Update (2/12): From reader Duncan M:
In honor of Black History Month, please publish the American College Dictionary’s definition of “Republican party — one of the two major political parties of the United States, originated (1854-56) to combat slavery.”
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Since this is black history month and I’m black, I suppose I should continue writing in honor of “Black History Month,” on account of I’m black and all.
In his latest column, Thomas Sowell reviews a book titled Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire’s Slaves, the story of anti-slavery efforts in 18th century Britain, written by Adam Hochschild. Sowell writes:
To me the most staggering thing about the long history of slavery — which encompassed the entire world and every race in it — is that nowhere before the 18th century was there any serious question raised about whether slavery was right or wrong. In the late 18th century, that question arose in Western civilization, but nowhere else.
Ah, yes, Western civilization, from which sprang the idea of individual liberty and the freedom to redress government wrongs, broadly speaking. Some of America’s dead white men owned slaves, but other dead white men created a sweeping movement to abolish human bondage.
I mentioned the West and slavery in a piece I wrote for Pop and Politics:
[A]lthough slavery existed throughout the world for millennia and still exists in parts of the world today (Africa, for example), it was the Western idea of freedom and rights of the individual, incompatible with human bondage, that prompted the United States to abolish slavery. Being proud of this heritage is incompatible with the liberal agenda.
While Africans are still being enslaved in 2005 by their own countrymen and Arabs, certain descendents of slaves in the U.S., who have it better than blacks anywhere in the world will ever have in their lifetimes, are demanding a “reparations” check for the slavery of long-dead ancestors. Once again, I am embarrassed by my countrymen.
Hochschild chronicles the history of “the world’s first anti-slavery movement.” A group of religious Londoners wanted their fellow Britons to think about the immorality of human bondage. Eventually, Parliament banned slavery throughout the British Empire, and that’s where Hochschild ends the book. Sowell hopes for an equally compelling book about the worldwide struggle against slavery. That’s a tall order complicated by a number of things, including America’s deep political division, George Bush’s decisive win over John Kerry and the resultant “moral values” controversy. Men who could be anachronistically described as “right wingers” led the abolitionist movement. Sowell writes:
The anti-slavery movement was spearheaded by people who would today be called “the religious right” and its organization was created by conservative businessmen. Moreover, what destroyed slavery in the non-Western world was Western imperialism.Nothing could be more jolting and discordant with the vision of today’s intellectuals than the fact that it was businessmen, devout religious leaders and Western imperialists who together destroyed slavery around the world. And if it doesn’t fit their vision, it is the same to them as if it never happened.
The idea that blacks don’t need skin color preferences and have succeeded without liberals and government handouts doesn’t fit their vision, either. It’s as though black advancement absent entitlements and special treatment never happened.
Someone should write an “equally dramatic and compelling book” about that.
