We’re publishing an original essay today by Dr. Paul Jones, Head of History at an independent school, to mark St. George’s Day. Dr. Jones takes issue with the fashionable view that Britain’s history is an unbroken litany of oppression, exploitation and self-deception and points out that, while we bear some of the responsibility for the horrors of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the British were hardly alone in participating in slavery, and, unlike other nations, we were at the forefront of abolishing that trade.
First, Dr. Jones focuses on the debit side of the moral ledger.
According to Martin Meredith, Britain was responsible for the trafficking of over 600,000 slaves from Africa to America between 1791 and 1807. The National Archives suggests that Britain transported 3.1 million slaves between 1640 and 1807, though some estimates put the figure far higher at 12.5 million and the UN suggests about 15 million people were shipped as slaves across the Atlantic. Conditions on board slave ships, known as ‘Guineamen’, were utterly horrific, with slave traders cramming as many people below deck as possible to maximise potential profit and offset the costs of those who died during the Middle Passage. From the 1500s to the 1800s, 10% to 30% of slaves being transported died in the cramped and insanitary conditions of their ships. As Olaudah Equiano’s account of his experience of the Middle Passage shows, treatment of slaves was predictably brutal as slaves were regarded as cargo rather than humans, with floggings and beatings being used to maintain control. Even worse things could happen. One infamous incident occurred in November 1781 when the crew of the British slave ship Zong threw over 130 slaves into the sea to save food and water and strengthen their case for an insurance claim. Arrival in America and living on a plantation was hardly any easier either. Disease was rife and one in three slave children died before the age of 10. Slave owners handed out all manner of horrendous punishments to those who resisted or tried to escape.
He then contextualises this by pointing out how many other countries and empires have been involved in slavery throughout history.
The truth of the matter is that England arrived relatively late to the slave trade. Slavery had existed for thousands of years before England engaged in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Ancient Egypt relied on slave labour for construction projects, notably the pyramids, and ancient Greece likewise made use of slaves – Herodotus claimed slaves, known as helots, outnumbered free people by as many as seven to one in ancient Sparta. The Roman economy heavily relied on slaves too. Viking raiders enslaved people in any area they targeted, whilst Arabs began enslaving people from Africa from about the ninth century, establishing the trans-Sahara slave trade. Arab slave traders continued to be prolific in East Africa throughout the 19th century, and pirates from North Africa enslaved at least one million European people between 1500 and 1800. Slave labour provided the power source for the galleys deployed by Italian city states and the Ottomans for centuries and proved crucial in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. Roughly 6.5 million people were enslaved and shipped across the Black Sea from 1200 to 1760.
English people were themselves subjected to the terror of slavery as the coastline of Britain was frequently targeted by Barbary pirates. So severe was the problem that it was stated in the Calendar of State Papers in May 1625 that “the Turks are upon our coasts. They take ships only to take the men to make slaves of them”. Raids by Barbary pirates became so problematic that Parliament established the Committee for Algiers in December 1640 to deal with the ransoming of those who had been taken into slavery. Edmund Carson was sent to Algiers by Parliament in 1645 to negotiate the release of English people taken captive and he ended up spending the final years of his life trying to secure the liberty of further English slaves. Yet, despite Parliament’s efforts, North African pirates continued to terrorise England’s coast until combined British and Dutch military forces finally stamped the problem out in 1816 and freed 4,000 slaves in the process.
Finally, Dr. Jones describes Britain’s efforts to stamp out the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
The Royal Navy was deployed to actively suppress slave trading and in 1808 the West Africa Squadron was formed under the command of Commodore Sir George Collier to hunt down and intercept ships involved in slave trading. Some £4 million was spent from 1870 to 1890 maintaining naval forces off the coast of East Africa for the purpose of suppressing slave trading. This would equate to £547 billion in today’s money being spent on efforts to fight for freedom, whereas the U.K. Government has perhaps spent anything from £310 to £410 billion on efforts to restrict freedom through Covid measures. Average GDP from 1870 to 1890 was £1.259 billion and defence spending during that period typically constituted £0.03 billion, or 2.38% of GDP (Britain has often spent about 2% of GDP on defence in recent years). Maintenance of anti-slavery patrols on East Africa alone thus accounted for about 0.015% of GDP or 0.634% of defence spending, and all done with just a fraction of the number of bureaucrats we have today. Whilst it may be true that only a small percentage of slave ships were intercepted by the Royal Navy, perhaps less than 10% by the West Africa Squadron, and some might complain that Britain should have committed more resources to the task, the fact of the matter is that Britain made a clear effort (and a far greater one than any other country) to suppress slave trading. That effort yielded results. Around 1,600 slave ships were intercepted by the Royal Navy between 1808 and 1860, liberating about 150,000 slaves. Liberated slaves often ended up joining the Royal Navy and were themselves involved in freeing other slaves. Between 1866 and 1869, a further 129 slave ships were captured and another 3,380 slaves were freed. Action by the Royal Navy in 1873 shut down the slave market in Zanzibar and British Governor-General, Charles Gordon, made concerted efforts to end the slave trade in the Sudan. It was after Khartoum was captured and Gordon killed by Mahdist forces in January 1885 that the slave trade grew again. British anti-slave trade operations continued into the 20th century, with British action suppressing the slave trade in Tanganyika in 1922. One simply cannot ignore or deny the fact that Britain was at the forefront of the anti-slave trade movement.
Worth reading in full.
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The UN and the less successful League of Nations before that are nothing more than instruments to be wielded, when the time is right, to control the growing population of the world. The fact that the UN was presented as a way for nations to live peaceably with each other is clearly a complete fallacy. Notice how the US or Israel just ignores what it says when it doesn’t suit them. If you read the UN charter, you find it uses language that makes it seem that sovereign nations have rights and will be protected by other sovereign nations. How many times has that been ignored in the past 75+ years? Look at Gaza, Ukraine, Armenia, Yemen etc? Many, many times. Because it has always played this ‘peacekeeping’ role, it has entered the public consciousness as a force for good but that is the ruse: it is the instrument to introduce the one world government, the ultimate totalitarian state. ‘One ring to rule us all and in the darkness bind us.’
I notice you only choose to criticise Israel and the US. ——-In the UN though 75% of the countries are from places with Dictators, Tyrants, Kings and Colonels. Hardly a democracy in sight.
Just good and easy examples to hand, varmint, don’t get caught up in the details. I am perfectly aware of the nature of all those other places.
I am not “caught up”.———- I just notice things. And I notice you highlighted two countries that we might class as democracies (or in the case of the US, a Republic). ——-If we are going to have no hope with these countries there wouldn’t be anything left to protect. Without the US the west would be over run with the barbarian hordes, and it seems we may already be heading in that direction, but certainly at a slower pace because of the US.
The US is itself being overrun via bonkers Biden’s open door policy on its southern border. Civil war in the US is a distinct possibility.
I agree we need the American people to stand against this tyranny, if they fall we all fall, they have the means to defend themselves, literally and that is a major factor in keeping the tyrants at bay, oh that we were as able to defend ourselves.
Yes I know. —The enemy of Freedom in the world is not America. It is Democrats and phony planet savers, the same as in the rest of the so called free World, where Political Parties align themselves more with the UN and WEF than with the needs or wants of their own citizens who they simply see has a nuisance.
Isn’t it the colossal wealth and power of the Wall Street/American investment banks that are driving forward the DEI and ‘globalist set agenda’? America is no friend of ours or anyone except perhaps Israel.
Yes unpalatable as that might be for Guardian readers (what are the guardians guarding exactly?), we need the USA. There is a culture war going on there of good versus evil, truth versus lies. There is talk there of States seceding and of civil war. An inspiring intelligent and patriotic leader is needed to hold those disparate States together and for sure it is not Biden, the anti-leader. The Democrats saw the occupation of the Capitol as a conspiratorial desecration of democracy by Trump and the „Deplorables“. How differently I and many others see that event. It was IMO an affirmation and a celebration of democracy by frustrated US citizens in actual fact. I admire it and wish it could have happened here when elected representatives in our Parliament some years ago tried their hardest to defeat the result of the referendum. Our politicians and politics might have been better today for such a shock to the elites of our country. The retirement of the judge with the nasty spider brooch was a blessing but then she returned along with a large elite cohort of lawyers judges and academics (more than 600) a few days ago with an extraordinarily woke virtue signalling letter to Sunak telling him to stop selling arms to Israel. The harmful consequences of such a policy globally are obvious.
“Democracy?”
A word now much abused by TPTB in order to keep the masses in check.
Democracy in the UK, USA, Western Europe? All complete BS.
Yes you are correct to point to the vanishing democracy in the west, but that does not mean we cannot fight for it and hope the deterioration cannot be halted and even reversed, starting by mass immigration STOPPED and Net Zero STOPPED. ———-I am not even sure myself if I believe any of that will happen but we live in HOPE.
Fair enough but don’t forget…
Our salvation will not arrive via the ballot box.
My mattock is ready and waiting…
I appreciate that voting gives us the illusion of choice.
Is Volker Turk a second year University student studying a non useful degree, it reads as a set of ideological aspirations written by a lefty teenager without any recognition or appreciation of the comlexity of the human race and cultural differences, and this is the sort of creature who deigns to write a “Bible” as to how the human race should be run.
I would also ask readers to note that the 3 -4 years of the Covid experiment was a salutory lesson to us all, where were the human rights laws then? where were the protectors of those of us who were told we would be hunted down, that we were misogynists, racists and worse, our jobs taken, and in Canada the unvaccinated were so terrified they believed that Police would break down their doors and forcibly inject them, plus all of the degradation foisted on the elderly, and children. Where were the U.N. and the Human rights lawyers then? But hey if you are a bearded bloke who fancies going and looking at a group of 13 year olds getting undressed for a swimming lesson, your rights to declare your self a woman such that you can go watch are protected and upheld, and those mothers who dare to complain they are the haters.
So much for human rights and the U.N it is a relic that has strayed so far just like the WHO from its foundations that neither are fit for purpose, and they should be dismantled with all speed.
Must say I’m just a bit tired and sick of listening to people like Türk making grandstanding pronouncements and vision statements with lofty language designed to make you think and feel he is serious. We don’t need more b*ll*cks from people like him to show us how to live and all that garbage about shared values – such empty, meaningless word salads. My simple message to him and his ilk is ‘leave us alone to get on with our lives’ and if there did have to be some sort of statement why not ‘do no harm to others’ , ‘respect one another’ …er…that’s it!
“leave us alone”————You have to be kidding me. These omnipotent busy bodies will never leave you alone. Their whole purpose is to hound you to the ends of the earth and back.
Yes, exactly hence my message of ‘leave us alone’. One can imagine what we’d like to say to them and for them to do, doesn’t mean it will happen though. I realise that.
Cracking post Hester.
Thank you
I think that a dismantling of the UN would require weapons that the citizenry doesn’t possess. I don’t know how that problem can be solved.
“So much for human rights and the U.N it is a relic that has strayed so far just like the WHO from its foundations that neither are fit for purpose, and they should be dismantled with all speed.”
Hester.
very good summary. These corrupted institutions are being used by forces of evil. We must banish them and never abrogate our Sovereignty to them.
Reform Party is committed to doing this.
Human Rights come not from governments who can simply take them away again, but from our humanity. ——-In “Endgame” Vernon Coleman explains the goals and motivation of the UN and Agenda 21.—– It is to “Own You”.—– A global technocracy, with guaranteed income, and a system of reward, control and punishment. The excuse for this is given as the need to stop Global Warming. Those who fail to comply will be punished and excluded. ————-For all of those people who clamour for government to save them with endless “Human Rights” this is what the UN has in mind. Be prepared to be punished and if you do not do as you are told and pretend to save the planet you will be debanked, and socially ostracised all based on the Chinese Social Credit system. ——Wakey wakey people.
Vernon Coleman has been largely ignored by the alt media but he was on to the Covid scam quicker than most. A wise, brave, honest and intelligent man who certainly got me through the early months of the C1984 Scamdemic.
I have enormous respect for Vernon Coleman.
As an addendum, I would point people to Gaddafi’s speech to the UN. He made some very good points – questioning the structure and how it all operated. Anyway, have a look if it interests you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3nVBTTTsCA
The liberal dream where religion is abolished, humans are killed in the womb, adults are held in pens denied any comforts and the aged are put to sleep before their time. This is Tony Blair etc als wet dream.
A fairly accurate summary.
And open borders, Africanisation and Islamification of once white-Christian states is also a ‘right’. Not to forget the EU-German Empire’s nascent bill that protecting the sheeple from ‘climate-change’ is also a ‘right’. The forcible injection of poisons is likewise a ‘right’. So many ‘rights’ for the fascists to implement.
It sounds a lot like communism rebranded to me.
It’s just a cover for socialist fascist world government
Yes, there will be a lot more destruction to come before the coercive collectivists are defeated. They are determined and they are ruthless. Ultimately, they will fail because their ideas are flawed but their defeat will require those of us in favour of freedom to summon equal determination and ruthlessness to our cause.
The usual warm fluffy words from Bilderberg, UN, WEF et al. This is the new fascism masquerading liberators. The film Equilibrium 2002 comes to mind.
“Everyone’s gonna be free! But they have to AGREE to be free.”
— 10cc, “I Wanna Rule The World”
Duties disguised as rights
Losses disguised as wins
Totalitarianism disguised as democracy
War is peace
Freedom is slavery
Ignorance is strength
So Orwellian
Türk’s vision can perfectly well realised. It’s contained in the following short statement:
We must have enlightened leadership on reparatory justice for the legacies of slavery and colonialism.
In other words, we must extract as much £££ as possible from gullible white Europeans for the greater glory of the UN. All of the remainig babble is just the cover story for that.
Here’s a legacy of colonialism I read about today: In 1915, the German colony of Kamerun (present-day Cameroon) put up a hopeless fight against numerically superior invading (in breach of treaty obligations about neutrality of the African colonies, obviously) French and English forces which the German and native soldiers managed to repulse for many months. It ended with a fighting retreat of these soldiers voluntarily accompanied by the whole tribe of natives who had so far been living in the vicinity of the former German capital town to the safety of a nearby colony of neutral Spain.
Not quite the relationship between evil European occupiers and opressed ‘noble savages’ the UN wants people to believe in instead.
This article also
describes the essence of the WHo Pamdic treaty and IHR amendments…..
Exactly the same dystopian nightmare.
All citizens are equal, but remember some are more equal than others.
‘In their heads it is not an ideology at all, but merely the product of a decent education, good heart and pure mind.’
What a joke, especially the pure mind bit!
I know most criticise this Turk character for what ’he’ wrote, but of course he didn’t. His clerks or clerk’s clerks, being given a brief by Gates and Co, the used ChatBox or whatever the AI program they used, to churn out this typical thesis style document, berating the world….or rather, whipping up the poor populace into action…it is just word salad. Vegan style. Tasteless and irrelevant.
The exposure of “global warming/ climate crisis” as a scam is absolutely vital for the survival of our freedom and rights.
As each day goes by, more and more restrictions and controls are imposed upon us using climate change as a justification.
This has to stop, before everything we have is destroyed and we are utterly impoverished.
The Globalists know this and censorship of truth and opposition to the government narrative is crushed, clearly indicative of a totalitarian regime, certainly not a democracy.
Keep battling to expose the scam and share this brilliant film:
https://www.climatethemovie.net/home