sowell, Williams and Cain – among others — have spoken out against those fellow blacks who castigate and vilify America for a slavery now long in our past. And ALL thinking men and women oppose the periodic calls for reparations. (When he ran, I supported Alan Keyes. I even spoke in his stead on the RTKABA at a Capitol rally and was asked to fill in for him on his radio show at the time. Sadly, while I still consider Alan a good man, I have had to rethink my support since he came out FOR reparations.)

The fact is that the modern descendants of slaves brought here in chains in admittedly miserable, soul-gutting conditions now calling for reparations need to remember something:

They should not only be glad to be in America, they should be glad to be ANYWHERE!

Had their ancestors NOT been brought OUT of Africa – many by Muslim slave raiders —the blood of those ancestors would have run into the earth over there several centuries ago, victims of the OTHER black tribes that captured them in one of the interminable tribal conflicts STILL ravaging that sad continent and these modern day would-be “plaintiffs” would not even exist.

And I would remind you that slavery is STILL practiced in parts of Africa (mainly by – American BLACK muslims LISTEN UP!! — MUSLIMS) and Asia today.

95% of the African slaves who were transported across the Atlantic went to South and Central America, mainly to Portuguese, Spanish and French possessions, and that less than 5% of the slaves who crossed the Atlantic went to the United States, it was remarkable that the vast majority of academic research, films, books and articles concerning the slave trade concentrated only on the American involvement, as though slavery was a uniquely American aberration.

And should the great-great-great grandchildren of SLAVE OWNING BLACKS also be subject to PAYING these reparations? If so, how do we find THEM?

And I have traced MY family back to the SLAVS. Although the term looks to be related to “slave,” depending on your source, it either means “glory” or “worshipper.” But my family research indicates that many of my of my ancestors LIVED lives of virtual slavery to some despot or other. Do I qualify for reparations? From whom?? And it begs a question: Are most of us now living here headed into a modern form off that servitude? But that’s a topic for another discussion.

The official US Census of 1830 lists 3,775 free blacks who owned 12,740 black slaves. Furthermore, the story outlines the history of slavery here, and the first slave owner, the Father of American slavery, was Mr Anthony Johnson, of Northampton, Virginia. His slave was John Casor, the first slave for life. Both were black Africans. The story is very readable, and outlines cases of free black women owning their husbands, free black parents selling their children into slavery to white owners, and absentee free black slave owners, who leased their slaves to plantation owners.
-”Selling Poor Steven”, American Heritage Magazine, Feb/Mar 1993 (Vol. 441) p 90

Of course, a full telling of Black History would not be complete without a telling of the origin of slavery in the Virginia colony:
Virginia, Guide to The Old Dominion, WPA Writers’ Program, Oxford University Press, NY, 1940, p. 378

And the holier-than-thou Northern liberals are strangely silent on recent archeological evidence from NEW YORK CITY clearly tracing the financing of the slave trade to NORTHERN BUSINESSMEN!!

At the height of his remarkable boxing career, Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Clay), once declared “I’m glad my great-grandpa got on that boat.”

And speaking of ancestors, my paternal grandmother’s daddy joined with the 80th Ohio Volunteer Infantry early in the War Between the States (reupped twice) and fought on the Union side at Chickamauga, Vicksburg, Jackson then joined up with Sherman for that infamous march to the sea through Georgia. My wife’s great-great grandpappy ALSO fought for the Union. While I revere the memory of my ancestors, inasmuch as that conflict was less about slavery than it was the economic exploitation and abuse of the South by the North, I fear they MAY have been on the wrong side.

Author Robert Hitt Neill tells of attending a Tennessee Mountain Writer’s Conference years ago with several other authors. Among them was Alex Hailey, celebrated author of “Roots.” Watching a TV news show, a group of them watched a demonstration in a Southern state against the “Rebel” flag incorporated into that state’s flag. The very next report covered a famine in Africa. Graphic images showed dead bodies, starving children with distended tummies and runny noses and dying people covered with flies, too weak to brush them away.

Mr. Hailey intoned in a low, serious voice, “Every time an American black sees a story like that, they should find a Confederate flag and kiss it.” He then pointed to the TV screen and continued, “Because these would be me and my descendants, except for American slavery. I thank God that my family and I are here instead of there.”

Next problem!
Dick Bachert

[US Navy Vet]

True Black American History here: http://shop.wallbuilders.com/index/page/category/category_id/4/category_chain/4/name/Black+History/

[Enchante]

excellent post, thanks!

Another comparison which is little known is that the “native American” tribes (many of them), so sainted (according to politically correct worshippers), routinely practiced forms of war raids, abduction, and slavery which included (1) ritual tortures and murders of adult males captured, and (2) effective enslavement of women and children to fill out the working population of the tribe.

It is simply not the case that European and US societies were somehow uniquely evil while all around them were saintly multi-cultural paradises. Nothing excuses anyone’s evil behaviors (of course one can also argue about various changing historical standards of acceptability etc.), but in recent decades we have seen (especially in the cultural “progressive” left on campuses etc.) this ludicrous idea that the two countries which effectively ENDED the slave trade across much of the globe (the UK and the USA) are somehow so much worse than all of the Arab, Muslim, and/or African societies which developed and perpetuated slavery for so many centuries.

[baseballmom]

Interesting read, thanks for posting.

[seekthetruth]

Thank you for starting this thread. There is so much that is unknown by many Americans concerning the beginnings of slavery and also the history of racism in America.

For those who wish to learn the truth, here is the link to go to. Just read the writings of Frances Rice, Chairman of the National Black Republican Association.
http://www.nbra.info/index.cfm?fuseaction=pages.chairscorner&x=2627150

If you ever get a chance to go to an event where Frances Rice is speaking, don't miss it! Frances Rice is a Floridian and I was fortunate to get to meet Frances at a Tea Party event last year. I look forward to attending any event where she may be speaking! I will be sure to post any interviews and appearances Frances may have in the near future.

[ryan71]

NAACP, Jesse, Al they’re still in the business and business is GOOOOOOD!

[MindBender26]

The reality is that the White Man had noting to do with the capturing and sales of slaves until they were sold to the White slave traders at the sea coast slave forts in west Africa.

At the old slave forts in Ghana, they proudly tell the story that salves were men and women who had lost wars to other ccompeting tribes. They are proud of themselves as victors, and even today, despise and demean black Americans who return.

They love to say to the shocked Black American visitors “I am the son of a warrior king. You are the sons and daughters of his slaves.”

To give you an idea how much this was a wholly internal African trade, Sengbe Pieh, the protagonist in the mostly true “Amistad” story, returned to Africa after his stay in America where he had been freed through the efforts of John Quincy Adams. after he was retired from the Presidency. It is generally believed that he died much later in life, a very rich slave trader!

[MindBender26]

The reality is that the White Man had noting to do with the capturing and sales of slaves until they were sold to the White slave traders at the sea coast slave forts in west Africa.

At the old slave forts in Ghana, they proudly tell the story that salves were men and women who had lost wars to other ccompeting tribes. They are proud of themselves as victors, and even today, despise and demean black Americans who return.

They love to say to the shocked Black American visitors “I am the son of a warrior king. You are the sons and daughters of his slaves.”

To give you an idea how much this was a wholly internal African trade, Sengbe Pieh, known in Ameirca as "Cinque," the protagonist in the mostly true “Amistad” story, returned to Africa after his stay in America where he had been freed through the efforts of John Quincy Adams. after he was retired from the Presidency. It is generally believed that he died much later in life, a very rich slave trader!