Are we in denial over slave role?

[Toronthab]

I hate to admit this, but I am almost totally ignorant of the extent of slavery in Canada. This article I found pretty startling. It's not something we ever talk about.

Are we in denial over slave role?
CARLOS OSORIO/TORONTO STAR


Canada largely ignores bicentenary marking history of a monstrous crime
Feb 05, 2007 04:30 AM


Royson James
City Hall Columnist

The map of slavery runs its bloody trail through Canada. But, shhhhh. Our governments are not about to remind us.

Imagine the most vile violations of human rights – legalized mass murder and subjugation on a horrific international scale – and you might peer into the cauldron of a brutal and fiendish system that enslaved tens of millions of Africans for the enrichment of the western world.

This monstrous wrong, so barbaric and debilitating that its effects still scar Africa and her descendants in Europe and the Americas, is being commemorated by governments across the globe this year.

But scarcely in Canada.

www.thestar.com/News/article/178264

[Habs_fan_in_LA]

Are you referring to the Russians like Kovalev and Samsonov that are forced to work here and whose every mistake is criticized while they are given a pittance to survive on?

[jkr]

toronthab said:

I hate to admit this, but I am almost totally ignorant of the extent of slavery in Canada. This article I found pretty startling. It's not something we ever talk about.

Are we in denial over slave role?
CARLOS OSORIO/TORONTO STAR


Canada largely ignores bicentenary marking history of a monstrous crime
Feb 05, 2007 04:30 AM


Royson James
City Hall Columnist

The map of slavery runs its bloody trail through Canada. But, shhhhh. Our governments are not about to remind us.

Imagine the most vile violations of human rights – legalized mass murder and subjugation on a horrific international scale – and you might peer into the cauldron of a brutal and fiendish system that enslaved tens of millions of Africans for the enrichment of the western world.

This monstrous wrong, so barbaric and debilitating that its effects still scar Africa and her descendants in Europe and the Americas, is being commemorated by governments across the globe this year.

But scarcely in Canada.

www.thestar.com/News/article/178264

There is a book out now that discusses Canada's role in the slave trade. I am in the process of reading it now. It's an eye opener. We in Canada pobably feel a little smug about the issue until you start reading.

It's called:

The Hanging of Angelique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery & the Burning of Old Montreal by Afua Cooper.

[princelh]

It's OK to recognize slavery for what it was. It was wrong, should never have happened, but it has been abolished from the North American landscape since 1870. The last registered slave died in 1972, a female child born in the last days of the war between the States in what was believed to be Mississippi, in 1865. There are no more slaves left alive so it should be relegated to the pages of history, like wars, where no one is left alive, like WW1 will soon be. To drag it around and make the descendent's of slaves and slaveholders continue the blame game is plain and simple a waste of time. This lasted in the U.S. for almost 100 years, when it should have been buried much sooner. Those who have a problem with it, should drag themselves into the 21st century and let it go!

[franko]

princelh said:

Those who have a problem with it, should drag themselves into the 21st century and let it go!

Kind of like you let go of the Confederate Flag as your avatar?

btw, Amazing Grace, the story of William Wilberforce (the English parliamentarian who led the battle against slavery) will be soon coming to a theatre near you. A well-done move.

[Skilly]

princelh said:

There are no more slaves left alive so it should be relegated to the pages of history, like wars, where no one is left alive, like WW1 will soon be. To drag it around and make the descendent's of slaves and slaveholders continue the blame game is plain and simple a waste of time.

Well I guess I wont ask your opinion on the recent Chinese head-tax declaration. Descendant's have a right to complain about the way their ancestors were treated. Their "blame game" wasn't such a waste of time now was it?

[princelh]

Confederate Flag? I am for Southern Heritage when I wave that flag. Just like the Newfoundlander who flies his flag, from before Confederation or the Pre 1965 Canadian who flies the Union Jack or Red Ensign, because they were born under that flag.

Chinese Head Tax was recently put to bed with an apology from Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

When I mentioned 1870, that was the last year that the U.S. government allowed slavery in the four Union States that remained with the United States before the War.

[oldhabsfan]

toronthab said:

I hate to admit this, but I am almost totally ignorant of the extent of slavery in Canada. This article I found pretty startling. It's not something we ever talk about.

Are we in denial over slave role?
CARLOS OSORIO/TORONTO STAR


Canada largely ignores bicentenary marking history of a monstrous crime
Feb 05, 2007 04:30 AM


Royson James
City Hall Columnist

The map of slavery runs its bloody trail through Canada. But, shhhhh. Our governments are not about to remind us.

Slavery may be a human shame, but not I think a particularly Canadian shame.

I don't know of any "civilized" country that has a history free of slavery. North American first nation which had economies sufficently complex and rich, had slaves, notably among the West Coast societies based on the salmon fisheries. African slaves were captured and sold to European traders by other Africans. Arabs raided and traded for slaves in Africa well into the 19th century. Slavery existed in Saudi Arabia into recent decades.

Our British political tradition is better than most in this respect. Slavery (as distinct from serfdom) went out of use in England after the Norman conquest. If I remember rightly, around the middle of the 18th century, a judgement of Lord Mansfield held that a slave who touched the soil of England proper, became free.

In the 1790's Ontario established that children born after the year of the legislation would be free; a typically wishy-washy Canadian compromise that had the merit of bringing slavery to at leat an eventual end. In 1807 the British Government acted against the slave trade. In 1834 slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire.

[Skilly]

princelh said:

Just like the Newfoundlander who flies his flag, from before Confederation or the Pre 1965 Canadian who flies the Union Jack

They would be one and the same .... the official flag of Newfoundland, and Canada for that matter, prior to 1949 (the year Newfoundland joined Confederation) was the Union Jack.

Newfoundland adopted its own flag (and what a ugly artistic piece of .... well its ugly) on June 6, 1980.

Chinese Head Tax was recently put to bed with an apology from Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

It is far from put to bed. The apology was long sought after .... but the Chinese community (at least here in Newfoundland) have not put it to bed in the least. Btw ... Harper gave more than an apology, he gave money as well. The reason it is not put to bed is because a condition placed on that money is that descendants can't collect it. A co-worker of mine is high in the Chinese community here in Newfoundland and is mad as a hatter because he can't collect the money from his father's (who is passed away) head-tax.

The issue is also two-fold. I apologize if I have them confused. Newfoundland was a nation and kept the head-tax in place long after Canada abolished it ... so I may have some of the info discombobulated with the two different and distinct issues.

[Skilly]

oldhabsfan said:

I don't know of any "civilized" country that has a history free of slavery.

The nation of Newfoundland.

You know, Newfoundland is becoming more and more multi-national, which is a good thing. But growing up, 1970's to the 1990's .... well the African-descent population here was practically zero. Besides on TV, I only met one person of African descent while growing up (there were many of Asian descent). It is amazing the positive changes that are occuring here .... and it dumbfounds me how Canada can deport all of these contributing immigrants, especially here in Newfoundland where our population is so low (500,000).

[princelh]

Tired of every wronged minority screaming for compensation, especially when it wasn't them but an ancestor. Slavery is wrong but no longer exists. The head tax was wrong and no longer exists. If there are any people who were wronged by the head tax still alive, then compensate them, not their children.

I could say the same thing about my people, United Empire Loyalists, who were forced out of the United States during the American Revolution. Can I go to the United States government and say, your ancestors stole my ancestors land and I want to be compensated. It isn't going to happen!!

[Skilly]

princelh said:

Tired of every wronged minority screaming for compensation, especially when it wasn't them but an ancestor. Slavery is wrong but no longer exists. The head tax was wrong and no longer exists. If there are any people who were wronged by the head tax still alive, then compensate them, not their children.

I could say the same thing about my people, United Empire Loyalists, who were forced out of the United States during the American Revolution. Can I go to the United States government and say, your ancestors stole my ancestors land and I want to be compensated. It isn't going to happen!!

I've been thinking about going back and trying to get my compensation from England.

[princelh]

I want my compensation from Kerry Fraser, who stole my Leafs Nation's Stanley Cup in '93! LOL!!!!

[Toronthab]

I believe that the point of the article dealt with the fact that most Canadians are completely unaware of our significant involvment in slavery. Not a small thing.