Understanding The History Of African Slavery: The Europeans Were Not The Only Slave Traders

By CDM Staff

In the vast pantheon of history, black people have been both victims and oppressors. Yet history has been so politicized that we hear endlessly about the former and almost never about the latter. Rhetoric has eclipsed facts. It is a fact, for example, that Africans participated in the transatlantic slave trade. History is now frequently used as a cudgel to hammer white people into submission.

Instead of recognizing nuance and complexity, many who should know better have embraced the simplistic narrative of activists. Mainstream publications like the Atlantic and the New York Times desperately want it to be true that blacks have only ever been victims of whites. Yet editorial sentimentalism cannot change the facts. A proper reading of history shatters the feel-good shibboleths of left-wing activists.

Such activists constantly invoke Europeans’ role in the transatlantic slave trade to evoke feelings of guilt among contemporary whites. Hidden behind the propaganda is the fact that Africans actually facilitated the trade. Slavery existed on the continent prior to contact with Europeans; Africans were therefore well accustomed to the business. In Slave Traders by Invitation, historian Finn Fuglestad argues that in some cases Europeans were solicited to partake in the trade. In fact, slavery was so lucrative for Africans they sometimes badgered European traders with business proposals. In The Golden Trade, Richard Jobson recounted that a trader expressed shock when the former declined his offer of slaves.

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