How did the African Slave Trade Begin?

So much effort to discuss who the sellers of the slaves were. There would have been no market without buyers. Some of you seem to think because human beings are for sale that you would therefore be in the right to buy?

But, I am sure you would not be happy for a neighbor, invader, or anyone to do the same to you or your family.

I'm white and have zero guilt about having ancestors who owned slaves. Just because they were predators and parasites doesn't mean that I have to be. Just because they were my 'family' sure as hell does not mean that I should not call them what they were.

To all the haters of the blacks, Hebrews and Israelites. Africans are not our people. Just because we are a dark race means nothing. White supremacy put that lie out there that Africans were selling Africans. We blacks woke up to our real heritage. Sorry to burst your bubble. This book is called “Timbuktu” and written by a white scholar.

The Africans come from Ham, according to the Zondervan Bible Dictionary, but there's the phrase, "not the Negroes."

The question is, then, who are the Negroes if they are not from Ham? The Negroes are from the line of Noah's son Shem. They are the 12 sons of Jacob known as Israel. They are the true Hebrew Israelites of the Torah/Bible.

Hmm. During slavery, did they call the slaves Negroes? Negroes for sale? My parents' old birth certificate Says race: Negro.

I found the comments in this post both disturbing and also informational and out of all only one has held significance and that is Anon213323 Post 141. To that person I say thank you for that enlightenment.

It is true that "Africans" sold us descendents of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade to our slave masters. What's not being told is that those Africans were Arab slave traders and we were being hunted by those Arabs ever since fleeing Judea. The Arabs were confederate with the Europeans in our destruction and captivity. The original Arabs were black Africans and they referred to us as "the people of the book" who were prophesied and therefore ordained by God to go into captivity. That's the only reason the Arabs and Europeans were able to overtake us. It was divine.

When I read about white people deflecting their guilt, it doesn't bother me (it does, but let me explain). It is not with us they need to apologize. Their debt is now with the Most High. So all the excuses and blaming us for our situation is quite accurate because God Himself did this to us. So if we're going to be mad at anyone we should be mad at God. But we can't be mad at God because we were guilty of crimes against God. But now we have done our time. We've been here for 400 years, just as the end of the curses dictates. Now comes the hardest part, and this goes to every descendant of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

We must drop these man-made religions. Abandon your churches. Abandon your mosques. Relinquish your idols, your graven images, all the pagan things you were taught in gentile captivity. We must return to the Most High. Let's leave Christianity and Islam behind, turn and face the Most High until He gives us our blessings once again. It is up to us now. There is no saving America. Let her burn. Let her, her constitution, her economy, and her nations all go their way. I know this, in the depths of my heart and soul and of all my being, that this is what we must do now. Nothing else will work until we come together and look for the Most High with our hearts, understand and admit our guilt. The anointed one He promised to raise in Judah will appear and lead us. But first, we must figure out how to get our people to remember, to know that the Most High is our God. Until then nothing will go our way.

"Nigeria is notable for selling sex slaves to certain European countries, and for trafficking on children inside African boundaries" states this misguided, ignorant, provincial "author" of lies and hate.

Such a statement is akin to another stating, "The USA is notable for killing young black men within its cities, and for raping/beating women inside North American boundaries."

Africans sold their own people etc, but in a very different way to how Americans and Europeans did. Jim Crow anyone?

How did Africans get to where they are? The African is the Mother of mankind -- the original blueprint for humanity.

As a result The African is indigenous to the planet. Centuries before the mutation responsible for the Caucasian species, there were only Africans existing in the world. The question that is pondered is how the Caucasian species found their way out of Africa, to make it to the Caucasus Mountains where living was cold and harsh?

Science now believes a tribe of Africans left Africa with pigmentation, and cross-breeding created the Caucasian species. Genetics has now confirmed that only Whites and Asians carry the Neanderthal gene. Africans do not. This would indicate that some sort of cross-breeding occurred while living in the Mountains with the neanderthals who dominated the region.

Don’t be so fooled by the relentless propaganda release by gatekeepers, especially when coming from the same people who are still trying to convince the people of Iraq that they are better off seeing millions of their brothers and sisters die than to be lead by one man. In the words of Malcolm X, only a fool would allow an oppressor to feed their minds the truth. We must learn to chew on common-sense instead of information of those who are writing history.

What's never mentioned is the fact that the indentured servants of Africans were never based on color because Africans had white and black indentured servants. Neither was it based on religion or belief structures. in fact, servants were given a day off to practice their beliefs. Additionally, "chattel slavery” is a white philosophy, and it is important to recognize the clear difference. This difference is in direct contrast to African spiritual beliefs in addition to the life of an African indentured servant.

Africans viewed their indentured servants as human. As servants, these people could buy their freedom, get married, learn to read and write and own things, including land. Physical punishment was forbidden. In many ancient civilizations, slaves so loved their masters that, although freed, some would commit suicide upon their Master’s death. Almost always these servants were given a timeline of service to fulfill their debt, and it was common for the master to give their servants a bag of gold upon leaving service.

Being indentured was not a life-long journey unless one had committed a crime in the community. African servants were educated, talented and many were rewarded with gold over and beyond their servitude duties. Most importantly, they had legal rights, which were governing laws enforced by outside parties. Back in the European empire, the commoners, as they were called, had absolutely no human rights. Dungeons of the United Kingdom were the first massive prisons systems known to mankind. Africans had no concept of this type of incarceration; there are no words in their vocabulary to describe caging humans.

Servants vs. Slaves. This has a lot to do with the understanding of two languages, and attempting to merge two different cultures together. We have documents which shows the reaction of African nations once the word of these atrocious crimes made its way back to the Mother land. How would they have realized that slavery under another language was depicted, as something never dreamed of before?

Let us consider that there is no word which exists in any African language to describe chattel slavery, the "breeding of humans" for servants. Breeding humans for a labor force goes against every African spiritual belief of the African nations.

Unlike the European Vatican, for the African this would have been an abomination according to their God. The understanding of slavery under another name has everything to do with one's culture and experiences. Who would have thought that slavery meant hanging people from trees, and/or splitting up families and not allowing them to learn to read or write? Who could have thought up anything so heinous unless you were already from that culture?

Around the world and throughout history, whites enslaved whites, just as Africans enslaved Africans. During these periods, people were still considered human, and had some level of human rights. It was not until chattel slavery that laws were created forbidding black people to be considered human, with fewer rights than an animal. This concept draws a thick line between being an African servant, and the chattel slaves of whites who refused to recognize an African's "right to life." The two are not remotely equal, no matter how much spin is put on the facts. The fact remain: without a group of “free-loaders” looking for “free laborers" to build countries on and taken from others, literally for free, there would not have ever been this idea called chattel slavery.

Chattel slavery stripped one's rights to be human, while simultaneously color-coding slavery, which was a very white and Christian philosophy that gave only whites in the world the legal right to kill humans who did not look like them without prosecution. This was signed, sealed and delivered by the Christian Roman Empire, The Church.

This is taking into account that during that time, Africa, along with other parts of the world had both white and black indentured servants, not to mention the undisputed documentation which supports penalties waged against the African owners of indentured servants going back into ancient times which shows how servants in Africa, regardless of color, had human rights, along with rights protecting them from aggressive behavior whether they were black, or white.

Well with slavery, it will be the same. There is someone less powerful than us. We need to assert our dominance over them.

See, you always hear about the African slave trade, but wherever you are, that history had its own slaves.

There were slaves in the Americas, in Europe, in Asia, everywhere you went.

Even with globalization, Africans weren't the only ones taken. For example, in the 17th century, around 50,000 Irish were deported to work as slaves in the West Indies. So everyone has to go through it at one point or another. We just mainly focus on the ones that end the latest.

Slaves are part of every person's history, if you go back far enough. The world is getting it right, but people who think they are owed something for past misdeeds well before there existence show a lot of ignorance.

I don't think there is an ancestry that hasn't been punished or enslaved by others at some point in history. Those times are not our times. Our times will be built on our terms, not the begging for things that went on well before us. That is a fool's errand.

You can find your own greatness in God's image by someone else's charity. Life is not a quest for yesterday's imperfect past. It is the journey into the better future that all mankind must make happen by sweat to realize the dreams of their own time.

I'd like to take my chances in Africa. However, can I have my 40 acres and mule with interest before I go? Is that too much too ask?

First of all, white people did not put us in slavery, our God did. they did took it further than He intended and for that he promised to deal with them. Because of our ancestors' disobedience, God said this would befall us. Pray and crack open the Bible; therein lies your full history.

Africans have always sold Africans for profit, but the African descendants in the US and the West Indies want repatriation funds, or as it should be truthfully called, great great great grandparents' slavery days back pay/ wages. If you look at it carefully, it is really also money for the future social welfare so that they don't have to work for anything starting now.

Hollywood tells the wrong story all the time. There is enough evidence to prove Africans guilty of selling out their own people before the fist Europeans arrived.

In Kenya, my tribe -- the Kikuyu -- did not entertain slavery at all and slave traders were hunted by my kin and made an example. We the Kikuyu have never been carried as slaves and the Arabs knew of it as they would be cautious whenever they came to inner land of the country, as they were killed in a painful way and used as a reminder for others.

I feel that we should all just get along, because there is much pain in the past concerning slavery. I hear this story and that story, but if we are going to build a better America, we need to let go of the bitterness and learn from history, not keep it as a monument of hatred, and move forward.

We have bigger problems right now to concerned about than slavery. We need to work together. For the bible reader, you can also see that what I'm saying about bigger problems now and ahead are true. We need to come together because times are only going to get worse. The bible proclaims it.

This story of history seems to be exactly what your audience wants to hear: four paragraphs explaining the enslavement of a people releases a lot of guilt. How sad.

I am a white woman. The non white will always want to make us feel guilt, thereby giving into them. I feel no guilt. I say they need to blame their own people. I do feel sad that any race, anywhere, suffers.

Multiculturalism does not work. For peace and freedom, we all need to live with our kind.

I honestly don't see the point of finger-pointing in a history discussion, unless anyone of you happens to have a three-hundred year old ancestor whom we can all blame for the invention of slavery.

The truth is, our ancestors were just people, there were the best of them, there were the worst of them, and there were those who could have done something in their lifetimes but didn't, which is not unlike our own generation, I may add.

I may also add that the idea of slavery in Muslim culture is extremely different from the accepted definition, so much so that it can hardly be called slavery at all, as the "slaves" (taken as prisoners of war) were not to be referred to as property. Sadly, in any religious civilization, there is a great difference between theory and practice, so be careful when analyzing them. I also find these frequent rants against "the rich white man" to be quite racist, and would like to point out that the majority of people (whatever their race) believe in freedom and equality for everyone, and I would like to point out post 171 as an excellent example of the opposite view.

Muslims targeted African Jews and African Judeo-Christians for capture to sell to the Europeans for the Trans-atlantic slave trade. The majority of African-americans and Afro-caribbeans are descendants of African Jewish and Judeo-Christian

peoples from North, Northwest, West, Central and East Africa. Both Judaism and Christianity were

well-established in Africa centuries prior to the arrival of Islam.

I think it is rather selfish and ignorant for any one person to dilute the hardships of another.

It is horrific that wealth and power lie in front of those who will use it to manipulate and imprison others. Cowards hide behind their insecurities and are drawn to their temptations like eve to the apple of sin.

The past of this country and so many others that came before it rest upon a graveyard of those who, at many times, had no choice but to sacrifice their lives for the ideals of their leaders.

Let us rest assured that good shall always defeat evil and although sometimes tardy, justice will present her beautiful face! Whether it be here or in the infinitive of the after life, we all must face the consequences of the decisions we have made. It doesn't matter who you believe gave you this beautiful life. It matters how you decide to live it!

Just watched the movie Adangaman. It was very illuminating. There seems to be a schism between what American school children are taught and what every European child knows to be the facts about the African slave trade.

I highly recommend the movie. My son immediately after the movie exclaimed, "Why are they lying to me in school about the Africans not selling their own people into slavery?"

Hebrew slaves serve six years only and must be freed in the seventh (Ex. 21:2; Deut. 15:12) There were as many Caucasian slaves coming to America in ships as blacks. They had to be freed by the seventh year. I can give 100 scriptures concerning Israelites, and Blacks and Jews fulfill none of them. Only Saxons, Isaac's sons and those through Yacob who were Caucasian fulfill them. I could give biblical proof of it so please don't play the race card and call me a white devil racist liar. I'm not.

Noah did not curse ham. He did not have the authority. God did not curse him either; God cursed Canaan. Askenaz is from Japeth, who went to the isles of the gentiles and was never in the bibical lands until the Greeks, Persians and Romans invaded. These people too started as blacks, etruscans, etc., and became a mixed race. And the seed of Jacob is from Shem, an asiatic black man.

Africans did not sell their own people. Africans, including Egyptians are Hamitic. The black Hebrew Israelites sold into slavery were from Shem (asiatic black people, who had mingled with Egyptians). They were both black but served different gods and had different customs.

Africa is a continent. There are many countries in Africa. The Sudanese, Lembka and Ghanains are Hebrews.

When the "seed of Jacob" was discovered hiding in Africa after escaping Titus in Rome, Pope Nicholas V issued a papal bull in the 1500s called the Duma deversa, ordering their enslavement. But God had said a thousand years previously, that black Jews and Hebrew Israelites were to go into slavery in ships, the only people on earth to do so, ever. (Deuteromony chapter 28)

@anon 103334, Post 58: There were an African holocaust. There were over a 100 millions African killed during the slave trade. Only six million Jews were killed.

Blacks did build this country. After 1865, black people were still not free. Jobs were taken and gave to the new poor white people who had just arrived from Europe. The Civil War was not fought for to free the slaves, (black property). Even the northerner owned slaves. Africans did not sell their family members. They sold their prisoners of war.

When I hear white people tell blacks to leave the country, first of all there would be no U.S. The U.S. was built off of free laborers. Before the the slave trade, Europe was poor. There was not a Europe or middle-east.

The rich or royals need slaves. The Indians were dying out, and next came the poor whites. Yes, you poor white folks. We blacks saved all of you, the rich white man.

Somebody had to build this country and black people paid a heavy price. Please go read history books and find out what really happened to Africa.

Some of what I'm reading in these posts is so ridiculous and disrespectful, such as people saying "get over it; blacks were not the only slaves," or that only a small number were affected.

Who are you trying to kid? There is not one single event in the history of man that has so devastatingly affected one race of people so much so that it changed their entire destiny, that it destroyed their identities and taught them to hate themselves like the slave trade did. The slave trade took away Africans' rich history and what would have been an even richer future (I don't mean in monetary terms).

Like George Orwell said, "Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past."

Other forms of slavery existed and still exist, no doubt, but none so devastating or long lasting than this one here, and the ripple effects of it seem never ending.

I wonder if any one knew that the African people sold their own tribes of men and women into slavery first? Or that Jews were a very small percentage of those persecuted in Germany? Or is that little bit of history forgotten so people can complain and try to get everything handed to them for something that happened generations ago?

For god's sake, get over yourselves. Black people were not the only slaves and every race of people on this planet has had slaves made out of them. I am so tired of hearing about black slaves and Jews persecuted in Nazi Germany and all that history being used to justify someone wanting a handout and special treatment. It's over, it's done, nothing can change it. Move on with your lives.

I haven't read all the posts, but it bears mentioning that only a small number of slaves were from Africa. The majority of those who were enslaved were the people who were already on that landmass for thousands of years. They are the descendants of the Olmecs, as well as the Moors who were there at the request of the Moroccan Empire.

Irish people were slaves also. Do a little research and find out that a black slave was more valuable than a white one. Irish women were bred to black men and their children were born slaves. I am of mixed Native American, Scots-Irish, and on another side of Creole descent. I have a grandchild who is native-Filipino-Chamorro and white. This argument has nothing to do with my white part and white kin. They did not enslave Africans. My ancestors in this day we live are not responsible.

It is easy to research and find that Arabs sold black people and are to this day. It is sick what I read about the rape of African boys by Arabs-right now it is going on. The eye witness account of a boy who saw a little black boy gang-raped by so many Arabs that he was pouring blood. Check it out. Stop the idiocy of expecting a race of people to pay for what their ancestors did. Go after the Arabs; they are still doing it.

The problem with some people to this day is that they go on and on about slavery and use it as an excuse to sit on their butts. When they see another person doing well, they always hate it and say stupid things like that person has sold out.

Some of these people always ignore the social problems within their communities (particularly male gun crime), preferring to blame the rest of the world for it.

The whites on here are very bitter. You are the ones who must be very guilty in your spirit and it shows. Your time is up and you are suffering and you deserve every bit of it.

The Trans Atlantic slave trade was a "peculiar institution" in that it consciously targeted and separated the African slaves based on "race" and skin color, and then uniquely attempted to expunge all knowledge and memory of their history, language, culture and religion.

Africans were cast as sub-human and or inferior by virtue of their ancestry. There was fallacious biblical rationalization for this by casting them as ancestors of Ham the "cursed" son of Noah. As "heathens", (non-Christians) they were also eligible for, and deserving of, slavery.

@Post 80: It is nobody's fault if you are unhappy with your life.

So everyone can't play innocent in their role in the slave trade? Then what should we do? Dig up the long dead 'innocent playing' corpses and have a seance so they can apologize to you?

About the African Holocaust: Was? You have a modern computer with free time and safety. Get an engineering or some type of medical specialty and go help "your people," because the last time I checked, there are multiple holocausts via disease and people are committing genocide on each other.

You say “my people.” If your family has been in North America for a couple generations or more (for all you know, your forebears could have immigrated from Argentina in 1921), you are more than likely as European as someone with lighter skin. Because you have one thing in common (you live in North America) with millions of others of a similar skin tone, you are 'one people'.

You think your people are still slaves while others claim you are free. You'll have to take that up with that portion of 'your people' who influence world culture and are beloved worldwide. One of the top athletes, musicians, or even the leader of this hateful country, the popularly elected president of the USA, because I am not a sociologist.

You ask how can people sleep when African-American men are being targeted by the police. Can you sleep when 'your people' are dying by the millions every week? Then I can sleep after reading your very generalized statement. If the policeman is one of 'your people' is it okay? And strangely you seem to think so-called "blacks" being 'good'" is a lie.

You talk about lacking the resources to help your communities in need. Who is doing the pulling up if no 'pull up' can occur until another un-pulled up one pulls up someone else once they receive, for free, unnamed 'resources'? How could the unpulled pull anyone up?

You ask how we say these people are responsible for their own conditions. “Conditions” is too vague. As in a set of rules? Are you saying 'your people' are slobs? Whatever you mean by it: I didn't tell you anything. Do you consider yourself at least a cause if not the main cause?

You say we should stop lying and admit the inequality in this country. Just as soon as I finish reading the State of the Union address. You know what? Mr. Obama isn't the main cause of the conditions he lives in, now that you mention it. Non-prejudiced voters and a country that lets one pull themselves up by being resourceful are the main cause.

I realize this is a fake, planted comment with all the ol' cliches (at least I hope so, there can't really be a person like this). It was fun commenting.

Come to think of it. Most of the whining comments are likely fake. Slavery is crappy. If you hate it, fight it! There's a lot of human trafficking (mostly white skinned poor people who will not end up with full citizenship in one of the cushier countries on Earth) and of course, the never mentioned Arab herding of East Africans. We're not talking about dislike of slavery per-se, we're talking about: "give me some money because a relative I never met busted his/her tail a couple hundred years ago and, as it turns out, would have likely volunteered to do so if s/he could see the wonderful, free, rich life of his/her future generations.”

@anon241509 of Post 157: You are an 'African who lives in Africa huh?' So I'm a 'North American who lives in North America'; a Korean is 'An Asian who lives in Asia'. Last time I checked, there are things called countries in Africa and they are treating each other much like they always have: like crap. The indigenous tribes hate each other for any reason they can come up with. Witness: Rwanda, the D.R.C., Somalia, Sudan (where, under decades of brutal Arab massacre and enslavement still would not unite because of tribal differences - South Sudan exists because Khartoum can't afford to mess with it any more, not some national pride), and Liberia: purchased for freed American slaves in 1812,ex-slaves who, as soon as they arrived set about enslaving the native tribes! And boy, has it flourished since!

So as an 'African from Africa' who believes the Rainbow Nation of Africa is and has always been one big love fest: everybody sharing, holding hands, singing and dancing until the Arabs and Spanish and other evil races messed it all up. Why don't the Arabs who Still have a brisk slave trade going ever catch any crap from Americans for their slaving? They probably do from you though, because you are an extremely patriotic "African from Africa".

Dear anon213323 (Post 141): History, archaeology, DNA, the Bible itself does not support this fiction of yours.

Are you as miserable as you seem? Take a DNA test and trace your heritage. Betcha 1000-1 you're as European as you are African (if you're American).

If you were a black in ancient N.E. Africa, you would have gone East as a Persian slave. The middle East doesn't exactly have a burgeoning black population because you'd have been a eunuch. If your family made it through Seleucus and Ptolemy up to the Sixth Century, you're lucky to be here because nobody then (or now) hates blacks quite as much as the Arabs, who keep a brisk slave trade going even today.

And why would you pretend to be a Jew? Are you a Jew? Because, if you're a Christian then your heritage is meaningless. You have no rest/trust in Christ - and therefore the Father - at all. You've distorted God's word. Stop distorting God's word or you'll be so far off track you'll end up damned.

This from Titus: 3:9-11 "But avoid foolish controversies and Genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. 11 You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned."

The ancient Hebrews were very proud and stressed anything that made them unique. They'd have been criticizing skin color left and right if theirs was different. Those who didn't flee south after the fall of Israel were well and fully interbred with Assyrians and other conquered peoples - the Assyrian technique for integrating people into their empire.

Since you mention Ham, let's look at him (Gen 9:18-27). He is cursed by Noah, who wishes Ham's progeny be slaves to his brothers descendants. Thus Ham is named as the forefather of all of Israel's bitterest future enemies: Canaan, Egypt, Philistia, Assyria, and Babylon (to make it plain). 'Cush' (as North Africa/Egypt is called in most translations) is not just Egypt, but also south of Egypt where black skinned people lived at the time. Why include them in this list? Cush never gave Israel problems. They are included because they *were* the predominant slave stock in all the regions listed and this fit with Noah's curse.

You have created history from whole cloth, ascribed to conspiracy theories, twisted God's Word, and denied the hope of the Gospel in your quest for a new identity. I beg you to stop.

It's okay to be black, white, or any other color - there is neither Jew, Gentile, nor Greek in God's Kingdom. Plus, your skin-based self-loathing insults so many (your Mom for one) on so many levels. Please 1. Find a good church with Biblically sound teaching 2. Repent 3. Find a good psychiatrist/counselor. 4. Apologize to your Mom. 5. Make this the last thing you read on the internet. You're buying into any old trash that makes you feel good about yourself.

May God bless and help you according to His will.

Slave labor, until the advent of the Industrial Revolution was necessary to the economic functioning of any large (by ancient standards) economy. Prior to nation-states, there just weren't enough Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persian, Greeks, Romans, etc. to perform large scale grunt work. No ancient leader would last long if they had their own people doing the mining. The larger the empire, the more slaves needed. The U.S. situation gets all the attention because it was the last big-time slaving nation before the modern age kicked in full gear. And, let's face it: most don't give a crap about history or truth. Why do a bunch of boring research when you can just toe the white v. black in the U.S. line?

Except for the odd favored house-slave in Rome or a palace slave under the Turks, the black American, as a group, had the shortest time span as slaves (about 150 years), followed by the greatest reward of any slaves in history: full citizenship and rights in the world's greatest, richest empire (an empire that didn't have to crumble first!). Unprecedented! Not only that, but they were spared from the hell on earth that their place of origin was and is.

So, the weakest peoples of 17th century West Africa's descendants become the healthiest, best educated, most influential Negros ever! It's something of a miracle and, considering what some would go through for freedom in the past (and a very crappy freedom at that - Spartacus for example), they had merely to wait and work - no fighting necessary (see the sad story of Haiti).

Yes, it was harsh by modern standards, but historically mild. There are few, if any, human beings without a family-tree full of slaves. As we are all a bunch of mixed-breed mutts (the Japanese, some American Indians North and South Americans- and some "Cohen" Jews are the 'purest' around these days), it is ludicrous to select a skin color and say "See him/her? It's their fault that my great-great grandparents didn't get paid for their labor!"

If everyone traced their DNA and looked for their most recent slave relative and did the same for their owner's relative and decided to hate, resent and make excuses for personal failures based on that, well, I think most would find that the slave/master relation somewhere down the line was slave/slave, master/master, master/slave. "To the victor go the spoils" and most of us have relatives who, DNA-wise, have been both at some point in history.

Not all, blacks are hebrews. Yah's chosen people, the african blacks that sold the true black hebrews were castaways from the sight of the most high. They are the ones who followed and worshiped idols and stone.

What a ridiculous post. More evidence that the Caucasoid (yes, this even includes those who have bred out their darkness) peoples in the Americas are drunk with power. They don't even know what to blather about anymore!

On the issue of race-dominance in the new world: the Negroid and the aboriginal peoples (called 'Indians' in North America) were at the utter mercy of their captors. Many honourable people died fighting, but the Spaniards (in particular) were so savage and bestial - that most complied to stay alive.

By the time the Britons and Dutch came to the "rescue," the damage was well done.

I am African and live in Africa. Africans never sold their people! That is a lie formed to deceive you. They were taken by force, captured or by forcing their leaders with guns to their heads to let their people be captured or they die. It was a matter of life and death, choose.

But I have never, ever heard before in our history that Africans sold their sisters and brothers. That is a typical lie to escape the blame or guilty they feel. But God will judge all races and people.

Slavery got stuff done. Slave owners didn't fool around. Look at the pyramids, for example, one of the wonders of the world.

People are very ignorant. Black people are indigenous to the Americas. Whites were sent as the first slaves. The US Census of 1860 shows fewer than 385,000 black, Indian and white people owned slaves of various ethnic backgrounds. Slavery started from west to east.

The first slaves were Haitians captured by Columbus (Pedro Scotto the Jew) and were transported to Seville, Spain. Columbus and his team decided to capture 500 Indians and sell them to Spain for the reconstruction following the 10-year war with the black Moors who ruled for more than 700 years. Slave records from 1494 to 1520 show the arrival of "Negroes".

His story is not the true story of history. Do your own research. Look up white slavery, Khazars, Virginia Company, Social Security owned by Queen Elizabeth, Vatican owned London Company and the United States, and also the Corporation of the United States, which is a company and not a landmass. Washington DC is also owned by the Vatican.

The first slaves were White people known as Slavs, meaning Slavics. They are of Germanic and Russian descent. The first slaves in the Americas were White people also who were shipped from Europe to Virginia via the Virginia Company (a.k.a. London Company/Vatican).

Prior the fall of Black Spain (Moorish), slaves were overwhelmingly white. The 1723 Waltham Act sent millions of white slaves called "undesirables" (convicts and prostitutes) to America, and then to Australia when slavery ended in America.

Did you know that Sam Walton's (founder of Walmart) great-grandfather owned slaves?

I'd never trust a white man talking about black history.

The African slaves were invaded by Spain and the white Americans. In Ghana and Nigeria in the 18th century, where the countries' economies depended largely on the selling of hand labor to neighboring estates, slavery inside Africa was often not for life. Slaves had the option of buying their liberty, and were normally paid enough that they could do it after a certain number of years. This part of the history you got wrong. Blacks have never sold blacks for slavery.

Thank goodness for free speech and the right we have in America to express yourself and opinions. I am definitely of negroid stock and I want to say slavery in Colonial America and the rest of the world had nothing to do with the color of one's skin. It is simply fraudulent business and economics. It is abuse labor and robbing people of their dignity.

There are several types of slavery: sex, child, etc., and some still exist in America today and these people people are not mostly Black. Greed, evil and corruption do not respect and discriminate against color. Many black people have a victim mentality. Slavery has nothing to do with skin color. European Jews or Slavic people were not "black".

Want to learn the truth about slavery? Go back in history as far as you can. Way before the United States of America was even a thought.

Civilization and slavery existed thousands of years before trans- Atlantic travel. Every race,religion and culture has been a part of slavery. American slavery is only a very small piece of slavery in the world from ancient times to this very day.

There are too many continents and countries in the world to just point the finger at N. America or single out a human of certain racial traits. This only shows the ignorance of the world and what is going on outside of the country one lives in, but chances are, many people are too self-centered or hateful to understand that.

People should ask themselves if they really care about slavery of any other "race" other than their own. If so, then maybe they should be speaking of humans of all walks of life in slavery right now who are still alive and need help. Or, they can go back to their self-loathing and pointless finger pointing.

Whatever "race" someone may belong to means nothing, and neither does what "race" started what or did what first. It's irrelevant.

Slavery has obviously been around for probably as long as humanity began to speak, I think. Having scanned through all the comments, I have noticed at no point any mention of white slavery -- something that has been sidelined in the history books, for the sake of political machination, no doubt.

White Irish folk were systematically rounded up and sold to wealthy English landowners since the time of Charles 1. They were sent to Jamaica and Barbados to work on mainly sugar plantations and often treated much more harshly than the African slaves simply because they came cheaply, while the Africans cost a pretty penny. So it didn't really matter so much if a cheap Irish man, woman or child was whipped to death because they could easily be replaced.

Also Scottish people -- mostly Highlanders – were routinely rounded up off the Islands of Scotland and taken by ship to the new world. I think there is a gravestone of a boy who managed to escape when the ship docked briefly on the north Antrim coast. After the 1798 rebellion in Ireland, tens of thousands of undesirables (as far as the state was concerned) were sent to Australia and North America to live in slavery. There were also principled white people, like the Presbyterians of Ulster, who refused to let slave ships traveling from Liverpool, England dock in Belfast and assist in the slave trade.

Apart from being interesting, I find the tone of some of these comments most upsetting and vexatious, and as if they are a deliberate attempt at ruffling feathers or antagonizing others; sort of tit for tat in air.

I hope young or impressionable individuals who read these comments can rationalise and extract the positives in these views, and accept that as people we all have various prejudices, opinions etc, which are shaped by our social circles/ societies and backgrounds.

As a person of Afro-Caribbean descent living in England, I find the attitudes of some (usually white Britons), that black people are lazy, quick to blame whites for our ills/ hardships in life, blacks ruining Britain with crime and ignorance behaviors, we are benefit parasites, most abhorrent. I agree with the intelligent argument stated previously, which refutes this.

I despair that so many people still seem to be of the assumption that blacks are primarily to be blamed for our misfortunes as a race (even some black folks). It's very unwise and ignorant to deny that we are all products of our history and circumstances/ experiences, as we are of our family upbringings.

Historically, Mother Afrika is our mother, and whatever happened to her children, be it good or bad, conversely will impact her offspring. Considering this, it is no surprise, the challenges black people are facing at present. I however, refuse to accept the role of a wounded victim or a cry baby. I will never forget our past as a race, be it the initial occurrences of Afrikan slavery, the Atlantic slave trade, immigration to Europe etc. My bi-racial children are made aware of their parents racial history appropriately and as accurately as is possible.

I don't live with an enormous chip on my shoulders, nor harbor ill feelings for white folks, simply because I not want to waste emotional energy for no good, nor for these feelings to distract me from my ambitions. I am loathe to allow other people's negative actions to dictate how I behave, and cause me to deviate from my core morals. I'm an educated woman who was miseducated (re my history), and I am constantly trying right the wrongs I learned. Eyes on the bigger prize.

Pardon any bad grammar or typos. I'm working the night shift and a little tired. Peace and love to all.

The first recorded enslavement of a black people in the Bible was Egypt and the people enslaved were Hebrew-Israelites. It is appalling that with all the information out there in the 21st century, so many Black people still do not know Hebrew-Israelites were black people and from Egypt, and every nation of people used that pattern to enslave the Israelites. The people ruling Israel today are not Israelites. Never were, never will be. They are imposters who have stolen our land, heritage and someday soon now all the world will know. The Twelve Tribes of Israel would never allow themselves to be known 'collectively' as Jews. This is a Gentile replacement for the word Judah which in Hebrew is Yahudah.

In the 1950's they asked the president of Egypt why he would not support Israel. He was quoted as saying, He would not support Israel because they left Israel black and came back white.

If you're doing research on our history how do you leave the Bible out? Start with Genesis 10 and see the break down of all the people who populate the earth since the Noahic flood. Shem is Shemitic. Ham is the father of all the so called Africans (Africa is the Gentile renaming of and redistribution of the Land of Ham.

Then Japheth. Now his descendants are interesting. Rarely spoken of. Research them carefully. Most of them are called Europeans today. Slang – white people. Read it. You'll find it quite accurate. His name, in brief, means to enlarge. Noah spoke over him as well, that he would 'dwell' in the tents (houses) of Shem. Look at Israel. Not only is he dwelling there. He took it over. A white Hebrew Israelite is absurd.

Japheth's descendants have enlarged all over the world in everything you can imagine including intermingling/marrying into other nations of people. They have lived in the tents of Shem who is father of the Hebrews and Israelites, not Gentiles.

If you want to understand the who, what, where, why, when and how of those of us who are Descendants of slaves all over the world, you have to start with the Bible. It tells you why black people scattered to the four corners of the earth into captivity in enemy nations and slavery happened and why we suffer the same ills no matter what part of the world we live in. Surely you do not think it is coincidence?

Finally, it is too easy today to research the so called Jews in Israel. Those ruling are mostly Ashkenaz. Reading Genesis 10 under Japheth yet? You'll find them there.

Why do they call themselves Jews? They are all Jews. How can that be? Jacob had 12 sons. Each tribe is named after each of the 12 sons. Yet these people in Israel call themselves Jews. In America and every other place they call themselves Jews.

Now read Revelation 2:9

I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.

Revelation 3:9

Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

These two verses alone are very telling:

1. They are not Judah

2. They are lying

3. They are of the Synagogue of satan

You have no idea the depth of the lie they have forged. The history of the Khazars and the Ashkenaz is all over the Web. Their whole existence is a lie. Ashkenaz are of Germanic descent.

Russians and Germans are ruling Israel. The true Israelites are locked out of being restored to their own homeland until Messiah returns. We are still in lands of captivity. Yes, all the black people who are descendants of slaves, our history goes back to the first slavery in Egypt.

Our rebellion against Yah/God as His chosen people is legend and the punishment was slavery, captivity, curses and being overcome by our enemies in these lands where we are.

Read Deuteronomy 28. Churches dwell on the the blessings. For history and understanding the plight of the Israelites you have to read the second part of the chapter. Also Leviticus 26. Then the books of the prophets. It's all there. Our history from one end of the book to the other.

The so called Jews in Israel do not fit anything YAH said would happen to us if we disobeyed Him. So how in the world could all these disobedient Jews living anyway they want and some even claiming to be atheists. Others denying the Messiah has even come and redeemed His people and the world-- be Israelites?

No, they are the synagogue of satan as Messiah told us in Revelation. One look at that so called flag of David--a satanic symbol, ought to make you suspicious. But it doesn't? YAH brings his holy people back to Israel and allows a satanic start to represent the land where He chose to put His name?

Now doesn't it make sense that it would be kept quiet that the so called jews as someone mentioned had a huge role in enslaving us? They funded much of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. They got rich off of it. This is where America gets it's 'old money' passed from one generation to another while we who empowered this economy are in prisons, many poor and struggling to this day. No mere men could do this. Only YAH.

The restoration of the Kingdom to true Israel is on the horizon. Wherever we are in the U.S. just check out the weather. It is following the same path as the slaves who lived there and were tormented by their owners.

It is our disobedience to YAH that caused our captivity. He is the only one who can and will overturn it.

Mind boggling? Don't believe it? Think it's foolish?

Do you homework. Do the research first. Discover the layers of lies from one end of history to the other. As with anything you will have to get past the foolishness on the Web but keep searching because things are about to dramatically change in this world as YAH is waking us at the end of the age all over the world.

Even if you don't believe this, look up Ashkenaz on the Web. There is no way you can continue to believe the people in Israel today are from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. No way. You can't have two daddies.

anon149539: Only 4.4 percent were taken to America and it was started by Jews. Most of the people who are in america were not even in this country when this was going on. My family and my wife's family came here in the early 1900s.

Blacks face more bias in America than whites when it comes down to jobs, housing, education, the justice system, etc. Whites are more privileged in this country than blacks. People who don't acknowledge this fact are ignorant, arrogant and in denial.

With that said, the racial divide between whites and blacks has been closing for many years because of the work of leaders and everyday people on both sides of the aisle. Blacks today have far more opportunity for advancement then their ancestors could ever dream of. With blacks in lofty government, corporate, and entertainment positions, the future is brighter than ever. People who reject this fact are ignorant, arrogant and in denial.

Trying to pin mankind's evils on one race or another is a form of persecution, and only serves to weaken both the persecutor and the persecuted. People of all colors have always been capable of great good and great evil, beginning long before recorded history.

Mankind has swapped DNA, blood, homelands, cultures, ideas, and skin colors throughout millennia in a joint pursuit with nature to turn Mother Earth into a beacon of super consciousness in this little corner of the Milky Way.

Check out Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel".

some of the comments stated that black people should do this and that and said they could pick themselves up and and comparing them with the jews, who are white.

we all know that this world treats whites like regular people. the blacks and if your skin just happen to be dark, you are not helped, you get no help. nobody is giving the black man or woman any help. the jews do better simply because they are white. so don't compare the two. america treats anyone better than the blacks. even foreigners. the truth hurts.

First let me just advise everyone that it is fine to express your opinions, but if you really want to get somewhere in a discussion about slavery, which is, in fact, a discussion about race and economics, begin with researched facts first then state your opinion. Otherwise, nobody learns anything. It's like playing ping pong with a loaded ping pong ball. Somebody is going to hit the ball the exact way that it will explode, then you will no longer have a decent discussion going on; it will be transformed into an argument.

Instead of asking a question that might ignite emotions, look it up first, then state the fact, and where you found it which is a much better catalyst for discussion. Otherwise, all efforts to understand such a many faceted subject are infantile.

@anon9741. I read some of your post and just want to say that I don't believe that all African Americans blame all Caucasians for slavery. What I do believe is that there is a sad amount of assumptions on both sides of the fence that are passed down culturally and generational attitudes that are passed down in families. This causes people to speak in "generalizations" instead of really taking a long hard look at history.

Another part of the problem, as proven by some of the attitudes towards our current President's ethnicity, is this: Some people are not even aware of their own racism until they are directly confronted with a situation that forces them to make hard choices. Example: Voting one way may cause a family problem or an interracial couple may encounter a difficult situation in which one of them feels it is too much sacrifice to go on with the relationship.

There are a zillion scenarios in which people discover who they really are where before they never had to make such choices. So, I think this period of time when an African American president has been elected by the votes of people of all colors and ethnicities because of his person not his race, is a great time for people to learn about each other, get right to the issues of the current day and progress forward.

However, I do not believe that African Americans nor White Americans should ever forget what happened in the past. Understanding our past failings is the key to succeeding in our future. Hope your report turns out or turned out a good grade. People have been studying this subject for a long time. It is vast. Don't stop studying after your report is done. Anything you learn can only do you good.

I really do hate that people blame an entire race, country, or religion for evils of a group that was part of it.

Just because some upper class white folks had slaves doesn't make all white people guilty. Many white people's ancestors were just poor families barely getting by that couldn't afford to buy slaves. Just because someone is white doesn't automatically mean their ancestors had slaves or even supported slavery.

Same with the Germans. Just because someone is German doesn't make them automatically guilty. Who says their ancestors even supported the Holocaust? For all they know that person's ancestors may have been against it or even helped hide Jews in their homes.

That's just it. They don't know. Thus senselessly calling everyone who is of the same race, country, or religion as the group that wronged their ancestors is pointless. Even if some white person's great-great grandfather had slaves that doesn't automatically mean they support the evils their ancestors did and are guilty themselves.

Nobody is guilty of what their ancestors did over a hundred years ago. Just like how nobody is a victim of what that person's ancestors did to their ancestors over a hundred years ago. The only ones guilty and the only ones who were truly victims are the long dead ancestors. Nobody alive today has any right to place such blame.

first of all black slavery started because of the gold, silver and diamonds Africa had. so who ever brainwashed you guys tell them i said it. get your facts straight.

I am multi-racial, native American, Black, Caucasian and no telling what else. But what does it really matter? I am happy to be here.

Here in America, where I was actually born (NC native),we really go by what we have been told about ancestral ties, etc. We have tons and ton of concern that should take priority over our "heated" feelings about our race.

History tells us this or that, then someone gets the idea that they want to stir up racial tension and some of us are stupid enough to get upset over it. Our country is in trouble right now and has been through the centuries due to ongoing racist ideals.

Motives that promote racism are prevalent. Look at Donald Trump: rich financially and still not satisfied. The only reason he and others raised a "concern" about Obama's birth certificate was due to race. Let us learn to love one another as humans and stop using "race" as a tool.

I understand that black slavery started quite before America, and that it was very wide-spread, but why did the white people think they were above black people in the first place? Did the idea just randomly come out of nowhere?

I mean, during that time, black people did have very basic industrialization, such as understanding farming and being able to build huts. They even knew basic medicine. The white people used to be at such a stage before. Why did they think that the black people deserved to be treated the way they were?

This discussion is great. I don't know about the treatment of African slaves in Africa, but in America it ranged from being really good, to being really bad (see Uncle Tom's cabin for details). That being said, the wrong part about the American slave trade was that people were justifying enslaving an entire race because of a biblical curse (see Ham, son of Noah).

Well, the Bible actually provides for slavery, qualifying that fair treatment is given to the slave, and after a certain point in time, one could buy his own freedom. Some, however didn't choose to do that, but dedicated themselves to their master for life, taking an awl through their ear.

In America, slavery was instituted for the African people. I don't know much about Native-American enslavement, but in Mexico, the hierarchy or feudal order still put the full-blooded black at the very bottom. All of this is uncanny, but not surprising because of the way mankind is in general-- selfish. Taking advantage of another race's ignorance and lack of technology is abominable, but so is war.

So, would I want to be a slave? Under the right conditions, yes. Here are my conditions: all my family was killed in war, I was taken prisoner to another land with no hope of escaping, I went to work for a kind person who provided for me, and allowed me to marry and keep my children and in due time I was given the option to buy my freedom. I wouldn't have a problem with all that, but under any other conditions, it's really bad and has no excuse.

Congratulations to anon144943. So very true. We are all slaves. Well done.

Oh yes and for the record, it was Native Americans who were made slaves first, before Africans.

When we think of West Africa, we hear how everyone was taken advantage of and how many innocents were made slaves, which is both true and not true. West Africa had been making slaves of its own people for years. Europeans gave them the opportunity to permanently erase those from their eyes whom they no longer wished to see.

Look at who was sold into slavery. That also should be telling of the silliness we see here in black communities, like hatred of those who successfully climb the academic ladder or the corporate ladder. Jealousy? That is not new; it is very old and has been what led to the slavery of many in West Africa. I suggest to all who think that is not the case, to do some studying of the history of West Africa, then look at the black community.

I just had a pretty heated discussion with a black woman who was determined all ills came from the slave trade and European colonization.

I asked her how much of history she has read, because my studies of history tell me that foolishness began in West Africa. I am a combination of African/Native American and Scot-Irish blood, and the foolishness I see in the black community with hating one another for academic or financial accomplishment can be traced right back to West Africa, where most of us who have any African blood can trace ourselves.

My root is Benin; I have Ibo blood.

Look at who got sold into slavery and why? Look at the amount of jealousy and envy which occurred long before the Europeans began lusting for slaves, then ask yourself why it has become in vogue to forget that part of the ugliness of slavery had everything to do with West Africa? this is not demonization, this is fact.

this is really good information.

The first slaves and the next, for that matter, were brought to America, not by Spain, but by the jews expelled from spain for the similarly ungodly activities.

The slave runners like the infamous Aaron Lopez brought them enormous fortunes. The jewish reign in America started exactly in those days. That was one of the many reasons of the gentile animosity towards jews which later resulted in the so called holocaust.

i love how everyone on this page is griping and moaning about whites and blacks. One point everyone forgets is that this was a tiny percentage of white people. most people in europe were proper working class people.

I'm english and I'm fed up with people saying 'white people did this and that.' It's all crap! Most white people, including my family, had a one bedroom house with 13 people no shoes,food or proper clothes, working crappy jobs just to be able to afford food. rich people in every country are involved in bad things. everyone just needs to stop talking crap.

Plus, if it wasn't for the slave trade, black people wouldn't be in america, which is one of the most economically well off countries in the world, and they wouldn't have the lifestyle they have today. Instead, they'd be back in africa where there is slavery and genocide going on today. if you all care that much, go to africa and do something.

People are so ignorant. Yes, Africa had their own slaves but it was a job with benefits. They had rights, they got paid, and they could buy their freedom back. Other countries had their own slaves also Arabs, Europeans etc. African slaves were stronger, faster and less expensive.

Americans went to Africa and stole slaves from their tribes and boats they were working on that were headed to Mexico. Slavery was just as common as being a nanny in the states. It was a job for them.

No one can justify the torture and pain Africans went through in America as slaves. They were beaten, raped, tortured and they had to work for the jerks who did this. They even tortured and raped the children.

Really people. You are trying to justify this, really! I am very educated with a BS in criminal justice from the University of South Carolina and a Masters in Mental Health Counseling, so I am not one of the lazy blacks you all are talking about, and people check your census. There are more whites on welfare and food stamps than blacks. Wow! Can't believe that, can you? Research it!

There are lazy people in every race not just blacks. My heart goes out to the Holocaust victims. They were tortured also for no reason. No one deserves to be treated like the slaves or the holocaust victims.

You people are sickening to have no compassion for the lives that were lost. It doesn't matter how long ago it was. How dare you say the ancestors of the slaves who built the cities you are living in for free don't deserve a dime?

They pay the indians for their work for the railroads and our ancestors built and labored way more. They're not asking to be paid for being a slave, but for all the free work they put in. It's crazy how people who never experienced slavery can say get over it.

I agree that african americans should grow and prosper from this cruel act and not dwell on it. We have proved enough we are very intelligent and strong and that's what "people" are afraid of. We have climbed the highest mountains and fought the toughest battles and overcame them all.

i was born and raised in Africa. The majority of slaves were captured by slave traders from america; a very small portion were sold to them by africans (there are bad guys everywhere).

Slavery did exist in Africa and everywhere else due to wars. POWs were treated as assets but they had rights. So please don't mix things up by blaming africans for slavery.

My great great grandfather was a warrior who fought europeans and slave traders. There are many many african kings and heroes such as Lat Dior Diop, Samori Toure etc., who fought to their death the intruders. So again, africans did not sell their brothers and sisters! Don't be fooled!

excuse me - anon149539 they were not taken to america by their own will. they were forced to come to america.

I think that slavery has nothing to do with the Holocaust. The holocaust was something totally different and is totally irrelevant to slavery.

Also, white people never went over there to steal land or the africans from their homes. Same with the Europeans. Africans sold us and Europe their own people and when we bought them that meant we owned them. it wasn't like we were the bad guys in this situation.

It bugs me when i hear that white people are so mean to the blacks and so we owe them more because they were slaves but they get more benefits in this country then white people do. We all are equal and nobody owes anybody anything. You want to be treated equally, then earn it. Nobody has been a slave for a long time. just get over it and move on!

why is every body talking about black in slavery. slavery goes back before 500 ad. Whites as well as blacks were slaves. Blacks ended most of the slavery, OK. Slavery still exists, such as sex, child and immigrant slavery.

Slavery is no joke. Whites don't tell blacks to get education or jobs, seeing that they have been denied for years and now that our economy stinks, it is even tougher. Also, the poor whites are consumed by the rich as well as black. Moreover, there are a lot of well-to-do blacks and not just what you see in the media. There are blacks with good jobs and education everywhere so don't get it twisted.

Plus the knowledge we got came mostly from foreigners, not just whites and blacks. Most white dudes who think they're all that, always trying to get something for nothing need to stop frontin because they're not really not about it, O.K. They're just making themselves look corny. What you need to do is get a real life.

Excuse me Anon147370, the Jews did have their identity, religion, land, and history taken away from them. Perhaps you haven't heard of the holocaust or Hitler, that or farther back into history during bible times when the Egyptians enslaved the Jewish people.

I don't know where you get your sources, but you are mistaken. The Jews, the children of the lord have been fighting for their religion, beliefs, lives and land since before Moses in the bible, and they still do to this day.

Be glad that you live in this blessed land, black, white, Jew or Christian, because over in the middle east is the worst pace to be. I think this February, instead of focusing on all the horrible things the blacks endured in the past, everyone should focus on the blessings they have here in this free country and just be glad to be American. --Free.

I'm not making excuses, but I see a lot of people on here saying Blacks need to pull themselves up like the Jews. The Jews never had their identity, religion, land, and history taken away from them. It is easy to pull yourself up when you have a foundation. Take away the foundation and the structure will fall apart.

This is what happened to Black people. You have to know where you come from in order to know where you are going. Europeans Jews profited big time off of the slave trade. They knew what they were doing. The Jews, Black Muslims, Arab Muslims and Christians all had a part in the slave trade. These people had knowledge of farming and architecture, that's why they wanted them, to build and farm for free.

This response is probably a waste of time; however, it saddens me to listen to the ignorance of so many. Please reserve your comments regarding "blacks wanting handouts and get off your butt and go to school etc." I could tell you a few things about hard faithful work and how you still get robbed.

Try being the one who people run to you for fast, accurate work, but you are the only one who doesn't get an increase in pay. Try working at a company such as Boeing for 20 plus years and find out your retirement totals approximately $400 max. per month because of some scheme concocted to minimize one's retirement. I could go on and on because I integrated a number of these companies; however, reiterating, I will not waste my time because many of you will still be in denial.

If you think that just because you go to school and receive a good education the playing field is leveled, you're dreaming. If you don't believe me get a makeover and try walking in this black skin (especially male, African American black skin) and you will be in for a rude awakening.

P.S. Many of you are basking off of old money gained from slavery, inventions and works of African Americans who received nothing for their labor. If you study a little more, you'll find that out. As well, if you study a little more sociology you will find that the system is constructed for certain groups to succeed and for certain groups not to succeed. Now these are not my views; these are the views of the elite who wrote the books.

Trust me, you don't know what hard work is. All of the days of my life until adulthood, I watched my father work two-to-three jobs constantly to support his family and often times being humiliated in order to do so. My mother worked as well while at the same time, both of them maintaining gardens, raising and selling chickens, turkeys etc. just to survive. And, my dad afraid to take us to the dentist or doctor for fear of losing his 30 plus year job. Think on these things all of you who think all blacks are lazy!

Privilege is invisible to those who have it!

I I am black myself. I read and saw roots, and I'm sorry, it never made sense to me. If anyone has any common sense, you would know that no one can go and invade a country, and sell slaves to as many countries as what happened. I truly believe that they knew then what we know now: that Africans are as strong as mules, and they would sell or be good for trade.

We were slaves of our own people. It was natural. I don't believe we were stolen, I believe we were sold and traded by the ones who owned us in Africa. Now once we were sold, the buyers could do what they wanted to do with us after that. So, most of the buyers used us to build these countries that exist today for free.

Originally, slaves were paid in Africa and were able to buy their freedom. Now yes, the white man freed us, but when he so-called freed us he enslaved everybody else

(black, white, it doesn't matter). You too are a slave.

The original slave, the one who was paid wages and bought their freedom. It is the same today. You either work a minimum wage job, live in a minimum wage dwelling, until you either buy your way to freedom, or until you are too sick or too old to work.

Or, you go to college to get $40,000 to $100,000 in debt to the government, so you can work your house salve, or wigger job, and live a little better than the field hand/wigger. But you're still not free until you free yourselves.

I think they put emphasis on the roots story to divert your attention from what's really going on. To make you say "I'm glad I wasn't around in those times". Wake up. We are here now.

The slave owners are walmart, and all of these other corporations. The only way to not be a victim of the slave trade is to be the owner, i.e., buy your freedom. You'll have plenty of slaves to employ. You hear them screaming to Obama now. "Get us back to work!" Just my take on it. How many of you are free?

When I was in college, we studied about slavery's impact, and few of us went to African continent and met different people from different countries. We found out that long time ago there were so many tribes who are in conflict with each other, and whoever got caught alive would be sold as a slave. Their ancestors are the ones who sold their great grandparents to the highest bidder, like Europeans.

So, those who think they are oppressed until now should not blame or point fingers at the whites for it. It was their own kind who sold their souls for profit.

If they think they are entitled for a reparation, they need to get it from the African countries. Grow up and move forward.

It looks to me like a lot of people on this forum got all their information from the TV show Roots. This is about as accurate as learning about space travel from Star Trek. They are both fiction.

Black people right now have the same rights and opportunities as any one else in America, and in some cases even more. They have been free for 150 years and I'm constantly reminded that they are as intelligent as any one else and so on.

That being the case, what have they been doing with their time for the last 150 years? I'll tell you what. They have been sitting around feeling sorry for themselves while the rest of America supports them.They need to be officially freed, no more special treatment. Treat them like anyone else based on their merit and responsibility.

Why did slave traders pick africa to steal from?

@anon138012: So you really think that the African countries that enslaved their own people wouldn't sell their own slaves to the Europeans? Think!

if life started in africa, where did caucasians come from? the sky or where?

We must never forget this quite true adage from author Dan Brown "history is written by the winners".

I for one second don't think or believe that Africans sold their people as slaves to the europeans. They were forcefully taken from their homelands after they were beguiled by the euros. And yes, we can respectfully call it the "African Holocaust" because not only did africans suffer, but many of them died horrid deaths.

This propaganda that Africans were sold as slaves is nothing but a smoke screen and serves to take the guilt off the european counterparts. This is loony and baloney. The Africans' treatment again was one of the worst, if not the the worst in history.

It is time europeans own up to what their ancestors did and stop trying to sidestep the issue by throwing up the Jewish Holocaust and stealing of the Indians reservations. How about a whole damn country!

when it comes to race, I believe it's foolish to keep living in the past. I know that what happened centuries ago wasn't right and then the things that go on now are not right as well.

I am not racist and I have a daughter who is mixed. I love her more than you know. I can't understand how a person can hate someone because of their color of skin. we all have to live on this earth and try to survive so why keep making things so much harder for the future?

My mind stays puzzled with the raciest question. My mother wouldn't talk to me for eight years because i dated a black man and we lost so much time and missed out on sharing our lives. I pray for world peace, for hate to stop and i thank Jesus for waking me up in the morning to continue my battle through this life we live.

Jesus was a healer of man, and not a hater! I believe Jesus was made up of all colors and he loves everyone he created and creates. Love is the key that's going to save our souls. I love all human life good or bad. I'm not the judge of anyone and I don't want to be. Judgment day will be here soon enough without me or anyone else making it worse. Keep in mind that Love your friends and neighbors, give a helping hand when you can, and try to keep peace and love in your hearts.

Yes i have read and done a lot of study about this, and truth be known about who really started slavery was it the white man or the blacks, i have found out it was the blacks who started it and is still doing it to this day.

Was it right for anyone to do it? No, but the blacks want to get all upset with the whites. I have a few things to say about that.

First of all, we did not start it. Yes, we did play a role in it by buying and selling, but who freed the blacks? I didn't see, read or hear of anyone coming from Africa to do it. Wasn't it the white man who did it? And also today, the blacks want to yell about how bad they have it, that whites are still treating them so bad. That is not true.

Were today's blacks ever slaves, or their parents, or maybe their grandparents? No. So why are you all crying about really things you really don't know anything about? And that is sad because you take a black man, a woman or a gay person and a white and who will not get hired? The white man because the other will scream racism. I wonder how many blacks stop and think how bad they treat the white people.

If anyone has the right to be mad it is the Native Americans now. They are the only ones.

Really, i could go on and on, but i want the last thing i have to say if you don't like whites and they treat you so bad and America is so bad, leave. Go back to where you call your mother land. Go back there.

I hate to play this out, but truth be told that everyone can't play innocent in their role in the slave trade.

There was a"African Holocaust" because my people were brutally conformed to slavery, and it's a shame that we are still slaves and you people claim we are free and can't pull ourselves out. how can you when you are still considered and, in my experience, most hated by all?

How can you sleep with the lie that the so-called "blacks" are good, etc., when innocent African-American males are unjustifiably being targeted and killed by police?

How can you tell us that we can pull ourselves up when we were not provided the proper resources to build our communities and help our brothers and sisters in need?

How can you tell us that we are the main cause of the conditions we have to live in?

Doesn't that sound racist and kind of arrogant of you?

Stop lying to my people and admit that we will never be equal in this country.

I don't care about living, but I'd rather die knowing the truth than to live the lies being forced on me in your history books, not mine.

Hardships faced by stolen Africans? And what are facts, or story about the beginning of slavery? Story's about the slaves crossing the atlantic?

It is me again, I left out the persecution of all homosexuals in Germany as well. Hitler killed many thousands of his own soldiers, and he beheaded 25,ooo of them in a mere year and a half.

I was not released from my slavery until I was 18 and left. I am very bitter about it and I have a hard time living with it. I worked more than full-time hours from age 13 to 18. My mother married a man from Czechoslovakia after I was long gone. When Germany invaded, they placed two soldiers in their farmhouse and the family, 2 boys and the mother, were forced to house, feed them etc. The soldiers did not want to be there either. When they received chocolates from the German army, they gave them to the children.

This was slavery in most people's definition. There was not a choice, and they had to support these soldiers or die. You can learn a lot from the Holocaust Museum site and there are many books on it.

We are all so shaped by media in this country, we do not even acknowledge any one else's slavery, forced occupation or the oppression of the German people before World War 2.

As Germans, we have put up with a million stereotypes in movies, but we say nothing. complaining day and night is just not part of our culture. Make it not part of yours, whatever it is.

And yes, continue to oppose slavery which exists throughout the planet. the cheap prices at stores like Wall-mart are due to child labor and slavery in factories all over the world. Factories with locked doors, no one can leave.

Like it or not, yes, Africa participated in selling their own people, as well as most of the earth. Let me know if hand-outs are coming for those that can prove slavery in their blood-line. I would like to sign-up!

Why are facts so disturbing to many? Slavery was practiced all over the world and was recorded in earliest forms for human record including Egypt.there are at least 200 million people held in slavery today (source is my College Sociology book). Men, women and children, held against their wills, chained sex workers that are usually women and children.

There are still a large group of Muslim, Arab slave owners. (I state this as it is fact. I do not care what religion or race.)

In the North Africa's Islamic Republic of Mauritania, there are 90,000 slaves there, farming, herding, waiting on their owners- a young slave there named Fatima Mint Mamadou was interviewed.

Now excuse that I am not going to quote in academic style. I will paraphrase. The source was Burkett(1997) and appears reprinted in a popular college Sociology Book, page 259, Society The Basics, John J. Macionis. She said, "I was born a slave, my mother was born a slave and my grandmother was a slave."

This poor woman, as well as her other 100,000 slaves, that we know of in this one spot of the world, know no other life than slavery.

when asked about sex, she replied, Yes, the men come and breed us at night.

Slavery exists without government outlawing it in parts of Africa now. Yes, Africa is an ancient country like the Middle East, and yes, slavery was an excepted form of life and commerce for as far back as records exist.

In Europe, England, Ireland and Scotland frequently captured young boys to take as farm hands. Yes, they were slaves and white. Now let me speed you up to the 1930's. My grandmother at age 17 and two girlfriends of the same age, boarded a ship from Germany and their passage was pre-arranged by farm owners here where they worked off 4 years of indentured servitude to pay for their passage.

The farms were here in Ohio, Northeast OH. they came with nothing but their clothes on their backs- they left a Germany where they feared they would starve to death. Germany was sanctioned so heavily after World War 1, it was starvation. Even though the war was a world war that Germany was only one country in, they took the blame as that is where a duke was shot.

O.K., so Germany was the scapegoat and put into poverty. The workforce was very attractive to foreign business people as German's were known to work very hard.

So, they became dominated by businesses that were unfortunately many Jewish owned.They worked them to death and literally, a days wages may have bought a loaf of bread.

Oh, and my grandmother was sent off to Berlin when she was 12, and lived as a full-time Nanny for wealthy business owners. The poverty became so intense, it became a perfect political situation for someone to turn over the government.

Meet Adolf, who by the way was an Austrian with a Jewish mother, and crazy. He also executed and put into slavery Jehovah's Witnesses (Oh, no one mentions them, but check out the Holocaust Museum page), homosexuals, physically or mentally disabled, gypsies and anyone who disagreed with him.

Most of the people he killed were Germans- does anyone ever mention all of the Germans who were continually executed for refusing to participate in the German Army. No one mentions them, well, they were not Jewish, they were just willing to sacrifice their lives for the persecuted, so, we won't count them).

I was raised is terrible poverty. I delivered papers at age seven and we had to use the neighbor boys name and address and girls were not allowed to do so then. By age 13, my mother had me punching a clock at a nursing home.

By age 14, she forged documents declaring I was 18 and I was put to work 60 to 70 hours a week as a waitress and supported the whole family. My life was ruined by forced labor. And servitude and slavery was not 200 years ago from ancestors I so not know. Africa did and is participating in slavery- the whole bloody world did.

What I see with some black people, is they think their own opinion represents all black people. These particular people are always telling everyone, Black people are this, black people are that. They are very tuned into their perception of their own reality and assign a whole race to thinking like them.

By the way, I consider this racism. In fact, when I finally heard enough of it in corporate America, I told these people that racism was not acceptable at the job and therefore, any sweeping statements about "white People" are all of this or that and the same for all "black people", made in front of me will be reported to human resources.

I survived in my family bu sparring with my sister and sending me into hell (I was the youngest as well), but I guess when you have indentured servitude in your family history, perhaps it is more common to repeat it.

My feet are ruined from bone damage- too much stress at too young of an age- they literally are deformed on an X-Ray. Does anyone, black or white, think the world should hand me over a living because of this life I had which was far worse than all of the black people I have ever met? I did not think so.

No one cares about your race, but I do find black people are more often racists than the other way around. Let it go. School is free- why do you not go? Black or White or Spanish- lack of success is a direct reflection to lack of education.

All races in inner city schools have a pathetic drop-out rate. City of Cleveland, 50 percent. Detroit, 75 percent, not the burbs, the city limits.

College is free-the FAFSA grant can start you at any community college and all people get student loans. The first public school in America was founded in San Francisco by an African American. Your descendants suffered greatly, as well as mine for you to have this opportunity.

How do you pay it back? The poorer kids, of any race, refuse to go to school and then want a big handout. Get over yourself, being white will not give you a handout so get your butt to school.

Being black will not get you a handout so get your butt to school. See how easy that was?

I think that what i read and hear on this screen is a crock, with whites talking about we had our own people in slavery first. I think that is a way for them to try to justify what they have done to be a leader and not a follower. the whites will never admit all the wrong they have done, even to the Indians. this will always be a racist country.

Slave trade was and is as devastating as the jewish holocaust. But black people need to understand that it's high time they stop analyzing history. black people are already getting stronger and wiser, and to keep that going we need to wake up and get educated, get useful, get smarter, and build our strength because we are getting there!

I'm doing a report about slavery. it is so sad to see what they had to put up with. thanks for helping me.

the difference between what happened to jews and why african americans have a harder time is that when you see a jew, unless they tell you the are jewish, you would not know it. A black person doesn't have to say a word. You know they are black and there is still hate out there, it's just hidden, you know like behind computers in blogs, chats and in some laws that are passed, etc.

You just have to be in that skin to feel it and know how very real its is!

There's totally not a lot of antisemitism going on today!

Black people haven't been able to pick themselves up because they refuse to. They think everything should be handed to them because of what they've been through. They think they're entitled to handouts because their ancestors were oppressed. If they would just get their heads out of their behind and try to better themselves and attempt to do good, then they probably would. Just like the Jews.

But I digress. The African slave trade did start in Africa. The Africans would sell their prisoners in attempt to get money.

Excuse me but, 'Common 48' has a point. I'm new to this site or whatever but you know, yes, it was like a African Holocaust. I agree with you that the Jews went through horrendous treatment but the Jews have been able to pick themselves up again and become wealthy.

I've never met a Jewish person in poverty but we can't say the same for black people. Black people haven't been able to pick themselves up again and they're treated with the least respect in the Western world. And how can you say we don't have a right to cry? Of course we do. Our people were captured, put on a ship naked and taken to an island to be sold and used to pick cotton and you're saying we can't cry?

It's a shame what you're saying. Also the Jewish were freed, too. We were enslaved for nearly 400 years

freed. Who's better off?

Under duress you would sell your tribesman, it was sell or be killed. Europeans use this to justify their atrocities. Did you know over 100 million slaves died? Again something which is not readily admitted. This is genocide and a real holocaust (before the Jewish holocaust the Nazis were already doing the same things in Africa. Where is this mentioned?).

In actuality, the Europeans are the most cruel of all people and this surpasses the ancients.

Deut 28 and Lev 26 tells who the black slaves where and the whole of the Tanakh (excluding Daniel, Esther and Ruth) tells of what will happen and that xtianity is false written by Greeks and that Jews are Japeth.

Yah alone will judge the world in righteousness and not a demigod called jc. People wake up and accept Torah truth.

when did the slave trade start in nigeria and in which place did it begin?

The ignorance on this page is beyond sad. Slavery is dated back to before Roman and Greek times. African slavery did originate by Africans selling their own people.

For comment '47' I would love to know how Europeans broke the African economy? Did you just think that sounded good? Please show me an article, book, or any form of valid reference other than your small minded opinion.

Comment '48' I actually laughed when I read the words "African holocaust!" Do you even know what or when the holocaust was? Black ancestors may have been enslaved, but surprise! They were freed! Do you have any idea what Native Americans or Jews went through? The Native American race was killed off by 95 percent and millions of Jews died tragic deaths. If any race has a right to complain and continue to cry years after the fact it would be these two races.

It is no surprise to me that you continue to blame your issues on others by again saying Europeans broke the African economy. Well if you're so proactive about Africa, by all means move there. Oh wait. All true Africans so strongly dislike African-Americans they would rather sit out in the styx than ever associate with them.

People make their own decisions and choices. No one "forced" Africans to sell their own people. If they wanted to do something about it they could have fought back, but they were too concerned with making a profit.

So next time you try to recreate history and point the finger once again, try to actually have correct facts, not just stories you've heard over the years that recreate and prolong the permanent chip so many African-Americans have on their shoulders.

slavery began in europe, and no africans sold their people. They were captured when they went to look for wood, or were farming or to cut down trees for making boats. Then later, when the dutch messed up the economics of africa, they started to buy humans so the africans would catch other tribes and sold them.

47, can you point us to some sources that verify that there was no slavery or slave trade within Africa before European contact? I'm not saying you're wrong, I'd just like to see where you get your facts.

Is it not true that the Muslim countries started the first African slave trade in the 14th century? And the Romans and Egyptians had involvement? Is this true or just fabricated?

learn your history because you really don't know what happened. Anglos have done a big number on this earth. Look around. Really, take a good look at this world. Who runs it? Blacks are the most hated race on this earth, and the history of Africa is stolen!

Was there slavery between Africans in the 18th century. Transatlantic slavery had already started then. If you care to know the greatest African holocaust, or holocaust of enslavement started in 1440 and ended in 1870.

I can sense the intentional error of omission that are generally prevalent in the west when we talk about slave trade. No one seems to now know when it started and there is usually a cushioned explanation about how slavery was common in Africa before the west participated.

This website is not good for finding information on the slave trade. All of you people are fooled. Africans did not start the slaver trade, nor did they willingly sell their people to Europeans during the first part of that history.

Africans were captured, taken against the will of their tribal leaders. It was only in later years that when life became so hard, that tribes waged war on other tribes in order to capture slaves. West African economy fell because of the Europeans, therefore, slavery became their only means of survival, sell or be sold.

i'm doing an article about how slave trade started and this really helped. thanks.

Thank you for the information. It really helped me a lot.

Thanks for the info.

thanks for the information. you rule. keep on rocking!

I need to know were slavery began in Africa.

i really need help to find out how the slave trade started, but i mean it's too confusing.

thank you so much. this was a big help to my history homework and i got a A+ on it.

thanks. You helped me on my homework.

Short, sweet, and to the point with plenty of information. Thank you!

i like this website; it tells me about a lot.

African tribes would capture other african tribes and sell them. That's mainly how it happened.

They were selling kings and queens and these dummies were selling them. Slavery itself goes back as far as the beginning of time; it's been going on forever.

thank you so much. i had a really important report this week. you saved me getting a detention.

i think that this is poxy!!!!! - jenifer

thanks this helped so much. i have to write a six-page children's book on the start of slave trade and the legal and illegal triangle of trade and this was very helpful!

i liked it very much. thinks!

Thanks so much. This is one of the best sites with the best information i have found so far.

that was loads of help. i'm doing some homework and needed help.

what? i thought slave trade started when the europeans came and took over the land of the americans. the europeans also cut off their hands so they couldn't do anything and the americans lost lots of blood and died from diseases. isn't that right?

No, the slaves that were brought to America were not african. They were actually from the tribe of judah and it was basically bible prohecy. read deuteronomy 28:64-68.

How was jamaica formed? how did black people get to this island and where were they traveling from?

this really helped us in our projects on social justice! thanks a lot! :D

Who brought the first African slaves to the United States? Was it Spain?

Where in Nigeria did slave trade start?

Yes, memawsheart, some local black African rulers seized blacks from other areas to sell to slave-traders. They felt that if they looked as though they were defending the blacks they would be caught and sold themselves.

Isn't it true that slaves from Africa, brought to North America, were sold by their own people?

im doing a report about slavery and this helped a lot thank you!!!!!!=]