African Slavery: no philosophical justifications

I am putting this in the Philosophy section because there are people on this site who are trying to make philosophical justifications for the European whites who enslaved black Africans, by saying things like, "The Africans sold their fellow brothers and sisters to the Europeans", and, "There was already slavery in Africa at the time when the Europeans arrived."

First, there is no argument to the factual reality of what is said. It is true, there was already slavery in Africa and some of these slaves were sold to the Europeans. Yet to use this as an argument against someone who has stated that the European enslavement of Africans was brutal and beastly is completely nonsensical. The facts of slavery cannot be denied and to do so, or to try and soften it by making the above arguments, shows a real sense of bigotry and ignorance. For over 350 years people of African descent were systematically, with government approval and support, subjected to some of the most brutal and unimaginable torture the world has ever seen. The effects of these atrocities not only still linger about today, but will for decades upon decades of more years into the future.

Hate begets hate, just as violence begets violence. The Europeans hatred for people of African descent has been adopted by some people of African descent. This is not good or healthy for anyone, including these people. But it is justified to a certain extent, not just because of what happened in the past, but because there are still closet racists who make statements like the ones above, only refueling the fire. There is no justification for the 350+ years of European enslavement of the African people, none! So disagree with the people of African descent who are still angry and hateful because of past events, but do not try to justify or soften the torture, genocide and enslavement of tens of millions of people by saying, "They sold their own people to us", or, "They already were slaves".

Have some compassion for the suffering of all parties involved, disagree with hateful statements, and leave it at that.

reply to post by LifeIsEnergy


How about..... "It was 150+ years ago, let it go already"? We need to learn from ALL of our past faults as humans, not relive them everytime someone says something "bad" about black people.

I couldn't disagree.

I remember playing AoE when I was young, and that had always set me thinking that the people in the past were a corrupted bunch, whole civilizations pushed by the minds of a few, and that even though we now know the things they done and the way they acted to certain aspects were compassion-less and ignorant but if I lived in any of those times when I thought they were wrong it probably would've been completely normal to me. We look back on slavery with knowledge of it behind us, and we carry on learning.

Hello OP,

I think your comment is addressed to me. I was the one who mentioned Africans often sold vanquished enemies to the European slavers. This is a historical fact, but I most certainly did not mean to imply that this practice condoned European slave trade.
Africans weren't the only victims of slavery. The Native Americans were often captured and sold; it was even known that the occasional European was enslaved. Indentured servitude, while absolutely incomparable to slavery, was still horrific.
So many injustices in our past...the question now is how to move on?

S&F

I love how it's only the whites who get the blame for the slave trade. The Middle East was still going at it after the US abolished slavery. It's become a non-issue since no one is left alive in the US who actually owned slaves or was a slave. [When it was common practice, not the modern incarnations]