U.S. Slave Descendants Claim Damages Against Lloyds

Reuters ^ | 3-29-04

[Oldeconomybuyer]

LONDON (Reuters) - Descendants of black American slaves said Monday they planned to sue London's oldest insurance firm, Lloyds, for compensation for allegedly underwriting the ships used in the slave trade.

Their lawyer, Ed Fagan, said Lloyds played a significant part in the human trade and insisted black American slave descendants had as much right to damages as any other people subjected to genocide.

"Lloyds knew that what they were doing led to the destruction of the indigenous population," Fagan, who is well-known for his role is fighting claims for victims of the Holocaust, told BBC radio.

"They took people, they put them on ships, and they wiped out their identity."

Slavery was abolished in the British empire in the 1830s and around 30 years later in the United States. But more than 10 million people are thought to have been traded as slaves at west African ports and herded onto ships bound for America in the 1700s and early 1800s.

Fagan, who is expected to file the claim in New York on Monday, rejected charges that the case was based on events too far in the past.

"Why is it too far fetched to say that blacks should be entitled to compensation for damages and genocide committed against them, when every other people in the world... that has been victimized in this way has been entitled to compensation?"

A spokeswoman for Lloyds in London said the firm had not seen the claim, and so was not in a position to comment.

But she added that previous claims regarding slavery involving lawyers had been dismissed with prejudice.

One of the claimants, Deadria Farmer-Paellman, told BBC radio she had not doubt Lloyds bore some responsibility for her lack of identity.

"They are responsible because they played a role in enslaving African Americans -- or at least our ancestors," she said. "And part of the slave trade included genocide -- the destruction of ethnic and national identities."

"Today I suffer from the injury of not knowing who I am -- having no nationality or ethnic group as a result of acts committed by these parties."

Fagan won fame for representing victims of the Holocaust and is currently leading a string of multi-million-dollar lawsuits in the United States against multinational companies which he says should pay compensation for benefiting from the apartheid regime in South Africa, which ended in 1994.

[leadpenny]

Maybe someone will post that pic of a distressed man with the caption, "Not this $h!# again!"

[Qwinn]

"They are responsible because they played a role in enslaving African Americans -- or at least our ancestors,"

Someone ought to inform them that anyone who could possibly be referred to by the term "they" at the beginning of that sentence has been dead for over 200 years.

Qwinn

[Bahbah]

FYI

[cyborg]

These people are relentless. The British, aside from the Dutch, were first to outlaw slavery. Obviously these folks have no clue how GOOD England was to her former colonies and slaves afterwards esp. in the British West Indies. Give me a break. Can she draw a DIRECT connection to enslavement? She probably cannot. If she can't then she needs to shut up.

[2banana]

Where is my money?

A million Europeans enslaved

(Washington Times March 11, 2004 )

REUTERS NEWS AGENCY

An American historian says that more than a million Europeans were enslaved by North African slave traders between 1530 and 1780, a time of vigorous Mediterranean and Atlantic coastal piracy.

The number of white European slaves is only a fraction of the trade that brought 10 million to 12 million black African slaves to the Americas over a 400-year period, historian Robert Davis says, but his research shows the slave trade was more widespread than commonly assumed. The impact on Europe's white population was significant.

"One of the things that both the public and many scholars have tended to take as given is that slavery was always racial in nature — that only blacks have been slaves. But that is not true," said Mr. Davis, an Ohio State University professor.

"Enslavement was a very real possibility for anyone who traveled in the Mediterranean, or who lived along the shores in places like Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, and even as far north as England and Iceland."

In a new book, "Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800," Mr. Davis calculates that between 1 million and 1.25 million Europeans were captured by pirates called "corsairs" and forced to work in North Africa during that period.

The raids were so aggressive that entire Mediterranean seaside towns were abandoned by frightened residents. "Much of what has been written gives the impression that there were not many slaves and minimizes the impact that slavery had on Europe.

"Most accounts only look at slavery in one place, or only for a short period of time. But when you take a broader, longer view, the massive scope of this slavery and its powerful impact become clear."

The pirates, sailing from such cities as Tunis and Algiers, raided ships in the Mediterranean and Atlantic as well as seaside villages to capture men, women and children, he says. They were put to work in quarries, in heavy construction and as oarsmen in the pirates' galleys.

Mr. Davis calculated his estimates using records that indicate how many slaves were at a particular location at a single time. He then estimated how many new slaves it would take to replace slaves as they died, escaped or were ransomed.

"It is not the best way to make population estimates, but it is the only way with the limited records available."

AND

http://www.uwec.edu/Geography/Ivogeler/w188/south/charles/charles3.htm

Domestic slavery was quite common in West Africa, although the Europeans organized the trade to a much greater magnitude and value. Free black slaveowners resided in states as north as New York and as far south as Florida, extending westward into Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Missouri. According to the federal census of 1830, free blacks owned more than 10,000 slaves in Louisiana, Maryland, South Carolina, and Virginia. The majority of black slaveowners lived in Louisiana and planted sugar cane. The majority of black masters had not been slaves themselves. Yet, the ranks of black slave masters were diverse: some acquired slaves as soon as they had accumulated enough capital after their own freedom, others received slaves with their own freedom from their white masters, and others had been free for several generations.

[Bahbah]

""Today I suffer from the injury of not knowing who I am -- having no nationality or ethnic group as a result of acts committed by these parties."

This is such a pathetic statement, I don't know where to begin.

[cyborg]

She suffers the injuries of a blood sucking lawyer parasite.

[AlbertWang]

This is such a pathetic statement, I don't know where to begin.

How about we begin by disbarring this lawyer, as they are a waste of air and court time.

[Bahbah]

"How about we begin by disbarring this lawyer...."
Unfortunately, there is no chance of this. Many lawyers worship at the feet of those who manage to turn these schemes into pile of money, for themselves.

[Lokibob]

Get off her whiny ass, start digging in the records, and look for her ancesters, If it is that important.

[CaptRon]

I do. It's just pop-psychololgy crap.

[stainlessbanner]

Farmer-Paellmann: "These are corporations that benefited from stealing people."

[tiamat]

I'm mostly of Irish decent. My family left Ireland due to the Potato Famine.

Who do I sue?

[mhking]

One of the claimants, Deadria Farmer-Paellman, told BBC radio she had not doubt Lloyds bore some responsibility for her lack of identity.

She chooses not to "know who she is."

She wants a "lottery winning." (or is it lottery whining?)

Black conservative ping

If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)

Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.

[TomGuy]

If they want reparations, why don't they sue the African tribes that sold their ancestors to the Europeans, Americans, Arabs, and any other persons/companies who had the money?

[traumer]

I think I am ENTITLED to $omething too....

:oO

[MindBender26]

"Today I suffer from the injury of not knowing who I am -- having no nationality or ethnic group as a result of acts committed by these parties."

According to this logic, every orphan in the world should be consigned to failure.

She can not trace her "Roots" back more than 5 generations. Young orphans can't go back 5 years.

In addition, she may not know how lucky she is. I have a few relatives, such as the 1873 Ohio horse thief, that we would all rather forget.....

[azhenfud]

"They took people, they put them on ships, and they wiped out their identity."

For a more relevant truth - Fagan needs a history lesson.

"In Africa there were a number of societies and kingdoms which kept slaves, before there was any regular commercial contact with Europeans, including the Asanti, the Kings of Bonny and Dahomey."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/9chapter1.shtml

[robowombat]

Actually the Moorish sea rovers were more agressive than even depicted here. At leas one village in England was raided in the 17th century and slave raids on the coast of Ireland were quite common up until the 18th century. The sea rovers from Salee in Morocco even made a habit of raiding as far north as Iceland where the fair haired females and strong young males were particularly prized for the slave marts. Somehow none of this gets into the history books.