Empire, Slavery and History

Events over the last fortnight have shown that Britain as well as America, have a history of maltreatment of those taken in captivity from their homes in predominantly West Africa! 

Slavery was rife in the formation of the glorious "Empire of the United Kingdom".  Three cities in the UK have profiteered largely on the back of slavery; Glasgow, Bristol and Liverpool.

Now on the back of the rightly condemned killing of George Floyd by a supposed keeper of law and order there is an almost unstoppable movement to restore some semblance of civil liberty for the African Americans all of whom are descendants of the original slaves!  

The question for me is; as a nation, the United Kingdom has always known about its role in the slave trade and the wealth that it created, so why have we turned a blind eye to that fact?

Our maritime expertise was what led Britain to turn 30% of the global map red even in my days at school with our geography classes, but it also was that expertise, that permitted the dominant role in slavery !

This disproportionate dominance meant that "Britannia" really did rule the waves in maritime expertise.

Now we have mob rule in the U.K. where they want to tear down every statue that represents the vestiges of that past steeped in slavery and part of me agrees with the desire!

Yet another part of me wants them kept but plaques put up to detail their involvement in this stain on the collective conscience of the British!

It is time that the history of the "Empire" was made clear and not the sanitised version that the victors get to spout.