A Division Of Blame In The Atlantic Slave Trade

Distributing moral responsibility for the Atlantic Slave trade is a complex task. I believe it is a task in which historians play an important role. That is not to say that historians should play the only role. Historians help to provide facts as well as context to our past. 

 

It is an unfortunate fact that slavery has been a part of human history going back to some early gathering and hunting societies (Strayer, 2016, p.622). That said, The Atlantic Slave trade was involved in horrors of humanity not previously seen on that scale in slavery. Who is to blame? 

 

Should we blame the Mediterranean world for introducing Europe to sugar? No, I don’t think we’ve found a viable scapegoat there. Perhaps blame can be placed on the Ottoman Turks for stifling the flow of Slavic-speaking peoples from the black sea? After all, Slav is the basis for the word slave in many European languages (Strayer, 2016, p.623). No, I don’t think that’s it either.  

 

Maybe we can look to the Portuguese explorers who identified West Africa as an alternative source for slave labor. I think we’re getting closer, but only a small portion of the blame is on the Portuguese mariners. What about Pope Nicholas V? There’s a lot of blame head to Old Nick. In 1452 Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas authorizing the reduction of all Muslims, Pagans, and unbelievers to perpetual slavery. This gave Catholics what they believed was a moral imperative to use slavery. It made forcing Africans into slavery that much easier. 

 

Some might brush off the amount of blame that should be placed with Pope Nicholas V. I think that is being too kind to this pope. For evidence, I offer the Stanford Prison Experiment as well as the BBC Prison Experiment. The Stanford Prison Experiment placed college students in the role of prisoner and guard. Within six days, the students had fallen so completely into the role of inhumane guards and dehumanized prisoners, the researchers felt the need to stop the experiment. What it revealed was how readily people fall into societal rolls that are placed upon them. I know, I know, how does this relate to the pope?! This is where the BBC Prison Experiment comes into play. This experiment in some ways contradicted the findings of the Stanford Prison Experiment. The warden in this situation did not give any directives to the guard about prisoner treatment, whereas at Stanford the guards were told to control the prisoners by any means. The findings of the BBC experiment showed the importance a leaders opinion plays on attitudes and actions of their followers. 

Click here to learn more about the Stanford Prison Experiment

 

Now cut to the Milgram Experiment. This experiment demonstrated the willingness of people to carry out activities that they know are harmful or even deadly to others if it is ordered by someone that carries legitimate authority or perceived legitimate authority. It was carried out to help psychologist understand what had happened at the concentration camps in Nazi Germany.  

Now, cut back to the pope! Do you see how the pope’s edict influenced slavery among European colonies? Just in case, I’m going to lay it out for you. Europeans were already involved in the slave trade. The pope just removed any moral problems they might have had with it. At the time, the word of a pope was quite authoritative. 

click here for more information about the Milgram Experiment

 

Still, the primary responsibility for the Atlantic Slave trade remains with the colonialists buying the slaves, and placing a higher value on income than human life. If people weren’t buying people there would not have been a market for them. That’s it. So in summary, if we’re making a list of people that were the most disgusting, and carried the most responsibility with regard to the Atlantic Slave trade, I would blame the slave companies buying and transporting people to the Americas, Colonial Americans, and Pope Nicholas V.