India. A land of diversity, and different cultures, and unique lifestyles. A place where everyone is different, and knows the world differently.
And yet, we are not divided.
Diverse, but unified. Contrasting cultures, in harmony. Unique, but toget...
◤◢◣◥◤◢◣◆◢◣◥◤◢◣◥◣◥◤◢◣◥◤◆◥◤◢◣◥◤◢ | Remembrance of the Slave trade and it's Abolition | By ZindagiKeRang Banner by- Bunnybeebooo
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Imagine a world were one human was owned by another human. Where you had no legal rights or human rights or weren't even considered human because your skin cells produced more melanin than some other humans. Imagine a world where you are considered nothing more than property to be owned.
This was the reality of the world for nearly 4 centuries.
Slavery is when one human is owned by another, and as has been a part of the world history from before proper documentation of history started. The Romans, The Greeks, The Aztecs, The Incas all had slaves. It was a very big black spot in the world's history.
23rd August 1719, a group of African slaves had revolted against their slavers and fought for their freedom. This was the start of the struggle that eventually led to the abolition of the slave trade and slavery. So to honour those slaves, how had the courage to fight for their freedom, in 1997 UNSECO declared 23rd August as the International Remembrance of the slave trade and its Abolitions day.
»»-------------¤-------------««
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Sometime around the 1500s, the African slave trade of the Atlantic Slave Trade was started. At first, these slaves were treated as workers which would be sent mainly to the Americas and some parts of Europe. They were treated as labourers used in plantation fields the mines and farms, but by 1700s slavery had become much harder and had gone along the lines of racism.
By the 1700s the slaves were considered as property to be owned. Children born to slave mothers were also considered slaves. These slaves were considered beasts and burdens. They were all denied humanity and dignity by saying theory beasts, their heritage, culture and history were denied on the basis it being pseudo-scientific, they were denied the rights of citizenship making them exempt from any policies and laws.
To cite a few examples of the cruelty of the trade, the slaves had to be barefoot always, there was no disputing this rule. They could be in their best clothes but were forbidden from wearing footwear. They were not allowed to go anywhere without permission from their owners and were not given any wages for their hard work. The owners could treat the slaves however they liked, and if any of the slaves were killed off in their servitude the owners bared no consequences.
Around 30 million Africans were deported from different parts of the country for the purpose of trade, but if count all the lives lost during the 'Slave Raids' the estimate would be close to 100 million lives. Imagine the horror of these raids, that was considered perfectly legal.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
This dehumanization of African black people had gone on well into the 1800s and was only abolished in the 19th century when several governments around the world passed laws against Slavery and the Slave trade. In the 21st century, many of the European-American countries involved in the slave trade made apologises.
The Civil War in America was fought for this very reason the northern states wanted to abolition slavery while the southern states did not want to do that and even though the north won the Southern states, later on, passed the 'Black Codes' that restricted blacks from voting carrying arms or studying in same schools as the white supremacy. This was done as way to protect the dominance of White supremacy.
Let's not forget that the capital that came from this trade has made Europe and America into the superpower it is today. There are so many institutions that are standing and making money even today, which were established from the capital that came from the trade.
Not to mention this trade gave way to so many other injustices in the past all based on the fact that if this trade of justifiable so were these injustices. The apartheid governments, the holocaust are examples of such injustices.
»»-------------¤-------------««
Today the world has progressed so much but this trade of slavery had left in its wake so many social injustices that prevail even today. Racism, Discrimination on the basis cast or colour, violence and cruelty against people of colour, and the injustice faced by people of African descend even today.
To say that we are completely free and exempt from this kind of racial and would be a joke on our humanities intelligence. Even today not that long ago we saw the tragic death of George Floyd. The Black Lives Matter slogan as people would like to assume is saying that their lives matter more, which is not the purpose of the slogan. The slogan wants to say that black lives matter as much as the white lives matter or any other colours skinned live matter.
»»-------------¤-------------««
The slave trade has left the world with a legacy of dehumanisation and of cruelty, horror and injustice. We all as a human should be ashamed that this was ever a part of our history let alone a being apart for 400 years.
The psychological scars left by this horrific act of dehumanization could never be aptly put into words. Nor will words ever be enough to express the apologises that are needed to be said. This tragedy was ignored universally by everyone.
The least we can do is give them the respect they deserve, stop the discrimination on any basis seen today and treat every human as equals. Every life matters.
