Help me respond to a myth

[bootleg42]

Ok, I'm arguing with someone and they claim that slavery of the Africans was not result of Europeans going to Africa to hunt down slaves, but it was the result of Africans selling their own people into slavery. I know this is a myth, as I know the way male white chauvinists like to make excuses about the actions of the white imperialists.

This is one of those white kids who tends to try to make excuses for the rich white elite's actions throughout history. Please someone point to me where can I find information about this myth, and where I can find information that shows that the majority of the slaves where result of the Europeans hunting the slaves themselves in a sick, racist, horrible matter.

[themaskedavenger]

from what i have studied, your both right. In some cases the whites were hunting africans, and in other cases some tribes offered to hunt their rival tribes to gain their land and resources and were then given gold or guns by the whites. and in some of those cases the whites, after recieving one tribe, then captured the tribe that helped them. as for sources, im not to sure.

[rocker935]

Either way you cut it, if the Europeans weren't there, they wouldn't have been enslaved. And its true that the Europeans would go there and turn the tribes against each other. In a way, is that not worse?

[themaskedavenger]

that is true, if the europeans hadnt showed up, then slavery would probably not have happend the way it did. but i wasnt disputting that.

[Dros]

Originally posted by [email protected] 20, 2007 10:47 pm
If the europeans hadnt showed up, then slavery would probably not have happend the way it did.
But it still would have happened. Slavery did exist in Africa before whites showed up. I'm not justifying the middle passage but it is idealistic to blame "the white man" for everything.

You are both correct. There were black tribes that enslaved blacks. Does that really justify a.) slavery or b.) purchasing slaves from them?

[Organic Revolution]

Rich Europeans 'hired' rival African tribesmen to gather up slaves for the trade. So it is a two way street.

[Rasmus]

So, in the end, I believe the problem would be that profit was the incentive in both the white and black world at the time, and since slaves require less than paid work, it is better for profit, and the black people that captured other black people to become slaves, then profitted off of that fact.