Jeremy Black\u2019s definitions are more succinct. In A Brief History of Slavery<\/em> he calls out slavery as the “commodification of human beings” for economic advantage.[2]<\/a> Black recounts a horrifying example of this in the case of the Zong, a ship carrying 470 captured Africans destined to be enslaved in Jamaica. When the ship\u2019s supplies ran low, Captain Luke Collingwood had 131 of the weaker slaves thrown into the Atlantic to drown. Their value was then claimed against the ship’s insurance.[3]<\/a> Black tells us that British painter J.M. Turner was so moved by this event that he painted this piece (below), which I found deeply poignant.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n This week\u2019s readings also challenged several of my assumptions regarding racism, slavery and colonialism. We were reminded that slavery comes in many forms: serfdom, penal labour, arranged marriages for child brides, concubinage, indentured servitude.[5]<\/a> We were also reminded that many of these conditions continue today in India, Brazil, and other places around the world in the form of debt-bondage, sexual slavery, and penal labor.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n Perhaps most challenging, we read about examples where there were genuinely good intentions (at least according to the perception of the colonizers or enslavers) behind historical injustices. Biggar argues that the expansion of the British empire was motivated in large part by the \u201cChristian, humanitarian, \u2018improving\u2019 spirit\u201d which generally sought to make a better life for other people.[7]<\/a> To what extent the end result was actually an improvement for \u201cother people\u201d is a different conversation. Likewise, Black points out that the slave trade in Ethiopia in the 1500\u2019s was intertwined with Islamic proselytism[8]<\/a>, which was presumably a positive intention in the minds of faithful Muslims at the time. Let me be clear, these perceived good intentions do not excuse injustice. Perhaps the lesson for us today is that we are all susceptible to blindness when the \u201cwater we swim in\u201d (i.e. our society or culture) has normalized something that is, in fact, wrong.<\/p>\n Allow me to share one final example of how our culture can blind us so completely. I was struck by Biggar\u2019s retelling of Captain Cook\u2019s voyage to Australia. \u201cHe was instructed that, should he find the land inhabited, he was to \u2018endeavour by all proper means to cultivate a friendship and alliance with [the native peoples]\u2019 and \u2018with [their] consent \u2026 to take possession of convenient situations in the country in the name of the King of Great Britain\u2019. However, when the British reached Australia in 1770, they discovered a territory that seemed to them very sparsely populated and then only with foragers, not farmers settled on bounded land. It also seemed that there were no established political authorities among the natives with whom treaties could be made. So, in 1788, when the first fleet of convict ships arrived on the coast of what would become New South Wales, British settlement proceeded on the assumption that the land was terra nullius \u2013 belonging to no one. It soon became clear that that was not the view of the aboriginals, who, when they saw that the foreigners intended to stay, began to attack them.\u201d[9]<\/a> This example makes me both want to laugh and cry. How ignorant and how arrogant humans can be when we perceive only through our own cultural lens. Captain Cook ignored the intricacies of local culture when he assumed that if the aboriginals weren\u2019t farming bounded land then they wouldn\u2019t mind if Britain established settlements. He didn\u2019t know what he didn\u2019t know and those early British settlers suffered for it.<\/p>\n My hope, as I conclude these reflections, is that we might learn from past injustices and past missteps. May we listen carefully to history and listen carefully to each other across cultural divides. Above all, may we prioritize the dignity of each human being as one made in the image of God.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Biggar, Nigel, Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning.<\/em> London: Williams Collins Books, 2023. 38.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Black, Jeremy. A Brief History of Slavery<\/em>. Philadelphia, London: Running Press Book Publishers; Robinson, 2011. 10.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Ibid., 202-203.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> J.M. Turner ,\u201cThe Slave Ship\u201d, Oil on Canvas, 1840.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Black, Jeremy. A Brief History of Slavery<\/em>. Philadelphia, London: Running Press Book Publishers; Robinson, 2011. 4.<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Ibid., 246-247.<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Biggar, Nigel, Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning.<\/em> London: Williams Collins Books, 2023. 20.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/1920px-Slave-ship-300x225.jpg\")
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