Who Was Really Responsible for the Slave Trade?

Rich and powerful people who profited off slavery

One thing you forgot to mention is the various African leaders who resisted the slave trade, either in part or in whole.

I think it’s important to keep in mind that the British ended the slave trade not just because of the Jamaican slave revolts and the Haitian revolution, but because with the rise of industrialization, which was largely funded with the profits from slavery, it became cheaper and more profitable to “rent” people for a wage than outright own their laborers.

The blame game is a toxic one that seems to have made it so that the discussion basically stagnant. Great video that goes over the facts and avoids playing the game.

Excellent breakdown of a complex and Very sensitive issue

I would say that the European demand for Black slaves did escalated and expanded the transatlantic, so I'll give the European slave demand the most blame. Although like every continent, some African Nations had existing slave servitude and used criminals and prisoners as slaves. Parts of Africa, Middle East, India, Mesosamerica and Asia did experiment with chattel slavery, but nothing like what the Europeans created. My Choctaw Tribe had existing servitude and prisoners of war before the mid 1800's, and adopted a small chattel slave market during the 1800's from ideals pushed by Euro slave traders. Some of the African Kingdoms and larger Tribes partook in the transatlantic slave trade, so we all have at least some ancestor's who were guilty. However, I do believe the U.S. Feds, States and Corporations owe Black Americans reparations for slavery, The Five Tribes made reparations, so why not the Americans?

Everybody was responsible for slavery. It’s one thing with a nation sells the criminals into slavery instead of executing them compared to the people, buying them being greedy and wanting more than what was available to abduct just to make a certain profit or meet the quota of supplies in demand. It also becomes a problem when the system is slavery went from enslaved criminals, and people who lost wars to go out of your way to targeting one group of people due to their features.

The responsibility is that of the Europeans. The Africans had a system of enslavement but not like what the Europeans eventually created and combined with capitalism. I think part of the issue is that we keep using the word slavery and it's a nebulous term when you think of what happened with chattel slavery and how it started and evolved. Today we would call this human trafficking. People were beaten, raped, and murdered in addition to being dehumanized. In many of the other systems you were still a person and there was no pseudo-science or religion created to justify your enslavement. When they started making astronomical loads of money/profit from slavery it entrenched itself into their entire economic system. Europe grew off slavery and slavery even jumpstarted the industrial revolution. All the products that were cash crops were slaver produced and the industrial revolution was a result of looking for ways to refine and process those products quicker so they could get to market. The American colonies may have failed or taken even longer to be sustainable without the introduction of forced African labor. The Indians were dying from diseases and the Europeans couldn't do the work and the majority didn't want to do the work. We forget that coming to the Americas in many cases was either a punishment or a last resort for people who were not able to find a place in European society. People who have good lives don't usually move to the other side of the planet to recreate, "civilization." After they saw how much money they could make off slavery they started to codify it and refine it by making laws to make it perpetual. All the laws were designed to support and perpetuate slavery. For instance, English law went by paternity. If your father was rich and free then so were you.. So then they made laws that said the state of the mother follows the to the child...that was not original English law. In some cases like Jamaica, you only needed one slave parent. Then in most of Europe, it was illegal to enslave a fellow Christian...so originally they would not Baptize slaves...then they changed that law so that even if you converted...you would still be a slave.

Great video! All and all, at the end of the day, both sides are to blame. It's always easy to blame only one side without looking at the other. I would also like to add, that not all kingdoms in west africa took heavy part of the trans atlantic slave trade. For example, the Benin kingdom was one of the few african kingdoms that banned the sale of slaves. First Oba Esigie banned the sale of male slaves. Then, Oba Orhogbua banned the sale of all slaves to Europeans around 1550 and kept them only as domestic use. There is an ancient edo saying: “vbo ghi da Oba no na mu ovionren khien?" (What need does the Oba want to satisfy by putting out his slave for sale?) It lasted for almost 200 years. Unfortunately, in the mid 18th century as benin kingdom's power declined and the Europeans power grew, they started selling slaves again. Just a little fun tidbit of history. Keep up the good work!

Even if later I'm glad you recovered the topic. It's getting tiresome to see people complain about media before said media comes out or just never bothering to watch it. Like come on it's the most easily provable or disprovable fact.

I love this content. I’ve always wanted to learn more about Africa but never knew where to go. Great video!

I’ve been looking forward to this one! My God you don’t know how many videos and comments I’ve seen attacking Woman King with BS arguments and claims. These folks didn’t even watching the film or know the situation in 1823. Yes the Dahomey kingdom was a kingdom deeply involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, that fact is not ignored in the film, as you’ve clarified it’s mentioned. It’s funny with black and African historically inspired IPs in pop culture, they act like they care about historical accuracy but, with others historical accuracy doesn’t matter. It’s pathetic they’re hiding behind this to show their disdain.

I still get a kick out of the Bigot and Kang, that's how some actually sound, lol. But I do see some Kangs here and there among Native Americans, Asians, Indians and Middle Easterners too.

Slavery is a complicated but mostly economic historical reality, and feels like an early sign of how much more the economy matters to the rich than the people who suffer for it. i think the weirdest thing about the woman king, is that the film was set in 1820 instead of 1860 - why was Ghezo set the king so much earlier? it was odd. a lot of the conclusions that were drawn in the film made sense if they had been made during the actual reign of King Ghezo - but at that point, the Europeans hadn't really expanded much into Africa outside of trading posts and some holdings in South Africa Dahomey may not have even been aware of. All around it was an alright movie but felt like it kinda mashed together a lot of different times into one spot - also it was really weird the Amazons didn't use anywhere near as much guns as we know they did IRL.

As always, a well researched and considered video. Thank you, Jabari!

Good video, man. Can't wait to see what you talk about next.

As a black people I condemed that the ashanti empire made us dig gold without getting paid why aren't they fed well so thats very terrible

Really interesting video, great work! 😊

Good video, nice to see a new one. One of the things that interested me the most was the discussion about the British role in both banning transatlantic trade and slave trading, and that quote from the English tradesman. Could you do videos on the role of other European countries? I have some knowledge of the Portuguese parts, and you even mentioned a bit of it, but it would be nice to to see the topic aborded by you.

Thank you for doing this. One of my maternal aunts and my father did DNA tests and both sides of my family are from Dahomey, the majority of our African roots. I found an article about Dahomey and how they became a slave trading nation and my heart sank. It was several kings participating in this trade with stronger nations like the Oyo Empire bullying them with threats of war to which Dahomey, even with their armies, wouldn’t have been able to sustain. Dahomey yielded to the Oyo’s demands. Learning about Dahomey and the Ewe and Fon peoples answered my main question, “how did my Black family, both sides, end up in America in slavery?”