Comments on: The abolition of the slave trade http://www.lynnefeatherstone.org/2007/05/abolition-of-slave-trade.htm Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey and Wood Green Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:02:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: devshirme http://www.lynnefeatherstone.org/2007/05/abolition-of-slave-trade.htm/comment-page-1#comment-484 devshirme Sat, 26 May 2007 11:25:00 +0000 http://localhost/wp28/?p=1181#comment-484 Shouldn't the title of your post be "The abolition of the <i>British</i> slave trade"?<br/><br/>Slavery has been practiced for a long time by many people, and has been legal far more recently than 200 years ago.<br/><br/>I don't mind that we remember what happened in the British Empire, and remember how our ancestors abolished it. It is vital that we do. But in the interests of racial equality we should be careful not to only highlight white slave traders, and ignore all those of different races. We also shouldn't concentrate on one particular case, and ignore the psychological, economic, and historical consequences of all the others. Shouldn't we celebrate aniversaries of the closing of the Gulag or Laogai? Shouldn't we remember the Barbary corsairs and the great slave markets of the Middle East? How about Mauritania?<br/><br/>What people did 200 years ago has little moral bearing on us; what we are saying and doing about slavery going on today <i>does</i>. Shouldn’t the title of your post be “The abolition of the British slave trade”?

Slavery has been practiced for a long time by many people, and has been legal far more recently than 200 years ago.

I don’t mind that we remember what happened in the British Empire, and remember how our ancestors abolished it. It is vital that we do. But in the interests of racial equality we should be careful not to only highlight white slave traders, and ignore all those of different races. We also shouldn’t concentrate on one particular case, and ignore the psychological, economic, and historical consequences of all the others. Shouldn’t we celebrate aniversaries of the closing of the Gulag or Laogai? Shouldn’t we remember the Barbary corsairs and the great slave markets of the Middle East? How about Mauritania?

What people did 200 years ago has little moral bearing on us; what we are saying and doing about slavery going on today does.

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