America's foray into slavery is not unique to America nor is it unique to humankind. Since the dawn of humanity slavery has existed and it has existed in every social group composed of man. Was it wrong, yes. is it still wrong, yes, does it still exist, yes.
Instead of thinking and acting as if slavery was solely an American institution and that Africans were solely the victims let us look toward the future and eradicate this scourge from the face of the earth.
Mea culpas do very little to assist those still in shackles.
Instead of thinking and acting as if slavery was solely an American institution and that Africans were solely the victims let us look toward the future and eradicate this scourge from the face of the earth.
Mea culpas do very little to assist those still in shackles.
11
Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, quoting William Cullen Bryant
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, quoting William Cullen Bryant
6
The irony of the ship's name, Sao Jose (Saint Joseph), points out one of the most glaring hypocrisies of the European and North American slave trade: These were "Christian" nations, engaged in one of the most despicable enterprises of modern times. Though these deaths occurred more than 200 years ago, it should be a long time before this blight fades from our collective memory.
15
Man's depravity can never be surpassed by any other species on this planet. Nothing much has changed really. Then there were physical shackles. In the present times poverty, joblessness, homelessness, disparity, crime, unjustified incarcerations and being murdered by enforcers of the law are the new shackles. Dehumanization - the and now!
8
Your opening paragraph condemns various colonizers for their greed, but leaves out the complicity (and greed) of the African rulers who also participated in the slave trade, and traded their own people. Furthermore, slavery also happened within the African continent, not involving colonizers, yet your editorial gives the impression that the colonizers acted on their own, with no one else involved in the exchange. This is an obvious omission that serves no one, but your own political correctness.
13
There would be no slavery of it weren't for the demand.
7
Slavery existed in Africa before the arrival of the Europeans. The horror os slavery is not exclusive to the white man. Plenty go guilt to pass around.
9
Individuals argue that "we all know" about the African Slave trade- when in fact we know virtually nothing more than what would be contained in a synopsis. Quite frankly, Americans do not wish to know more; information about a horrid history of mankind at its worst. Yes, we know about slaves bought, sold, captured and taken from Africa; we know about slave masters beatings, lynchings and brutal work. We know about some slave revolts; we know about the underground railroad; all cursory information. Do we "know" and comprehend details like the article pointed out; sixty thousand voyages of human cargo- of course not; understand what that actually meant? Do we "know" about men and women chained together defecating and urinating on themselves and each other- chained together in this human fertilizer? Do we comprehend female slaves underwent their menstrual cycles in the same conditions? Do we comprehend babies were born in these conditions? The visceral isn't too pleasant when the mind has too conjure up the realities. As long as we permissively create an abstract concept of slavery- allowing the mind to forego knowledge of the enduring consequences of a Continent, bartered carved and colonized for the benefit of the few ( how do we rectify the notion of places named British Africa and Belgium Congo); there will be the many defensively uncomfortable about what it all means. Just as others demand that we must never forget- America dare not "dis-remember".
30
The comments here underscore the importance of what the Editorial Board has said. America has never dealth with its very own original sin - it is papered over, gloosed over, snarked at but never has there been soul searching or reckoningfor what was done to living breathing human beings so others could get rich. In order to dehumanize and thus justify what was done a whole cloth of biogtry was woven. In order to justify the enslavement after the Civil War, that whole cloth was passed down to the children of the confederacy and its friends, to wrap each generation in it and produce Jim Crow, the KKK and even the virulent nonsense of the internet. This is that important. Marching the good people of Germany through the death camps was done for a reason. Millions were forced into slavery and were beaten raped and died and the richest of the plantation ownwers, well, got richer.
31
"America has never dealth with its very own original sin"
See the civil war - 620000 deaths. I would say a heavy price was paid for the "original sin" including some of my ancestors that died freeing the slaves. It's long past time to turn the page.
See the civil war - 620000 deaths. I would say a heavy price was paid for the "original sin" including some of my ancestors that died freeing the slaves. It's long past time to turn the page.
4
We can only turn the page only when African Americans still don't have to live a second-class citizens.
15
The physical presence the the artifacts reaches out over the centuries as a disturbing reminder of the cruel insanity of the slave traders. This is not just something that happened a long time ago, but a lesson to studied. To do otherwise is to disrespect those who were wronged in such a brutal fashion, and their descendants whose identity bears those scars as well.
20
It is a form of orientalism to write as though "Africans" were a monolithic group and to ignore the geo-politics within the region. Greed motivated colonizers and it also motivated Africans to prey on other Africans and sell them into slavery. Some rulers became very rich and powerful as a result of the trade. It in no way minimizes the criminality of the colonizers to acknowledge this, but it does do a disservice to history.
12
As these thoughtful readers views illustrate, the impulse to exploit defenseless 'others' and thereby to amass personal fortunes in a capitalist matrix is deeply rooted in our western culture (and others).
Some celebrate exploitation and taking advantage as robust and moral--to the victor go the spoils. The space between the ears of exploiters is where it all starts and ends. Too many investigations present the victims 'the enslaved people' their crowded slave ships, the way they were sold like chattel.
The real exhibit is the psychology and social anthropology of the exploiters. The smartest people in the room were also the most ruthless and self absorbed.
Some celebrate exploitation and taking advantage as robust and moral--to the victor go the spoils. The space between the ears of exploiters is where it all starts and ends. Too many investigations present the victims 'the enslaved people' their crowded slave ships, the way they were sold like chattel.
The real exhibit is the psychology and social anthropology of the exploiters. The smartest people in the room were also the most ruthless and self absorbed.
6
What is the likelihood that human remains will be found among this wreckage? And if there were a find of human remains, could there or would there be a DNA match attempted? Just asking since most of my queries have been posted by other distinguished writers who are respondents.
2
It is high time that this part of our Nation's history is given the recognition it deserves. If anything, this is our American Holocaust. Monuments and museums should have been built long ago to preserve the memory of the MILLIONS who perished before, during, and after the 'Middle Passage' of the diaspora; instead of sweeping the horrors of slavery under the rug, or worse, denying it for the human tragedy it truly was.
21
This 'find' is but one more example of the care and clarity of purpose being used to create this wonderful museum. Its exhibitions will thrill visitors, make them think, make them cry, make them smile, and make them sing. Whether the pieces represent bondage and social degradation, such as the slave ship and segregated train car or the triumph of spirit and talent such as Marion Anderson's dress and Chuck Berry's red Cadillac, this museum will be quintessentially American.
2
Should the Smithsonian display a Portuguese slave ship that was bound from Africa to Brazil when it sank? Doesn't it belong in a Portuguese, Brazilian, or African museum.
3
The original news item was a fantastic (and horrifying read, but I really don't see what this editorial adds to it.
9
"This era is often reduced to an abstraction in contemporary conversation. "
This is an absurd thesis. I think we're all aware of American history. This is a story worthy of the Editorial board, but is the angle really that we didn't know our history until a few days ago?
This is an absurd thesis. I think we're all aware of American history. This is a story worthy of the Editorial board, but is the angle really that we didn't know our history until a few days ago?
13
The São José is part of African, Portuguese and Brazilian history, not American history.
3
For some people it is a complete abstraction. I have heard people who have compared the life of a slave to their grandfather's bad job, and others who, on seeing '12 Years a Slave', only then came to realize what slavery was about.
2
To William Case: the ship was headed for the Americas (Brazil). Unfortunately I stand corrected about knowledge of American history.
The way we treated the slaves back then, is the way we treat farm animals today.
10
This piece refers to the enslaved as having been "stolen" and sold into slavery. Humans cannot be stolen.
3
Do you really think the enslaved asked to be or chose to be kidnapped and taken from their homes and families? How do you otherwise define "stolen"?
12
As an American History major, I find this to be interesting. However, the idea that this find, vs literally hundred of other finds of equal or more import, somehow deserves an editorial is simply ludicrous. Yes, NY TImes Editorial Board, you are marvelously progressive. Your empathy knows no bounds, your achievements no limits. But...c'mon.
8
There are no other verified finds of sunken slave ships, even though "...there had been tens of thousands of slave-ship voyages out of Africa." That is what makes this find very interesting and deserving of an editorial.
6
John, may I suggest that YOR empathy could push its own boundaries a bit...
6
In response to a few comments that mention that this century or continent is without slavery, I'd like to point out the prolific, disturbing, and overwhelming human sex-trafficking trade that exists in a significant way from other continents to ours (North America). Let's not say or be deceived into thinking that slavery has been totally abolished!
24
While we celebrate the good parts of our history we don't have to pretend that the not so good parts didn't happen. Slavery was one of the foundations of our country. It was not just bondage, but also for men, women and children kidnapping, imprisonment from birth to death, forced labor, beatings, torture, rape, children molestation, murder and all the other horrors that one people with unchecked power can inflict upon another. We are just like everybody else, past present and future.
35
I realize that it is shocking to contemporary mores that there was an actual trade in humans as chattels and so it should be and that shock should extend to current social and political oppression based on gender, creed, sexual identification and other modern forms of oppression, i.e., interest slavery and the exaltation of soulless entities over human individuals. Getting something for nothing, i.e., undervaluing "value added" though labor is the means that the people's wealth is stolen. What sort of society would allow employers to underpay workers so that they need programs for the needy? Ask Walmart whose owners built a billion dollar museum in Bentonville on the backs of underpaid employees and the U.S. taxpayer. As Exxon which pollutes on the Government dime. Ask Michelle Bachmann whose "businesses" are subsidized by federal programs.
40
This is indeed a significant find, one that will make the horrors of the trans-Atlantic slave trade more real for those who encounter it.
That said, however, if we are to understand humans fully, we must look at all of them, throughout all their histories. The trans-Atlantic slave trade is but one facet of human slavery. As far as I can tell, people have enslaved people wherever humans have lived and throughout their histories, with the last century or so being the exception in some parts of the world.
Study it in its full breadth, then seek to understand this particular trade in that broader context.
Or stated more generally, study a subject in its full breadth, then one can place any part of it in context.
That said, however, if we are to understand humans fully, we must look at all of them, throughout all their histories. The trans-Atlantic slave trade is but one facet of human slavery. As far as I can tell, people have enslaved people wherever humans have lived and throughout their histories, with the last century or so being the exception in some parts of the world.
Study it in its full breadth, then seek to understand this particular trade in that broader context.
Or stated more generally, study a subject in its full breadth, then one can place any part of it in context.
15
So that makes it ok. Becuase everyone did it. Nope. THere were plenty that knew it was evil and wrong.
6
I can already hear some of our esteemed politicians howling that this is all some liberal/communist fiction and that most of our African friends came to the New World of their own volition, and perhaps remained here because they lost their return tickets.
Oh, and any rate, the Bible has been all in favor of slavery.
Oh, and any rate, the Bible has been all in favor of slavery.
21
There is every reason why there should be reparations made to the African Americans. I am white and no one I know who is white can say there were slaves in their families in the past 500 years.. Every Black American I talk to has slaves as ancestors. White people should have no say, and to say we are not responsible is to deny complicity. If we salute the American Flag, we are responsible for every genocidal act of the United States.
21
The argument against U.S. reparations for slavery is that African Americans are among the beneficiaries of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The descendants of salves transported from Africa to the present-day United States s are much better off than Africans whose ancestors were not enslaved and transported to the present-day United States. The average per capita income in Sub-Saharan Africa is $762 per year, and the life expectancy is less than 55 years.
1
This is false equivalency. Is tearing someone away unwillingly from his family, homeland, and traditions and treating him like a second-class citizen in a new country (albeit with a higher income) make him a "beneficiary"???
5
In 1972 a diving team led by Mel Fisher discovered
the wrecked remains of the slave ship Henrietta Marie
which became part of a well researched exhibition
A Slave Ship Speaks produced in 1995 by the Mel Fisher
maritime museum in Key West, FL.
The team of divers/archaeologists and subsequent
researchers developed an extraordinary exhibition
of the slave trade .
the wrecked remains of the slave ship Henrietta Marie
which became part of a well researched exhibition
A Slave Ship Speaks produced in 1995 by the Mel Fisher
maritime museum in Key West, FL.
The team of divers/archaeologists and subsequent
researchers developed an extraordinary exhibition
of the slave trade .
12
Yesterday, June 1, 2015, the New York Times in a report by Helene Cooper featured the story of this ship: "Grim History Traced in Sunken Slave Ship Found Off South Africa." Coincidentally, yesterday, June 1, the great state of Alabama was revealing in its annual official celebration of the life and accomplishments of Jefferson Davis, the American traitor who turned on his own country to champion a war in defense of slavery in North America. Treason and barbarism are apparently still highly valued in Alabama.
68
Just look at which way Alabama votes today.
8
Grateful for the language used to refer to the unfortunate souls swept up in this most pernicious current in early modern history. "Human beings," "enslaved people," are terms more preferable than the execrable "slaves."
11
Our "white" ancestors.
I am against slavery. I am also against human sacrifice, gladiator games, witchcraft trials, and having people drawn and quartered. The past is full of horrors the people living then accept with no thought or bother. It is good to remember, but treating it as a current wrong is insane. Remember that everyone in history had slaves and slavery (excepting the smallest hunter/gather groups) You cannot find a society until the late 1700's that banned slavery because they thought it was wrong. You can find individuals who lamented slavery but they thought it was wrong for themselves and not society. Don't forget that a number of slave freed and returned to Africa from America imminently got into the business themselves since they spoke English and their own language.
10
we no longer have slaves; now we just have the poor and as they are not property, no responsibility for them. And of course the aristocracy still seek the luxury goods at a price commensurate with cheap labor. What's different?
23
We should be clear that "the aristocracy" for whom slaves first became cheap labor, were joined rapidly - especially in the English-speaking world - by a burgeoning middle-class, who also reaped great material rewards from this abomination.
9
We fought the Civil War in 1864, and a huge part of America fought to
preserve slavery. It's incredible to think, via a new, exhaustive film of the
19th-20th centuries, in which America became an industrial behemoth and
leader in the world, began so close to that Civil War date.
And more incredible to realize so up close and personal this fevered
last few months, that the legacy of slavery is so much a part of America
now. Good Grief, what shall we do?
preserve slavery. It's incredible to think, via a new, exhaustive film of the
19th-20th centuries, in which America became an industrial behemoth and
leader in the world, began so close to that Civil War date.
And more incredible to realize so up close and personal this fevered
last few months, that the legacy of slavery is so much a part of America
now. Good Grief, what shall we do?
3
Good work Editorial Board. It is a great wonder for me that the slave trade did not reach the awareness or impression scale of the Holocaust. It is likewise a wonder how Southern war monuments honor the people that defended slavery even today. Similarily, I cannot fathom the vitriol cast at President Obama or the number of young black men killed and jailed in America.
55
One only needs to read New York Times articles that continually propagandize for mass legal/legal immigration, and Sanctuary City sabotage of immigration law enforcement, to be non-abstract "in touch with the depravity", the moral horror of our 1%'s perverse humanitarian sounding justifications for our contemporary system of below a living wage, and off the books below minimum wage slavery. Our current elite manipulated "immigration nation" mechanism of supplying our nobility of business Plantation owners with over a million new 1/2 to 1/3 of a living wage-slaves every year. That at the same time drives down wages for native born citizens, so shoving them down into the same serf, peon, growing under class status as the majority of the no human rights bearing people from failed states that get on the slightly better appointed slave ships and airliners that bring them here today.
5
Dude, take a breath!
7
I wonder if descendants of the entrepreneurs who sold others into slavery ever tend to be ashamed of that aspect of their history.
4
I can name one: Ben Affleck!
2
What would be the point? what's the point of shame for a past that you did not choose and did not create?
1
The trans-Atlantic slave trade is reduced to an abstraction because as a matter of fact, time and history, it is.
Waving the bloody shirt of racial wrongs from previous centuries in 2015 is a thinly veiled liberal tactic to insulate Barack Obama from criticism and to shamefully indemnify the Black community and the President from personal accountability.
Stop using the color of my skin to exploit and exacerbate the divide in this country.
Waving the bloody shirt of racial wrongs from previous centuries in 2015 is a thinly veiled liberal tactic to insulate Barack Obama from criticism and to shamefully indemnify the Black community and the President from personal accountability.
Stop using the color of my skin to exploit and exacerbate the divide in this country.
7
Not to worry-these sorts of tactics never work, because in the end, nobody really cares. Just ask the poor devils being worked to death to build soccer stadiums in Qatar.
5
Until the U.S. fully owns its responsibility for the concrete realities of the slaving practices that built the country, we will not heal the race-based injuries that continue to recur. This issue transcends the political jousting and character assassination that has become the norm for our politics. Thank you.
24
Everything relates to Obama? The above post by "DCBarrister" strikes me as an example of Obama sickness, an obsessive concern and orientation toward the idea that his existence in the White House has resulted in conspiracies of an unending nature. Grab hold of your seat, dude.
Gathering more knowledge about the slave trade could be useful to almost all of us, just like learning about the Civil War. It expands our view of where we have been and where we are now. This article has nothing to do with Obama in the White House. Nothing.
Gathering more knowledge about the slave trade could be useful to almost all of us, just like learning about the Civil War. It expands our view of where we have been and where we are now. This article has nothing to do with Obama in the White House. Nothing.
50
A fine article.Highly appreciate if a country works out its past .unfortunately most of the scholars want to do so,however it is not always that easy.Archives not accessible,authorities not amused,if the past is too,present.
Ja remarkable is ,as mentioned in your article,not driven by hate,but pure benefit,and ideologically hallmarked by racial theories ,relevant to this very day!
Cheap labor means per definition to dehumanize the other.
The Dutch slave trade isn't an issue deserving the attention it ought be for a civilized country,only by descendants : " struggling" for a long,long time to get a statue as remembrance,a kind of minimalistic art to say it on a wry manner.
The only writer , an eye witness at the colonial times in nowadays Indonesia,commenting with furore abuses ,was Multatuli[Douwes Dekker].
I
Ja remarkable is ,as mentioned in your article,not driven by hate,but pure benefit,and ideologically hallmarked by racial theories ,relevant to this very day!
Cheap labor means per definition to dehumanize the other.
The Dutch slave trade isn't an issue deserving the attention it ought be for a civilized country,only by descendants : " struggling" for a long,long time to get a statue as remembrance,a kind of minimalistic art to say it on a wry manner.
The only writer , an eye witness at the colonial times in nowadays Indonesia,commenting with furore abuses ,was Multatuli[Douwes Dekker].
I
2
I am truly grateful for the work that is being done to expose this horrific act that was perpetuated against Africans, some of it by Africans in the capture and enslaving of their own. I applaud the researchers and urge everyone to visit the museum to be more enlightened so that this will never happen again.
21
The slave trade is about as profound a reminder as it gets of the dangers of unfettered capitalism. For all of its positives, the entrepreneurial spirit doesn't automatically include a moral compass--something to keep in mind whenever you hear a lot of howling about government regulation.
117
Amen to that.
2
history repeats itself...
Roman era slave-transport ships,
including their slave-powered rigs,
have frequently been recovered from the depths
in and around the Mediterranean Sea and elsewhere.
as with many things,
the more expansive industrialization of earlier practices,
by subsequent generations,
becomes: simply, sadly, tragically: just "cargo".
and, as such,
a larger, more specific profit center to be exploited;
as this Editorial makes amply clear.
however,
even now in the 21st Century,
the argument can be made,
that economic-slavery continues:
with massive employment shifts to the locales where it is "cheapest".
not the places where the environment of the worker or their world matters.
we currently do not "move" the laborer, rather the 'work'.
----today in Southeast Asia...
tomorrow,
perhaps,
in Africa----
irony anyone?
in the overview:
it is all:
a different "time",
a different "location",
each in its own way,
in the long run,
destructive,
and,
avoidable.
thanks to the presentation by The Smithsonian,
and to those lost lives on the Såo José,
as elsewhere,
we have another opportunity to review past practices
and to renew a pledge to find and enforce a better-way.
44
Well said SJ, thanks.
1
So many comments on here make excuses for it.