200 year anniversary of abolition of slavery

This anniversary is something that has been in the news a lot over the past couple of weeks.
BBC4 and BBC2 have dedicated a lot of air time to the subject and there have been some very informative, not to mention emotive programmes.
The suffering was terrible, and treatment abominable, but perhaps one of the most interesting and controversial programmes (on C4 I think) was about a young man who decided to trace his slave roots from Britain, to the West Indies and from there back to Africa.
What he found shocked and appalled him. He had writings from an ancestor actually praising his "master" and saying what a benelovant guy he was. On further investigation, when he went to Africa (sorry, I can't remember the country) he found, through descriptions of tribal scars, the area his ancestor was from, and was horrified to find that young children who were considered to be "wild" or "out of control" were routinely sold as slaves, the village elders he spoke to were completely matter of fact about this and did not seem to think it bad or unusual. He came away from his journey (the spiritual journey) extremely confused.
I know that the U.S. is far different from Britain as far as treatment of ethnic minorities is concerned, and I have no wish to offend, because of a lack of understanding of the issues in the U.S.
In Britain, whilst Afro-Caribbean people were subject to extreme racism when they first came to these shores, I believe that this has now changed to a great extent.
Of course there is still lots of work to do, and we will never be entirely free from the specter of racism, but I am sure that Britain is one of the most tolerant nations on earth as far as accepting people from other cultures goes.
For those in Britain who read this, let me say that I am of Irish descent, and still remember my Father and Mother telling me about the lodging house signs that used to read "No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish" - and whilst I have not experienced this myself, I find it incredibly sad that humans could treat each other this way less than 40 years ago.
I can only say that Britain has come a long way, but the journey is not yet over.

Ack! I had a post all typed out and lost it.

Short version.

Listening to the Interviews with Slaves that I linked in this post was very interesting. I learned that many slaves were really pretty content with their lives. I've listened to several hours of these interviews and it's really eye-opening.

And it's fascinating knowing that these were really slaves (in the US) and not the descendants of slaves, who may be far removed from the reality of that time.

Secondly, I think it's a shame that real black history isn't taught in our schools OR during Black History Month. As you said, many blacks had slaves and sold their own children into slavery. I think if we ALL acknowledged the truth about the past, much of the tensions would be relieved between blacks and whites in the US. Whites and Blacks had slaves and sold and bought slaves. But here in the US, only whites get blamed for it to this day. :shk:

not entirely sure what you mean as I live in Britain

who was it who said

"2 countries separated by a common language"
may need to clarify certain points

without prejudice (Steven Seagal Hollywood Line)

No problem. What part didn't you understand? Or is it all of it?

I'm not really saying anything... Just that I found it interesting listening to the voices of the past and that unless one looks information up on the Internet (or is fortunate enough to have a show that talks about it as you do) it's not widely known that blacks had slaves and sold slaves.

I wasn't really trying to make much of a point, just adding to your original post. (I thought)

well thnx for ur input
lol
do u live in the U.S.?

hmmm
nice profile
;-)

Hey, budski.

Down here in Texas, we have a holiday called Juneteenth. It celebrates the end of chattel slavery in Texas. It's becoming more and more popular, and I think it might even be spreading out of Texas.

cool
I take it that the date is the name lol

be there in spirit

Originally posted by budski
do u live in the U.S.?

Yes, I live in the high desert of the Southwest US.

Oh, yeah, you're right.

The date is June 19th.

I had never considered that the slaves might have been content...

That opens a whole new window of thought!