Tag Archives: slave trade

The transatlantic trade in Africans was founded on a misguided interpretation of Christianity. Prince Henry of Portugal, “the Navigator” (1394-1460), put Europe’s aggressive and ruthless expeditions to Africa in motion. It was during this period that the feudal European states began to unite. Henry taught men to sail down the …

Iron shackles bound the African enslaved people together as they journeyed across the Atlantic. They were bound tightly. These shackles created physical scars, but the emotional ones begun long before. The Africans were taken from their homes on various pretexts, never sure when and if they would return. Their pain …

“[…] What is this claim that human people have been thrown overboard? This is a case of chattels or goods. Blacks are goods and property; it is madness to accuse these well-serving, honourable men of murder. “They acted out of necessity and in the most appropriate manner for the cause. …

“I am the sugar at the bottom of the English cup of tea. I am the sweet tooth, the sugar plantations that rotted generations of English children’s teeth. “There are thousands of others beside me that are, you know, the cup of tea itself […] Because they don’t grow it …

“You must also study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time. People on every continent have stood in your shoes through decades and centuries before you.” John Lewis, July 2020. This week marked the commemoration of …

“The history that is accountable to the enslaved cannot fulfil our yearning for romance, our desire to hear the subaltern speak, our search for the subaltern as a heroic actor whose agency triumphs over the forces of oppression…what comes into view instead are the inner workings of power and violence.” …

Buckingham Palace announced on Thursday 8th September 2022 the death of Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth, as per her official title. That announcement seemed to evoke powerful emotions from around the world and not just among the Royal family and the British people.  The world is now in mourning. All …

True story: ‘In 1919—over 80 years after Emancipation—a Trinidadian petitioned the King for compensation for 31 freed persons previously owned by his grandfather, which he claimed had never been paid.’ It’s one of the astonishing tales recounted by Professor Emerita Bridget Brereton in her newly released book, History Matters: Selected …

“[…] The very prosperity that slavery brought to British capital was to eventually make slavery redundant. The capital accumulated throughout slavery led to investments in science, technology and engineering, created the industrial revolution, brought into being productive forces based on machinery, speeded up the process of proletarianisation of the British …

“Racism has been Europe’s greatest gift to the world.” So said Dr Eric Williams, the first Prime Minister of T&T (Selwyn Cudjoe, Eric Williams Speaks). Of course, Williams was being sarcastic. If racism was a gift to the world, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the greatest gift …

“During Christopher Columbus’ second voyage, reports of his conduct raised serious questions in Spain about his character. In 1500, during his third voyage, his reputation hit rock bottom. “Columbus, together with his brothers Bartholomew and Diego, was arrested by royal commissioner Francisco de Bobadilla, sent back to Spain in chains …

“There is a closer nexus between the process of Emancipation Day and Labour Day than many of us seek to understand… According to Brereton, ‘the planters after 1838 wanted to make freedom merely a nominal change in status, while the [formerly enslaved] wanted to win a real economic independence of …