Figure 1.--Notice the nunber of arnmed Africans in the paintung, not only in the foregroind, but also in the background. The extent of African involvemet in the slave trade was down palyed by 19th cetury Abolitiionists who wabnted to focus on white slave owners and now by 21st century woke historians as well who want to focus only on what they call 'white privildge'. The 21st century woke view of black slave drivers is much the same as the woke view of modern black crimiunals turning cities like Chicago into vast open air urban shooting galleries, either ignore it or blamne it on evil white Republicans. Basically what we have is a different level of culpability in assessing black and white behavior which itself is fundamentally racist thought

One of the striking features of the Biard paintings is the number of Africans involved in the process. In fact there are more armed African slave drivers depicted than white crew members. The modern concept of the slave trade is that it was perpetrated by white Europeans against Africans. Often ignored or not given much attention is the involvement of Africans. In reality it took significant manpower to capture Africans, drive them to the coast, and hold them in baracoons. Al this was done by Africans (many Arabized/Islamized Africans) and not white Europeans or the employees of white Europeans. On fact, more Africans were involved than white crew members on the slavers. Relatively small numbers of white crew members were needed to transport the captive Africans across the Atlantic. Clearly the extensive involvement of Africans was required for the slave trade. Also part of the modern slave trade narrative is that the Europeans introduced the slave trade to to an idyllic, peaceful Africa. This is manifestly false. Following the Islamic outburst from the from the Arabian Peninsula (7th century AD), Arab merchants moving into Indian Ocean ports initiated the Arab slave trade (8th century). There were at first two routes, the Indian Ocean slave route and the Saharan route. The Arab Indian Ocean slave trade was mostly confined to East Africa. The Saharan route affected West Africa. Slavery and the slave trade was a part of the great African empires, several of which were Islamic, that preceded the Europeans. What changed with arrival of the Europeans is that rather than being driven across the Sahara, captive Africans were driven south to the Gulf of Guinea coast. The Europeans did introduce the slave trade to the western regions of southern Africa that had previously not been significantly affected by the slave trade such as modern Angola and Namibia. The Atlantic slave trade was notable for the large numbers transported for basically three decades (16th - early-19th centuries), but the total numbers seem comparable as the Arab slave trade which was conducted over a much longer time period, a millennium (8th - 19th centuries).

Created: 6:51 AM 5/27/2022
Last updated: 5:05 PM 5/28/2022