When is the Muslim world going to apologize for its slave raids in Central and Eastern Europe that made off with millions of captives?
asserted
that → go → captives
Not any time soon, we can assume, since no one is asking it to apologize and presumably no one ever will.
asserted
one → assume → it
The same isn’t true in the United Kingdom, where there’s a hot debate over whether the country should apologize over its participation in the transatlantic slave trade — in what would be a stark expression of double standards and Western guilt.
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what → ’ → standards
Prime Minister Andy Burnham, whose contemporary Labour Party has a taste for self-abasement, wants to have “difficult conversations” over such an apology, and says that it’s “the patriotic thing to do.”
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it → have → apology
He is “offering a structured dialogue with those affected by the transatlantic slave trade,” never mind that Britain abolished the trade more than two centuries ago.
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Britain → offer → trade
It’s perverse for the UK — pressured by Caribbean countries within the British Commonwealth — to consider a formal apology, given that slavery was a universal phenomenon and Britain had an honored role in snuffing it out.
asserted
Britain → ’ → it
The ancient Egyptians embraced slavery, and so did the Greeks and Romans.
asserted
Greeks → embrace → slavery
After the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, the Byzantines, the Vikings and Central Asian societies all relied on slave labor.
asserted
Byzantines → rely → labor
They weren’t alone; the institution spanned every type of society.
asserted
institution → span → society
Historian Stewart Gordon notes that Ethiopia’s legal code in the mid-13th century “recognized slaves as central to the economy and defined the acquisition and holding of slaves as the natural order of things.”
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code → note → things
In the 16th century, he writes, Ethiopia “was a full slave society.”
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Ethiopia → write → century
The transatlantic slave trade couldn’t have operated without the participation of West African rulers, who took slavery for granted long before European slavers showed up and continued the practice after they left.
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they → operate → practice
Something that’s almost never mentioned in the debate over accountability for slavery is that North African slave traders enslaved enormous numbers of white Europeans between the 16th and 18th centuries.
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traders → mention → centuries
Also inconvenient to an anti-Western narrative is that, as James Walvin writes in his book “A Short History of Slavery”: “Islamic societies were characterized by the widespread and generally unchallenged use of slavery.
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characterized → write → slavery
“But as Islam spread between the 8th and 15th centuries, and especially to black Africa, it extended and confirmed the commonplace use of slavery and slave trading.”
As part of the so-called Arab slave trade, more than a million slaves were taken from East Africa in the 19th century, and the flow continued apace into the 20th century.
asserted
flow → spread → century
According to Gordon, “Perhaps the last large-scale movement of East African slaves to the Middle East was in the 1920s.
uncertain
movement → accord → 1920s
Britain, beginning in earnest in the 17th century, became a central cog in the transatlantic slave trade, an industrial-scale enterprise of stomach-turning cruelty.
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Britain → begin → cruelty
Its ships transported millions of slaves, while the plantation economies of its Caribbean possessions depended on slave labor.
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economies → transport → labor
Then, in an extraordinary triumph of morality over unjust profit-making, William Wilberforce and his fellow abolitionists convinced British society to abolish the slave trade — and eventually slavery itself.
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Wilberforce → convince → trade
If the institution of slavery was very old, the influence of this Christian-driven attitude to human rights was new.
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influence → drive → rights
The British went further than simply turning their back on slavery: They used their navy to suppress the slave trade, and their diplomatic sway to push other countries to give up the trade as well.
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They → go → trade
At considerable cost to itself in terms of military effort and financial resources (it paid off Spain, for instance), the United Kingtom did much more than its share to make abolition the international norm — on top of its other outsized contributions to the creation of the modern world.
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abolition → pay → world
Rather than contemplating a groveling apology, the UK’s attitude should be this: “A simple ‘thank you’ will suffice.”
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attitude → contemplate → you
The Aporia
