White Trauma / White Supremacy
Abuse that is not metabolized is often repeated in subsequent generations.
In order to heal from white supremacy, we must understand the roots of the trauma that created it.
"Throughout the United States' history as a nation, white bodies have colonized, oppressed, brutalized, and murdered Black and Native ones. But well before the United States began, powerful white bodies colonized, oppressed, brutalized, and murdered other, less powerful white ones."
Resmaa Menakem
European Traditions of Violence & Torture
For over one thousand years, our white ancestors lived under the brutal conditions of continuous warfare and violence, ultimately creating a society in which slavery was ubiquitous and public torture was considered sport.
Summary
The 1st century BC Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus indicates that the Roman institution of slavery began with the legendary founder Romulus giving Roman fathers the right to sell their own children into slavery, and kept growing with the expansion of the Roman state. Slave ownership was most widespread throughout the Roman citizenry from the Second Punic War (218–201 BC) to the 4th century AD. The Greek geographer Strabo (1st century AD) records how an enormous slave trade resulted from the collapse of the Seleucid Empire (100–63 BC).[3]
Slavery in ancient Rome - Wikipedia
Slavery was an accepted practice in ancient Greece, as in other societies of the time. Some Ancient Greek writers (including, most notably, Aristotle) described slavery as natural and even necessary. This paradigm was notably questioned in Socratic dialogues; the Stoics produced the first recorded condemnation of slavery.[2]
The principal use of slaves was in agriculture, but they were also used in stone quarries or mines, and as domestic servants. Athens had the largest slave population, with as many as 80,000 in the 5th and 6th centuries BC, with an average of three or four slaves per household, except in poor families. Slaves were legally prohibited from participating in politics, which was reserved for citizens.
Modern historiographical practice distinguishes between chattel slavery (personal possession, where the slave was regarded as a piece of property as opposed to a mobile member of society) versus land-bonded groups such as the penestae of Thessaly or the Spartan helots, who were more like medieval serfs (an enhancement to real estate). The chattel slave is an individual deprived of liberty and forced to submit to an owner, who may buy, sell, or lease them like any other chattel.
Slavery in ancient Greece - Wikipedia
Quote
"I have taught ancient Greek and Latin, collectively known as classics, for most of my adult life. When I started studying Latin in seventh grade, I bought into the value of classics promoted in pamphlets from the American Classical League (ACL)—as the demarcation between what was worth knowing and what wasn’t worth even acknowledging.
Even today, a tie to the classical world often provides an instant sense of legitimacy, context and greatness. There’s a reason why, when President Donald Trump wanted to “make federal buildings beautiful again,” he exhorted architects to design buildings in the style of ancient Greek temples.
But there are real consequences to positioning ancient Greece and Rome as the foundation of “Western Civilization,” as the unquestioned standard of quality for everything from literature to sculpture to architecture—especially when “Western Civilization” is aligned with whiteness. In schools, the glorification of classics and its artificial linkage to whiteness is a toxic combination."
Dani Bostick
The Classical Roots of White Supremacy | Learning for Justice
Timeline
Timeline-of-ancient-slavery-1.pdf
Articles
The Classical Roots of White Supremacy | Learning for Justice
Why the alt-right loves ancient Greece and Rome - Vox
He Wants to Save Classics From Whiteness. Can the Field Survive?
The Roman Roots of Racial Capitalism - American Academy
Colonialism is built on the rubble of a false idea of ancient Rome
The Roman Empire: in the First Century. The Roman Empire. Social Order. Slaves & Freemen | PBS
Roman Slavery and the Question of Race
Slavery in the Roman World - World History Encyclopedia
Violence, rebellion and sexual exploitation: the darker side of Ancient Rome - HistoryExtra
Murderous Games: Gladiatorial Contests in Ancient Rome | History Today
Torture used by ancient Romans « IMPERIUM ROMANUM
Books
The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity by Benjamin H. Isaac
Slavery and Society at Rome by Keith Bradley
Historicising Ancient Slavery by Kostas Vlassopoulos
Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology by Moses I. Finley
The (Mis-) Use of Greco-Roman History by Modern
White Supremacy Groups: The Implications of the
Classics in the Hands of White Supremacists
Podcasts
Roman slavery and the man who started the First World War - HistoryExtra
BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Roman Slavery
29 – Life in a Crumbling Empire
Videos
Summary
"Slavery became increasingly uncommon through the Middle Ages, replaced by serfdom by the 10th century, but began to revive again towards the end of the Middle Ages and in the Early Modern Era. The Byzantine–Ottoman wars (1265–1479) and the Ottoman wars in Europe (14th to 20th centuries) resulted in the capture of large numbers of Christian slaves.
In the Byzantine Empire, slaves became quite rare by the first half of the 7th century.[1] A shift in the view of slavery is noticed, which by the 10th century transformed gradually a slave-object into a slave-subject.[2] From 11th century, semi-feudal relations largely replaced slavery, seen as "an evil contrary to nature, created by man's selfishness", although slavery was permitted by law.[3]"
Slavery in medieval Europe - Wikipedia
The Medieval Inquisition was a series of Inquisitions (Catholic Church bodies charged with suppressing heresy) from around 1184, including the Episcopal Inquisition (1184–1230s) and later the Papal Inquisition (1230s). The Medieval Inquisition was established in response to movements considered apostate or heretical to Roman Catholicism, in particular Catharism and Waldensians in Southern France and Northern Italy. These were the first movements of many inquisitions that would follow.
Medieval Inquisition - Wikipedia
Spanish Inquisition, (1478–1834), judicial institution ostensibly established to combat heresy in Spain. In practice, the Spanish Inquisition served to consolidate power in the monarchy of the newly unified Spanish kingdom, but it achieved that end through infamously brutal methods.
Spanish Inquisition | Definition, History, & Facts | Britannica
Quote
What does being a medievalist of color mean to you?
"Acknowledging that I can never escape my body or the places, communities, and forms of power that have made me who I am. Recognizing that the places and communities that are the most welcoming of me will be the ones that are the most disempowered. And understanding that now that I am a part of this field, the field also cannot escape my body, my past, and all that I stand for."
Timeline
Articles
Race and Racism in the European Middle Ages
The Fall and Rise of Torture: A Comparative and Historical Analysis*
Enslavement and Chains in the Middle Ages
Torturer’s Apprentice - The Atlantic
Violence in the Service of Religion: The Medieval Inquisition – A Patchwork of Perceptions
Medieval Torture Devices and Methods That Date Back to the Ancient World
Medieval Inquisition Trials, Torture, and Sermons (thegreatcoursesdaily.com)
The Power of the Criminal Corpse in the Medieval World - Harnessing the Power of the Criminal Corpse
Books
Violence in Medieval Europe by Warren C. Brown
The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages by Geraldine Heng
Speaking of Slavery: Color, Ethnicity, and Human Bondage in Italy by Steven A. Epstein
Slavery After Rome, 500-1100 by Alice Rio
Black Metaphors: How Modern Racism Emerged from Medieval Race-Thinking by Cord Whitaker
Podcasts
Episode 178: Medieval Mediterranean Slavery – Historically Thinking
#291 History Hack: Slavery in the Medieval World (podbean.com)
Going Medieval On White Supremacists – 1A (the1a.org)
Videos
Paul Freedman, "European Slavery and Serfdom in the Middle Ages"
Summary
"The Swedish slave trade mainly occurred in the early history of Sweden when the trade of thralls (Old Norse: þræll) was one of the pillars of the Norse economy. During the raids, the Vikings often captured and enslaved militarily weaker peoples they encountered, but took the most slaves in raids of the British Isles, Ireland and Slavs in Eastern Europe. This practice lasted in the 6th through 11th centuries until formally abolished in 1335. A smaller trade of African slaves happened during the 17th and 18th centuries,[1] around the time Swedish overseas colonies were established in North America (1638) and in Africa (1650). It remained legal until 1813."
Swedish slave trade - Wikipedia
"The Danish slave trade occurred separately in two different periods: the trade in European slaves during the Viking Age, from the 8th to 10th century; and the Danish role in selling African slaves during the Atlantic slave trade, from the 1600s until a 1792 law to abolish the trade came into effect on 1 January 1803. Slavery continued in the Danish West Indies until July, 1848, when all unfree people in Danish lands were emancipated."
Danish slave trade - Wikipedia
Quote
The institution of slavery had long antecedents in Scandinavia, probably going back thousands of years before the time of the Vikings. By the eighth century A.D., a considerable population of unfree people lived in the North, their condition largely a hereditary one built up over generations. In the Viking Age, this picture changed dramatically because, for the first time, Scandinavians began to make the active acquisition of human chattel a key part of their economy. This was one of the primary objectives of Viking raids and military campaigns—and the result was a massive increase in the numbers of enslaved people in Scandinavia.
The Little-Known Role of Slavery in Viking Society | History | Smithsonian Magazine
Timeline
Articles
Real Viking History and the Imagined White Supremacist Past | Time
Viking Symbols “Stolen” by Racists - The Norwegian American
The slave markets of the Viking world: comparative perspectives on an ‘invisible archaeology’
The Little-Known Role of Slavery in Viking Society | History | Smithsonian Magazine
What We Know About Vikings and Slaves - HISTORY
Vikings abused and beheaded their slaves
Kinder, Gentler Vikings? Not According to Their Slaves (nationalgeographic.com)
Raiders from the North: Irish Enslavement during the Viking Age (core.ac.uk)
The Vikings in Britain: a brief history / Historical Association
Books
Viking-Age Trade: Silver, Slaves and Gotland by Jacek Gruszczyński
Thraldom: A History of Slavery in the Viking Age by Stefan Brink
Scandinavians in Chicago: The Origins of White Privilege in Modern America by Erika Kathleen Jackson
Podcasts
Ep 46 - Capitol Controversy with Brute Norse (buzzsprout.com)
Videos
European Powers and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
The transatlantic slave trade was active for several hundred years before traders brought the first enslaved peoples to Virginia in 1619. The countries that founded these practices also were among the first colonizers on the American continents.
Summary
transatlantic slave trade | History & Facts | Britannica
Transatlantic slave trade, segment of the global slave trade that transported between 10 million and 12 million enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas from the 16th to the 19th century. It was the second of three stages of the so-called triangular trade, in which arms, textiles, and wine were shipped from Europe to Africa, slaves from Africa to the Americas, and sugar and coffee from the Americas to Europe.
Quote
“On any basic figure of the Africans landed alive in the Americas, one would have to make several extensions- starting with a calculation to cover mortality in transshipment. The Atlantic crossing, or “Middle Passage,” as it was called by European slavers, was notorious for the number of deaths incurred, averaging in the vicinity of 15-20 per cent. There were also numerous deaths in Africa between time of capture and time of embarkation, especially in cases where captives had to travel hundreds of miles to the coast. Most important of all (given that warfare was the principal means of obtaining captives) it is necessary to make some estimate of the number of people killed and injured so as to extract the millions who were taken alive and sound. The resultant figure would be many times the millions landed alive outside of Africa, and it is that figure which represents the number of Africans directly removed from the population and labor force of Africa because of the establishment of slave production by Europeans. Pg. 96”
― Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
Timeline
Slavery in History « Free the Slaves
Slavery, Abolition, and Emancipation Resources (brycchancarey.com)
Transatlantic Slave Trade | Timeline | Britannica
Timeline: how the trade unfolded
1525
The first slave ship departs Africa for the Americas, taking enslaved Africans to Spanish America.
1562–63
Sir John Hawkins leads the first English slave voyage, from Sierra Leone to Hispaniola.
1619
A group of 20 Africans land at Jamestown, Virginia – the first to arrive in Britain’s North American colonies.
1672
The monopoly Royal African Company is founded. It supplies slaves to English colonies.
1700s
Following the end of monopoly companies, huge numbers of Africans are transported to the Americas: 955,000 to Jamaica; 5,613,420 to Brazil.
1789
The French Revolution prompts upheaval in French slave colonies. The slave rebellion in Saint-Domingue (1791) and warfare lead to an independent Haiti (1804). 04).
1787–1808
British abolition quickly gains mass popular support, but its progress is stalled by the Haitian revolution. Following Danish abolition in 1802 and changed British political circumstances, Britain ends its slave trade in 1807 despite fierce opposition. The US follows in 1808.
1800s
Slave labour continues to boom in the US (in cotton) and Brazil (coffee), both sustained by internal slave trading.
1815 onwards
Royal Navy and US naval patrols seek to prevent Atlantic slave trade – but almost 3 million cross the ocean, mainly to Brazil and Cuba.
1838
After trialling an ‘apprenticeship’ system – where liberated slaves worked for free for a transition period of up to six years – the British emancipate their slaves.
1866
The last slave ship crosses the Atlantic, heading to Cuba.
1886–88
Slavery ends in Cuba (1886) and, finally, Brazil (1888).
Articles
Lesson One: Native People + European Settler Colonialism — Tori Williams Douglass
Doctrine of Discovery — Upstander Project
Atlantic slave trade - Wikipedia
Transatlantic Slave Trade | Slavery and Remembrance
The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade · African Passages,
The Transatlantic Slave Trade: A Brief Guide & Timeline
Books
The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter
The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1440-1870 by Hugh Thomas
Slavery in Medieval and Early Modern Iberia by William D. Phillips (goodreads.com)
American Slavery, American Freedom by Edmund S. Morgan
Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade by David Eltis
The United States and the Transatlantic Slave Trade to the Americas, 1776-1867 by Leonardo Marques
Podcasts
Podcasts About Slavery & The Slave Trade To Listen To Right Now - HistoryExtra
Mapping the Transatlantic Slave Trade | The Takeaway | WNYC Studios
Videos
The Atlantic Slave Trade in Two Minutes
African Diaspora through the Americas: Slavery in the Old World and the Atlantic Slave Trade
Dr. Leonard Jeffries - Origin of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
The Transatlantic Slave Trade : History Documentary on the Middle Passage (Full Documentary)
Summary - Slavery in Spain - Wikipedia
Spain began to trade slaves in the 15th century and this trade reached its peak in the 16th century. The history of Spanish enslavement of Africans began with Portuguese captains Antão Gonçalves and Nuno Tristão in 1441. The first large group of African slaves, made up of 235 slaves, came with Lançarote de Freitas three years later.[1] In 1462, Portuguese slave traders began to operate in Seville, Spain. During the 1470s, Spanish merchants began to trade large numbers of slaves. Slaves were auctioned at market at a cathedral, and subsequently were transported to cities all over Imperial Spain. This led to the spread of Moorish, African, and Christian slavery in Spain. By the 16th century, 7.4 percent of the population in Seville, Spain were slaves. Many historians have concluded that Renaissance and early-modern Spain had the highest amount of African slaves in Europe.[2]
Slavery in colonial Spanish America - Wikipedia
Quote
"Just as Castilian concessions in 1479 helped put Isabel on the throne of Castile, similar recognition of Portuguese claims in Africa in 1494 helped to secure Spanish interests in the Americas. As a result, it was Spain, rather than Portugal, that first made extensive use of enslaved Africans as a colonial labor force in the Americas."
Timeline
Articles
Iberian Slave Trade | Slavery and Remembrance
Details of Brutal First Slave Voyages Discovered - HISTORY
Atlantic-History-and-the-Slave-Trade-to-Spanish-America.pdf
Spanish colonization of the Americas - Wikipedia
Western colonialism - Spain’s American empire | Britannica
Books
Slavery and Antislavery in Spain's Atlantic Empire by Josep M Fradera
Podcasts
Episode 76: The Trans-Pacific Slave Trade (15minutehistory.org)
Afro-Iberians sailors, soldiers, travelers, and traders in the Spanish Empire. From 1471 to 1700
Videos
African Diaspora through the Americas: Slavery in Spanish America
From the Galleons to the Highlands: Slave Trade Routes in the Spanish Americas
Summary
Slavery in Portugal - Wikipedia
Slavery in Portugal occurred since before the country's formation. During the pre-independence period, inhabitants of the current Portuguese territory were often enslaved and enslaved others. After independence, during the existence of the Kingdom of Portugal, the country played a leading role in the Atlantic slave trade, which involved the mass trade and transportation of slaves from Africa and other parts of the world to the American continent. Slavery was abolished in Portugal in 1761 by the Marquês de Pombal. After the abolishment of slavery in Portugal, the Portuguese slave traders turned to clients in other countries where slavery was not yet abolished, predominantly to Brazil.[1] However, slavery within the African Portuguese colonies was only abolished in 1869 and Portuguese involvement in near-slavery in its colonies continued into the 20th century. [1] [2]
Quote
“The arrival of the Portuguese explorers and traders on the sub-Saharan African coast in the early 1400s would ultimately represent a major new development in the history of the slave trade in Africa in terms of the intensity of its development, the sources of its slaves, and the uses to which its slaves would be put. But initially there was little to distinguish the Portuguese traders from the Muslim traders of North Africa and the sub-Saharan regions.”
― Herbert S. Klein, African Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean
Timeline
Articles
Portugal confronts its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade | Africa | DW | 24.03.2021
Portugal | Europe | The Places Involved | Slavery Routes | Bristol and Transatlantic Slavery |
How Portugal silenced ‘centuries of violence and trauma’ | Arts and Culture | Al Jazeera
Slavery memorial highlights Portugal's racism taboo - BBC News
Portugal confronts its slave trade past
The Portuguese Transatlantic Slave Trade (h-net.org)
Portugal confronts its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade | Africa
How Portugal silenced ‘centuries of violence and trauma’ | Arts and Culture | Al Jazeera
Books
Way of Death: Merchant Capitalism and the Angolan Slave Trade, 1730-1830 by Joseph C. Miller
Podcasts
Portugal Explores The Dark Side Of Its Colonial Past : NPR
Episode 6: Effects of the Atlantic Slave Trade on the Americas
Videos
The African Queen Who Fought Portuguese Colonialism for 37 Years
🇧🇷1501 BRAZIL AND THE SLAVE TRADE | CATHOLIC CHURCH PORTUGAL & SPAIN #LESTWEFORGET
Portugal: The One Lisbon Tour They Don't Want You To Take
African Diaspora through the Americas: Slavery in Portuguese America
Summary
Slavery in the British Empire - Wikipedia
Royal African Company - Wikipedia
The Royal African Company (RAC) was an English mercantile (trading) company set up in 1660 by the royal Stuart family and City of London merchants to trade along the west coast of Africa.[1] It was led by the Duke of York, who was the brother of Charles II and later took the throne as James II. It shipped more African slaves to the Americas than any other company in the history of the Atlantic slave trade.[2][3]
It was established after Charles II gained the English throne in the Restoration of 1660.[4] While its original purpose was to exploit the gold fields up the Gambia River, which were identified by Prince Rupert during the Interregnum, it soon developed and led a brutal and sustained slave trade.[3] It also extracted other commodities, mainly from the Gold Coast. After becoming insolvent in 1708, it survived in a state of much reduced activity until 1752 when its assets were transferred to the new African Company of Merchants, which lasted until 1821.
Quote
Britain, slavery and the trade in enslaved Africans, by Marika Sherwood
"Britain followed in the footsteps of the Portuguese in voyaging to the west coast of Africa and enslaving Africans. The British participation in what has come to be called the 'nefarious trade' was begun by Sir John Hawkins with the support and investment of Elizabeth I in 1573. (15) By fair means and foul, Britain outwitted its European rivals and became the premier trader in the enslaved from the seventeenth century onwards, and retained this position till 1807. Britain supplied enslaved African women, men and children to all European colonies in the Americas."
Timeline
Timeline of The Slave Trade and Abolition
1555: A group of Africans (from present day Ghana) are brought to England by John Lok, a London merchant, to learn English so that they can act as interpreters in their homelands. They are to help the English break the monopoly that the Portuguese have over the African trade in gold, ivory and pepper. A written account speaks of "taule and strong men", who "coulde well agree with our meates and drynkes."
1562-9: John Hawkins becomes the first Englishman definitely known to have traded in Africans, making three voyages to Sierra Leone and transporting a total of 1,200 inhabitants to Hispaniola and St Domingue (Dominican Republic and Haiti). He sells them to the Spanish in exchange for pearls, hides, sugar and ginger.
1618: King James I creates The Company of Adventurers of London Trading into the Parts of Africa.
1672: The Royal African Company is formed in order to regulate the English slave trade, with a legal monopoly over the 2,500 miles of African coast from the Sahara to the Cape of Good Hope. The company is financed by royal, aristocratic and commercial capital.
1698: The Royal African Company monopoly ends, opening the trade to private traders from Bristol and Liverpool.
1713: Under the Treaty of Utrecht following the War of the Spanish Succession, Britain is awarded the 'Asiento' or sole right to import an unlimited number of enslaved people to the Spanish Caribbean colonies for 30 years.
1730: First Maroon War in the British colony of Jamaica. Groups of escaped slaves in the mountains repel British forces and a treaty in 1739 confirms their free status.
1760: Rebellions by enslaved people in Jamaica last for several months and claim many lives.
1765: Granville Sharp begins legal challenges to the British slave trade with the case of Jonathan Strong.
1772: John Woolman, an American Quaker and early anti-slavery campaigner comes to England to gather support from English Quakers.
1772: James Somerset case in London. Chief Justice Lord Mansfield rules that enslaved people in England cannot be forced to return to the West Indies.
1782: The Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho are published.
1783: 133 Africans are thrown overboard alive from the slave ship Zong so that the owners can claim compensation money from their insurance company.
1783: British Quakers form a committee against slavery and the slave trade.
1786: Thomas Clarkson's 'An Essay on Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species' is published.
1787: 'Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species' by Ottobah Cuguano is published.
The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the African Slave Trade is founded in London.
1789: 'The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano' or 'Gustavas Vassa the African' is published.
1790: Wilberforce's first Abolition Bill is rejected by Parliament.
1791: Rebellion by enslaved people in St Domingue triggers the Haitian Revolution, led by Toussaint L'Ouverture.
1795: Second Maroon War in Jamaica; Fedon's Rebellion in Grenada.
1802: West India Dock opens in the Port of London, initially dealing solely with the produce from the West Indies.
1804: St Domingue declared the Republic of Haiti, the first independent black state outside of Africa.
1807: The Act to Abolish the Transatlantic Slave Trade is passed in Parliament.
1833: Slavery Abolition Act is passed in Parliament, taking effect in 1834. This act gives all enslaved people in the Caribbean their freedom although some other British territories have to wait longer. However, ex-slaves in the Caribbean are forced to undertake a period of 'apprenticeship' (working for former masters for a low wage) which means that slavery is not fully abolished in practice until 1838.
Articles
British Slave Trade | Slavery and Remembrance
The Irish and The Atlantic Slave Trade
britain-and-the-trade.pdf (nationalarchives.gov.uk)
Books
Britain's Slave Trade by Steve Martin
Black Ivory: Slavery in the British Empire by James Walvin
A Short History of Slavery by James Walvin
Black and British: A Forgotten History by David Olusoga
The Interest: How the British Establishment Resisted the Abolition of Slavery by Michael Taylor
Podcasts
History Extra podcast: Britain and the slave trade
Anglo-Saxon saints and British slave-owners
Britain's Role in Latin American slavery
The English Heritage Podcast - Episode 81 - Voices of England: How slavery shaped the nation
Videos
David Worthington - Sugar, Slave-Owning and the Scottish Highlands Before 1707
Slavery: Scotland’s Hidden Shame, Part 1 (BBC Scotland)
Slavery: Scotland’s Hidden Shame, Part 2 (BBC Scotland)
Great Britain And The Slave Trade | Britain's Slave Trade | Timeline
Britain And The Global Shame Of The Slave Trade | Slavery Documentary | Timeline
Slavery | Slave Wealth and the Scottish Highlands | David Alston | History Series
THE UK IS NOT INNOCENT - The Trans Atlantic Slave Trade | Scottish Caribbean connections
How Liverpool Became The Greatest Slaving Port In Human History | Britain's Slave Trade |
Summary
Dutch involvement in the transatlantic slave trade and abolition | African Studies Centre Leiden
Dutch involvement in the Atlantic slave trade covers the 17th-19th centuries. Initially the Dutch shipped slaves to northern Brazil, and during the second half of the 17th century they had a controlling interest in the trade to the Spanish colonies. Today’s Suriname and Guyana became prominent markets in the 18th century. Between 1612 and 1872, the Dutch operated from some 10 fortresses along the Gold Coast (now Ghana), from which slaves were shipped across the Atlantic. The trade declined between 1780 and 1815. The Dutch part in the Atlantic slave trade is estimated at 5-7 percent, or some 550,000-600,000 Africans.
The Netherlands was one of the last countries to abolish slavery in 1863. Although the decision was made in 1848, it took many years for the law to be implemented. Furthermore, slaves in Suriname would be fully free only in 1873, since the law stipulated that there was to be a mandatory 10-year transition.
History of Dutch slavery - Wikipedia
Dutch East India Company - Wikipedia
Dutch West India Company - Wikipedia
List of Dutch West India Company trading posts and settlements - Wikipedia
Dutch colonization of the Americas - Wikipedia
Quote
"The ports of Holland, the docks of Bordeaux and Liverpool were specialized in the Negro slave trade, and owe their renown to millions of deported slaves. So when we hear the head of a European state declare with his hand on his heart that he must come to the aid of the poor underdeveloped peoples, we do not tremble with gratitude. Quite the contrary; we say to ourselves: "It's a just reparation which will be paid to us.”
― Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth
Timeline
Articles
Dutch involvement in the transatlantic slave trade and abolition | African Studies Centre Leiden
Dutch East India Company | Facts, History, & Significance
Dutch Slave Trade | Slavery and Remembrance
The importance of Atlantic slavery for the Dutch economy | Africa at LSE
Slavery in Dutch America and the West Indies - Atlantic History
New Research Guide on Slavery in the Former Dutch East Indies - the low countries
The VOC and the world that slaves lived in | Heritage of Slavery
Slavery Was of Major Importance to the Dutch Economy - the low countries (the-low-countries.com)
New Netherland Institute :: Slave Trade
Slavery and the Dutch economy, 1750–1800
Dutch Exploration and Colonization | Encyclopedia.com
Dutch Americans - History, Modern era, The first dutch settlers in america
How the Dutch are facing up to their colonial past - BBC Culture
Dutch Immigration (spartacus-educational.com)
Why did they leave Europe? | What Was New Netherland?
The legacy of trauma (apa.org)
Books
The Dutch in the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1600-1815 by Johannes Postma
The Dutch In The Atlantic Economy, 1580 1880: Trade, Slavery And Emancipation by P.C. Emmer
The Dutch Atlantic: Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation by Kwame Nimako
The Dutch Triangle: The Netherlands And The Atlantic Slave Trade, 1621 1664 by Willie F. Page
Spaces of Enslavement: A History of Slavery and Resistance in Dutch New York by Andrea C Mosterman
Podcasts
Podcast Helps Dutch Acknowledge Netherlands' History Of Slavery : NPR
'A Journey That We Have To Join Together': 2 Dutch Women Confront Slavery's Legacy : NPR
Bonus: Dark Chocolate: Amsterdam, Slavery and Chocolate — Republic of Amsterdam Radio
Videos
Re-presenting Dutch slavery history
Going Dutch - The Netherlands' slave trade
Dutch West Indies 1630-1975 Part I - YouTube
Dutch West Indies 1630-1975 Part II - YouTube
Kwame Nimako - The Dutch Atlantic: Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation
Summary
Slavery in the British and French Caribbean - Wikipedia
In this mercantilist economy of the French trans-Atlantic trafficking of enslaved human beings from Africa, wealth and goods were moved in an insular, unidirectional fashion to the exclusive benefit of Europe. In fact, the French had a policy coined “the Exclusif” (exclusive in English), requiring French colonies to only sell exports to France and purchase imported goods from France.[9] This promoted the concept of “centripetal trade” in which all profit and capital spread amongst the American colonies eventually circulated back into the hands of European powers.[2] The trafficking of enslaved people was just one faction of the mercantillist economy. In addition, Europeans brought “pacotille” or “cheaply made European goods” to trade with Africans. This often took the form of colonial products such as sugar, rum, tobacco, coffee, or indigo.[5] Thus African leaders, who themselves were in control of selling African captives with Europeans, did not retain the wealth they acquired in the trafficking of enslaved people. Rather they were the targeted customers of poorly-made pacotille.[5] Their profits from the trafficking in enslaved human beings then circled back to manufacturers in Europe, just as the Exclusif had intended.
The English translation of the triangular trade does not capture the essence of the French word traite, or trade.[2] The distinct differences between the English and French words give way to the inherent nature of the Atlantic slave trade. The definition of trade in English implies a sense of mutual consent and a reciprocal action. When one engages in trade, the parties exchange items of somewhat equal value. The etymology of traite has far more exploitative intentions. Rather than being derived from the verb traiter (to trade), traite was derived from the verb traire, meaning to milk, as in "traire une vache" (to milk a cow).[10] This denotes a far more extractive and manipulative relationship than the English idea of trade, particularly when it is used in an economic setting.
Quote
On May 10, 2001, the French Parliament adopted Law 2001-434 known as the “Taubira law,” after the deputy who introduced it before the National Assembly (click on “Les autres textes législatifs et réglementaires” and enter the law number). Its first article provides as follows:
The French Republic acknowledges that the Atlantic and Indian Ocean slave trade on the one hand and slavery on the other, perpetrated from the fifteenth century in the Americas, the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean and in Europe against African, Amerindian, Malagasy and Indian peoples constitute a crime against humanity.
In addition, the law required the introduction to the school history curriculum of courses on slavery and the establishment of a Slavery Remembrance Day to ensure that the “memory of this crime lives forever in future generations” (Articles 2, 4). Former President Jacques Chirac chose May 10th as the commemoration day.
Timeline
Articles
Slavery in New France - Wikipedia
French Slave Trade | Slavery and Remembrance
France, major actor in enslavement of Africans
Duke University Press - The French Atlantic Triangle
France | Europe | The Places Involved | Slavery Routes | Bristol and Transatlantic Slavery |
Role of Nantes in the slave trade - Wikipedia
George Floyd’s Killing Forces Wider Debate on France’s Slave-Trading Past
Remembering that Napoleon reinstated slavery in France
France, major actor in enslavement of Africans (aa.com.tr)
(1724) Louisiana's Code Noir • (blackpast.org)
France confronts slavery, a demon of its past - The Washington Post
Black scholar: It's time France confronts its colonial past - ABC News
France apologizes to Algerians who fought for colonizers
Colonial abuses haunt France's racism debate - BBC News
Degrees of Violence in the French Revolution - Inquiries Journal
French colonization of the Americas - Wikipedia
Books
The French Atlantic Triangle: Literature and Culture of the Slave Trade by Christopher L. Miller
Captives and Corsairs: France and Slavery in the Early Modern Mediterranean by Gillian Weiss
Resurrecting Slavery: Racial Legacies and White Supremacy in France by Crystal Marie Fleming
Podcasts
France, Haiti and the American Civil War with Dr. Matthew Clavin – The French History Podcast
Videos
Facing History: Slavery Memorial in Nantes, France (Learning World S1E41, 3/3)
Slavery then and now: How does France address colonial legacy?
Summary
German colonial projects before 1871 - Wikipedia
In 1680, the first slaving ship sailed from Brandenburg to Africa. Lacking a port on the North Sea, the Brandenburgers embarked from Pillau on the Baltic; in 1683, an agreement was signed with the city of Emden giving them access to the North Sea.[30] In 1682, at the suggestion of the Dutch merchant and privateer de:Benjamin Raule, Frederick William granted a charter to the (de) Brandenburg Africa Company (BAC), marking the first organised and sustained attempt by a German state to take part in the Atlantic slave trade. With his state still impoverished after the Thirty Years War, the Elector hoped to replicate the mercantile successes of the Dutch East India Company.[30] In 1683 the red eagle of Brandenburg was hoisted over Cape Three Points in present-day Ghana, and the first "treaties of protection" were signed with local chiefs.
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German Role in the Slave Trade Adds to Its Dark Colonial History (fairobserver.com)
"Germany is the great latecomer in Western Europe. For much of its history, Germany was a territorial space occupied by dozens of autonomous political entities — kingdoms, principalities, duchies, margraviates, free cities. It was not until 1870 that Germany was united. By then, the world had largely been divided among Europe’s great powers. The German Empire scrambled to claim a share of the colonial pie. Most of its colonies lay in Africa, from today’s Togo and Cameroon to present-day Namibia, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi."
Germany’s relatively short-lived colonial venture is one more dark spot in the country’s history. Its massacre of the Herero people in German Southwest Africa, in today’s Namibia, in 1904 was the first genocide of the 20th century.
Timeline
Articles
German Role in the Slave Trade Adds to Its Dark Colonial History (fairobserver.com)
German entanglements in transatlantic slavery: An introduction
Daniel Botefeur, a German slave trader (1811) – Black Central Europe
Slave Trade of Northern Germany from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Centuries
Slavery and the Holocaust: How Americans and Germans Cope With Past Evils - The New York Times
Books
Podcasts
How Germany Can Help America Remember | On the Media
Videos
A German colony in Ghana? The Atlantic slave trade and the fortress of Grossfriedrichsburg
Fort Gross-Friedrichsburg [HD] - Princes Town, Western Region, Ghana (February 2012)
History of Trauma Within White Ethnicities
"Powerful white bodies also created formal structures and institutions to reinforce these notions of supremacy by which poor white bodies benefited from and fully participated in. Black and Native bodies were deliberately presented as straw men for white bodies to blow their ancient unhealed historical trauma through."
Resmaa Menakem
Many colonizers and settlers came here fleeing the brutal conditions in Europe; many repeat this cycle, becoming plantation owners in colonial America. This trauma is embedded in our DNA. Consider your own roots and the conditions your ancestors faced. How might these traumas be passed down generation by generation? How might they manifest today?
Summary
Although the Norse had explored and colonized northeastern North America c. 1000 CE, a later and more well known wave of European colonization of the Americas took place in the Americas between about 1500 CE and 1800 CE, during the Age of Exploration. During this period of time, several European empires—primarily Spain, Portugal, Britain, and France—began to explore and claim the natural resources and human capital of the Americas, resulting in the displacement and disestablishment of some Indigenous Nations, and the establishment of several settler-colonial states.[1] Some formerly European settler colonies—including New Mexico, Alaska, the Prairies/northern Great Plains, and the "Northwest Territories" in North America; the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the Yucatán Peninsula, and the Darién Gap in Central America; and the northwest Amazon, the central Andes, and the Guianas in South America—remain relatively rural, sparsely populated and Indigenous into the 21st century, however several settler-colonial states, including Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, and the United States grew into settler-colonial empires in their own right.[2] Russia began colonizing the Pacific Northwest, starting in the mid-eighteenth century, seeking pelts for the fur trade.. Many of the social structures—including religions, political boundaries, and linguae francae—which predominate the western hemisphere in the 21st century are the descendants of the structures which were established during this period.
European colonization of the Americas - Wikipedia
Between 1492 and 1820, approximately 2.6 million Europeans immigrated to the Americas (compared to at least 8.8 million enslaved Africans). Across the period, slightly less than half of all migrants were British, 40 percent were Spanish and Portuguese, 6 percent were from Swiss and German states, and 5 percent were French. In terms of sheer numbers, other nationalities—Dutch, Swedish, Danish, and Finnish, for example—although contributing to the heterogeneity of Euro-American society, were negligible.
European Migrations to American Colonies, 1492–1820 |
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“as the religious conflicts that animated the seventeenth century began to recede—Christian vs. Muslim; Catholic vs. Protestant—as the filthy wealth generated by slavery and dispossession accelerated, capitalism and profit became the new god, with its curia in the basilicas of Wall Street. This new religion had its own doctrine and theologies, with the logic of the market and its “efficient market theory” supplanting papal infallibility as the new North Star.”
― Gerald Horne, The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, and Capitalism in 17th Century North America and the Caribbean
Timeline
Timeline of the European colonization of North America - Wikipedia
British colonization of the Americas - Wikipedia
French colonization of the Americas - Wikipedia
Spanish colonization of the Americas - Wikipedia
Chronology of Western colonialism - Wikipedia
New Netherland settlements - Wikipedia
A New Surge of Growth | German | Immigration and Relocation in U.S. History |
Articles
Settler Colonialism Primer | Unsettling America
Motivations for Colonization | National Geographic Society
European Colonization of the Americas - World History Encyclopedia
European Colonization of the Americas - New World Encyclopedia
Books
The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter
No Study Without Struggle: Confronting Settler Colonialism in Higher Education by Leigh Patel
New England Bound: Slavery and Colonization in Early America by Wendy Warren
Podcasts
Videos
The New Intellectuals: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism
Francesca Maximé – ReRooted – Ep. 47 – Settler Colonialism with Dr. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Summary
Scotch-Irish Americans - Wikipedia
British colonization of the Americas - Wikipedia
The British Empire in North America | Boundless US History (lumenlearning.com)
Quote
"Scots and Scots-Irish laypeople played a disproportionately large role as traders, managers, or owners in the plantation system. It is perhaps noteworthy that two slaveholding U.S. Presidents nurtured in the Scots-Irish tradition—Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk—pursued policies in the 19th century that greatly increased the territory available for the expansion of slavery.[1]"
Timeline
A brief history of emigration & immigration in Scotland:
Articles
The Scots-Irish Vote - The Atlantic
The Scotch-Irish and the savage South | Mountain Xpress
Joe Regan Post Viva Thesis.pdf (nuigalway.ie)
Scots-Irish Immigration in the 1700s - Ancestry Insights
New York initiative explores links between black identity and Irishness
Princeton & Slavery | Presbyterians and Slavery
Bringing it All Back Home: Irish Immigration and Racism
Americans must grapple with their bloody past
Let's end the myths of Britain's imperial past | History books | The Guardian
Books
Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America by James Webb
Recovering Scotland's Slavery Past: The Caribbean Connection by T.M. Devine
Podcasts
'Born Fighting': Scotch-Irish and the American Character
Under The Tartan Sky - UTTS #065 Who Are The Ulster Scots?
Podcast Appalachia: Podcast Appalachia: "The Scots-Irish"
Videos
David Worthington - Sugar, Slave-Owning and the Scottish Highlands Before 1707
Slavery: Scotland’s Hidden Shame, Part 1 (BBC Scotland)
Slavery: Scotland’s Hidden Shame, Part 2 (BBC Scotland)
Great Britain And The Slave Trade | Britain's Slave Trade | Timeline
Slavery | Slave Wealth and the Scottish Highlands | David Alston | History Series
THE UK IS NOT INNOCENT - The Trans Atlantic Slave Trade | Scottish Caribbean connections
Healing From White Supremacy
The concept of healing from white supremacy culture is in its infancy. Consider how society might benefit if we could move beyond our trauma and live in a world healed of cruelty.
Summary
WHAT IS IT? - WHITE SUPREMACY CULTURE
WHITE SUPREMACY CULTURE
Culture reflects the beliefs, values, norms, and standards of a group, a community, a town, a state, a nation. White supremacy culture is the widespread ideology baked into the beliefs, values, norms, and standards of our groups (many if not most of them), our communities, our towns, our states, our nation, teaching us both overtly and covertly that whiteness holds value, whiteness is value. It teaches us that Blackness is not only valueless but also dangerous and threatening. It teaches us that Indigenous people and communities no longer exist, or if they do, they are to be exoticized and romanticized or culturally appropriated as we continue to violate treaties, land rights, and humanity. It teaches us that people south of the border are "illegal." It teaches us that Arabs are Muslim and that Muslim is "terrorist." It teaches us that people of Chinese and Japanese descent are both indistinguishable and threatening as the reason for Covid. It pits other races and racial groups against each other while always defining them as inferior to the white group.
Quote
“The answer to why so many of us have difficulties is because our ancestors spent centuries here under unrelentingly brutal conditions. Generation after generation, our bodies stored trauma and intense survival energy, and passed these on to our children and grandchildren. Most of us also passed down resilience and love, of course. But, as we saw with my grandmother—and as we see with so many other human beings—resilience and love aren’t sufficient to completely heal all trauma. Often, at least some of the trauma continues”
― Resmaa Menakem, My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies
Articles
Healing Your Thousand-Year-Old Trauma | by Resmaa Menakem
Op-Ed: Dear White People – Please Don't Lose Your Minds
So You Want to Be a White Ally: Healing from white supremacy
5 ways to address internalized white supremacy and its impact on health
Resmaa Menakem on Why Healing Racism Begins With the Body
Addressing Whiteness: Healing the Shadow of our Culture
CHARACTERISTICS - WHITE SUPREMACY CULTURE
History of White Supremacy in the USA
Books
My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our Bodies and Hearts by Resmaa Menakem
Do Better: Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing from White Supremacy by Rachel Ricketts
Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing by Joy DeGruy
Inherited Silence: Listening to the Land, Healing the Colonizer Mind by Louise Dunlap
Podcasts
EPISODE 27: Layla Saad: White Supremacy, Healing & Futures
Irresistible (fka Healing Justice Podcast): 14 Ancestral Healing for Anti-Racist White Folks
Videos
The Traumatic Roots of White Body Supremacy and Racism in America - Resmaa Menakem
Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing from White Supremacy with Rachel Ricketts and A-Ian Holt
Dr. Joy DeGruy Leary: Post Traumatic Slave Disorder
On Indigenous Wisdom for Healing Trauma with Sherri Mitchell and Brenda Salgado
Healing from a Life of White Supremacy
Racial Healing: Understanding Racial Identity, Systemic Racism, and How to Become a Racial Ally
Views From Africa
No White Saviors If you’re not uncomfortable, you’re not listening. - No White Saviors
Coursework