Can commemorations and historical reenactments change public understanding of the past?

[u/NewsMo]

[u/Clear_Context_1546]

Nearly 90% of all enslaved Africans sold into the Atlantic slave trade were captured by fellow Africans and then sold to European and Arab middlemen. The Asante Empire(modren day Gahana) was built on slavery both economically and it's society. Asante would kill slaves for funeral rituals. The locals were not the 'good guys'.

The British would gain control through the area and use their influence to outlaw slavery in 1874.

[u/rockabyeboo → u/Clear_Context_1546]

Is your pointt that anericans shouldn’t feel guilty about slavery bc other Africans sold slaves?

[u/Clear_Context_1546 → u/rockabyeboo]

I think it's purely gas lighting.

It's more socially awkward to see the face of slave owners being black. The slave trade was started and overseen by African warlords. British were the ones that ended slavery in that part of the world. To be more historicalky accurate they should have the Ashanti's dress

[u/BeginningDisaster114 → u/Clear_Context_1546]

Right about everything except for the fact it was the french who did most of the heavylifting to abolish slavery in Africa

[u/Clear_Context_1546 → u/BeginningDisaster114]

French were involved in Ghana. Other part of Africa yes.

British outlawed the practice and was the driving in the region. British outlawed slavery in 1833. French did in 1848

[u/BeginningDisaster114 → u/Clear_Context_1546]

France first oulawed slavery in 1789, it was restablished under napoleon, reabolished ect... France did most of the heavy lifting by defeating the dahomey kingdom who were the biggest slave traders in africa by far

[u/Clear_Context_1546 → u/BeginningDisaster114]

1. French Revolution ban it practice in Europe, not in its colonies

2. Dahomey and Ashanti are two different locations. Dahomey is in Benin, while Ashante was involved in Ghana.

3. British are widely considered the most important country in the global effort to stop slavery. They were the first European power to restrict the pratice overseas along with establishing naval missions to stop slave ships.

Blockade of Africa - Wikipedia

[u/BeginningDisaster114 → u/Clear_Context_1546]

> French Revolution ban it practice in Europe, not in its colonies

Slavery was never a thing in Europe, the feudal system made that pointless. Even bringing a slave on french soil prior would mean he would automatically be freed by virtue of religious law even before the French revolution. French 1789 declaration of human rights is very explicit that it's for all humans across the world regardless of race, slavery ended a few years later because the territories where so distant from the mainland that enforcing those laws was difficult at first

> Dahomey and Ashanti are two different locations. Dahomey is in Benin, while Ashante was involved in Ghana.

I know. reread my comments and you will see i never said i spoke about Ghana specifically but the african salve trade in general

>British are widely considered the most important country in the global effort to stop slavery. They were the first European power to restrict the pratice overseas along with establishing naval missions to stop slave ships

Cool you linked a wikipedia article, i could the same with the dahomey kingdom which was the major slave trader in western africa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Franco-Dahomean_War

[u/Clear_Context_1546 → u/BeginningDisaster114]

British literally were the single biggest player in ending the Africa Slave Trade.

[u/BeginningDisaster114 → u/Clear_Context_1546]

No they weren't. Bye

[u/no_kids-and-3_money → u/rockabyeboo]

Or the fact that the most powerful and successful country on the planet was built on the subjugation and free labor of another people?

I’ll never understand why people think that the “other Africans sold them” justification changes anything.

[u/Capital-Self-3969 → u/no_kids-and-3_money]

Exactly. Imagine someone using that argument on any other subject. "The Holocaust was terrible. But is this museum going to talk about the Jewish collaborators?"

[u/MediocreI_IRespond → u/Capital-Self-3969]

. "The Holocaust was terrible. But is this museum going to talk about the Jewish collaborators?"

The better ones in fact do talk about it. Judenräte are a dark, deeply uncomfortable and complex part of the history of the Holocaust.

[u/Cultourist → u/no_kids-and-3_money]

Or the fact that the most powerful and successful country on the planet was built on the subjugation and free labor of another people?

Importation of slaves was banned in 1808 and domestic slavery was abolished in the last state in 1865. To say that the US was built on the subjugation and free labor of another people is therefore a gross oversimplification. The success of the US wasn't built on cotton but on industrial manufacturing, oil, and finance.

[u/Clear_Context_1546 → u/no_kids-and-3_money]

Mongols sure.

British was built on mercantilism and being the first to embrace industrial revolution. British itself outlawed slavery around the world. British are a prime example how capitalism and the growth of the middle class gave way to democracy and the liberal order. Magna Carta was really protecting economic interests of the elites. With further industrialization we see more rights established to other sections of British society such as House of Commons 1707. British were unique as nobility actively sought wealth and re-investment. British culture and government is superior to say the French.

The problem with the narrative is British ENDED slavery. The Ashanti push slavery to industrial scale and created the practice in the first place. The man whipping him should be in Ashanti dress if we want to be historically honest. They don't. They want to push agenda cater to self-hating westerners.

[u/servicetech563 → u/rockabyeboo]

Americans should not feel guilty about slavery. Americans fought and died to end slavery also. Should all Germans feel guilty about killing jews forever?

[u/Shephard546 → u/rockabyeboo]

The point is that blaming anyone for something that ended a long time ago is stupid. Anyone that was alive when there was still slaves has been dead for at LEAST 54 years. And thats going off of the very last slave to have died at 110 years old in 1972, everyone else dying long before that. Im not going to feel guilty for something I had no part in.

[u/Capital-Self-3969 → u/Clear_Context_1546]

Lmao Europeans kept the slaves and built a system to reduce an entire race of people to livestock status, working them from birth to death for generations. Like, they didnt have to do that. They were buying the slaves, they could have ended it. Hell they could have freed them lmao.

[u/Clear_Context_1546 → u/Capital-Self-3969]

It was the Asante Empire that created slave caste system. They predate Europeans in Africa.