Britain’s involvement in slavery to be taught in schools
August 26, 2008 8:34 pmAccording to the BBC:
Britain’s involvement in the slave trade is to be studied by all secondary pupils in England from September.
Children will study the development of the trade, colonisation and how slavery was linked to the British empire and the industrial revolution.
Um, haven’t all schools always taught that anyway?! Isn’t that just part of history? I guess not.
I have a concern. I remember listening to a programme on R4 about the anniversary of the abolition last year, and I heard a couple of bits of astounding ignorance, both from teachers who basically chose not to (or were unaware of) African chiefs and Saudi Arabian involvement in slavery.
And then there are sites like this…I see NO mention of of the fact that Britain was one of the FIRST to abolish slavery, that Britain only accounted for 5% of the slave trade.
Most of the trading happened in Arabian countries, which didn’t abolish slavery until 1962.
But then, this site’s title informs us that
“Britain abolished the slave trade on 25 March 2007“. Doesn’t sound like Marika Sherwood is very clued up!
You know, listening to people talking about British involvement in slavery, you’d think we were going to Africa with nets and rounding them up!
I’m all for history being taught, but in full. But I wonder if they’ll include the inconvenient truths?
By the way, I think slavery was a horrendous and despicable part of history that we should learn from. But let’s get some perspective - I’ve no reason to feel guilt. My forefathers weren’t sugar traders or land owners.
Let’s have history as it was, and less “guilty white man” crap like this
Hmmm, I’ve just had a thought - imagine a world where between 65% and 80% of everthing you worked for was taken from you. And if you didn’t give it, you were threatened with violence and imprisonment.
Oh, wait. That’ll be tax in the UK.
One Response to “Britain’s involvement in slavery to be taught in schools”
I’m pretty sure Arabs used to capture Europeans as slaves, too. The world was full of that sort of thing not so long ago. It is just PC nonsense to give more emphasis to British slave trading. And even if my forefathers were sugar traders or land owners I’m not responsible for their actions.
Reminds me of my German friend who complains that in school they are taught that they should feel guilty about WWII. That’s a load of rubbish too.
Care to comment?