Ship of slaves

Marcus Redker. The SLAVE SHIP: A Human History. - New York: Viking, 2007. - 434 p .

Marcus Redikir. Ship of slaves: History of mankind. - New York: Viking Publishing House, 2007. - 434 p.

All this year, the United States celebrates a significant date - 200 years ago, March 2, 1807, American President Thomas Jefferson issued a decree prohibiting the import into the United States of African slaves. The law itself, however, did not cancel the black slavery itself, and did not freed black slaves within the country. Three weeks later, on March 25, 1807, the English parliament made the same decision.

Both of these documents for a long time remained only on paper: in the United States, for example, the institution of slavery was really preserved until 1865, and the struggle for the rights of the dark -skinned population and the eradication of racism in society generally began to give tangible results only in the second half of the last century. There is nothing to be surprised here - after all, even the Convention on the complete ban on slavery and slave trade was adopted by the League of Nations only in 1926.

As expected, in connection with the anniversary of the historical decree in America, new scientific studies, articles in newspapers, books are published. One of these studies - The Slave Ship: a Human History (Viking Penguin Publishing House) - belongs to the pen of a famous American historian, professor at the University of Marsus Redical. On the back of the book “Ship of the slaves: History of mankind” the author gives the readers: “This is a story about the human tragedy and inhumanity of terror. But this is the epic, which tells about the stamina and unbending of people who managed not only to survive, but also created as a result a completely new human archetype, the name of the African American.

And in the book itself meticulously and consistently reconstructs the “life” of ships transporting African slaves, it describes the arrangement of vessels that at first who were merchants, and then, already during the trip to the shores of Africa, modified in such a way that the “living goods” can be “stored”: the height of the compartments is 75 centimeters, so the slate, so that of slap They stacked with stacks on each other. According to the reducer, in the 1700s about 500 thousand slaves died before leaving Africa, another 400 thousand died during the flight, and 250 thousand died shortly after delivery to the destination. No less terrible were the details of "Travel", a story about frequent rebels and uprisings of slaves on ships.

Thus, the mortality rate among the slaves was so high, and the birth rate is so low that the shortage of labor had to be replenished, bringing more and more new slaves. The Africans, who had the fate of "settled" in the United States, died as often as their brothers in other places, but the birth rate here was much higher. As a result, in the middle of the 19th century, most slaves on the British Isles of the Caribbean and Brazil were born in Africa, and most slaves in the United States were Americans at least in the second generation. In 1860, blacks were already 13% of the US population. 89% of them were slaves. In turn, a third of the free blacks had their own slaves (often in this role they were members of their families who did not have free).

So, in the distant 1510, near the island of Espanyol (modern Haiti), the Spanish ship anchored, on board the Africans - 250 people. It is this date that today they are called the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade, which lasted four centuries for long.

In the United States, the first slaves delivered Dutch sailors in August 1619: they landed 20 people frightened, exhausted by a long journey and sold “living loads” to local residents overnight. (Before that, the African slaves actively exported Arab slave traders, but already in the 16th century, Europeans were significantly ahead of them in terms of trade scale.) “The goods” turned out to be a simple, and trade was extremely profitable. Then the Spaniards, the British, and the French joined the business ... Historians believe that over the next two hundred years, at least half a million slaves were transported here.

The ship's teams heading to the African coast were equipped with people of various nationalities: the British, French, Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Americans, Scandinavians ... But local natives perceived them unequivocally: for them they were “white people”, even if the leather of the aliens was by no means different. On the other hand, when ethnically also completely different Africans - representatives of various tribes and language groups - were unloaded from the ships by the end of the trip, they were all considered representatives of the "Negroid race". Thus, writes Marcus Redist, in fact the concept of “black” race and “white” race created a trade in African slaves. And the racism, which still makes itself felt in America, was largely formed in the stench womb of slave -owning vessels.

In response to the attacks of abolitionists, the slave traders argued that, contrary to the rooted stereotype, they at first did not catch slaves, but simply bought from African tribes (such as, for example, Fante and Aro) of slaves, whom they had already taken in advance in full. Militant tribes were very willing to trade their captives. However, the demand for free labor increased every year, and the “white” merchants involuntarily had to start “hunting” themselves.

The acquisition of each batch took a lot of time, the slave traders wandered along the coast for months, and the ships standing for the shore were filled gradually. The prisoners languishing in the holds had no choice but to start communicating - as a result, relations were tied, each other's languages ​​were studied, and interests were brought closer. “The slave trade as a phenomenon,” says the American professor, “turned out to be an important factor in the development of not only the American, but also the global economy for almost four centuries and laid the foundation for the appearance of African Americans in the United States.”

Dr. Redikik hopes that his study will cause a serious discussion of the consequences of slavery that still distort American society, and calls for open and honest discussions about the role of various races in the construction of the United States and the role of the slave system in the creation of the current impermeable wealth of the country. He considers it an obvious need for material compensations to the descendants of former slaves, which is about for more than one year in the country, but at the same time he believes that justice cannot be reduced only to money, that the conversation should be wider.

Most of the inhabitants of today's America, interested in the history of their own country, struck the following fact in the book: according to the radioric, slaves, who were transported to the United States over all the years of existence, make up no more than 5% of the total number of black slaves generally exported from Africa. The remaining 95% (for four centuries, the Atlantic Ocean crossed 12 million units of "living goods") went to sugar plantations of the Caribbean and Brazil countries.

For an ordinary American who is familiar to sprinkle with ashes and feel the feeling of inescapable guilt in front of his black fellow citizens, the released fact has become a shock. And the last visit of the Queen of Great Britain to the United States caused a surge of toxic comments, such as: “It would not hurt England to first recognize its responsibility for the violently cultivated such a nightmare as slave” ... The fact is that in the second half of the 18th century it was the British who almost completely monopolized the supply of “black goods” to the American slave market and, accordingly,, accordingly,, accordingly,, accordingly,, accordingly,, accordingly,, accordingly They received a significant profit from this.

The very idea of ​​the book by the Redicator, a long -term and active participant in the campaign against the death penalty, arose during a visit to prisoners in the cells cell. “I saw,” he says, “that the system of modern criminal law still carries the features of racial irregularities.”

For two centuries in a row, America - the country of emigrants - is busy that literally plants national tolerance and has been seeking to ensure human rights. And still, even in the country of emigrants, this hard work must be continued daily. And the most characteristic example of how America brings up national tolerance is precisely the history of the struggle for the rights of blacks and the eradication of racism in society. In this struggle, she won. It took a lot of time, but the main thing was to remove the severity of the problem. And here it took the supreme will, the will of power. If there is no will of power, no discussions will lead to anything at all.

And discussions on this subject were constantly conducted, and it was constantly proved that blacks were equal to white, that genetically all people are equal and therefore there is no place in the country. Nothing helped. Only when the state itself is completely tired of the fact that racism interferes with the dynamic development, that it is already real shackles that impede the main goal - the formation of a powerful highly developed society, did it show the will and use power to destroy these shackles. And turn into what she became - into Supreme Power. All public institutions in the USA: schools, shops, restaurants, hospitals - became common, the necessary laws of protection of the rights of blacks were adopted. And the police car of punishments for the manifestations of racism was launched to the fullest and well debugged. In the end, public opinion managed to turn it over. As you know, laws are implemented in a capable country. The capable America, having adopted the relevant laws, did not regret the funds to ensure that the policeman was sitting in the buses that took the children to school and who sold them home and follow the order, so that the police officer was also sitting in the classes ... that is, a new tradition would not grow up until the generation trained in civilized interaction with people of other nationalities and races.

The problem of African Americans, of course, still exists, but this is not the most urgent social problem of the United States. The black population has all conceivable rights and privileges, now they only need to level them. Moreover, if any snob has come up with an idea to be disapproval to treat a native of another ethnic group, he will not publicly demonstrate his attitude. It is dangerous: the fellow citizens will immediately betray ostracism, and is financially invoice. You can like to pay a wallet or even go to jail - the legislation is provided for and successfully tested. That is why it was possible to quickly cope with the splash of intolerance to the Arabs after September 11. Everyone began to destroy the emerging "image of the enemy" at once: the media, politicians, and the police, and the citizens themselves. Here now every child knows that terrorism is not a national, but a social phenomenon. And still, work is not reduced. What eloquently resembles the book "The Slave SHIP: A Human History".

In January 2007, the UN General Assembly proclaimed on March 25, 2007 the international day of celebration of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave.

However, slavery itself existed, so it still exists. So, for example, in Niger, according to the UN estimates, in 2005 there were 800 thousand slaves.