I think there are a number of reasons for the focus on slave traders in the US (and the purchasers of slaves and the slaveowners who sold slaves -- in other words the people involved in the domestic trade -- rather than the original African suppliers.  Here are some of the issues:

1:  There is a presumption that "western" and "Christian" culture was superior to Muslim and anamist West African Culture.  Thus, we assume the either heather or Muslim Africans would sell people into slavery.  But, we westerners were "superior" to them  The domestic slave trade surely undermines those presumptions.

2:  One classic defense of American slaveowners is that they were stuck in a system and had no way out, so they did the best the could.  The domestic trade undermines that theory by illustrating that most participated in the buying and selling of human being without regard to their own claims more morality or their own Christian values.

3:  As evangelical Christians, Episcopalian/Anglicans, or Roman Catholics (that covers almost all southern slaveholders) they all professed to the Golden Rule and to belief in the sanctity of family and marriage.  The slave trade shows how little they followed those ideals.

4:  Perhaps the worst aspect of slavery was not the work or even the physical punishment, but the denial of the right of slaves to be truly married and raise their families (this is one reason why American slavery was so much worse than serfdom).  The slave trade was the major vehicle for undermining slave families.

5:  Once the African trade ended (in 1808 for the US). the domestic trade continued and that is what we can learn about and focus on.

Finally, let's apply Mr. McDonald's question (below) to another modern issue:  drug trafficking.  The implication of is question he we should be worried about the names of the poppy growers in Afghanistan or Turkey and not the organized crime thugs who bring heroine into the country or the marketers in the United States who sell it.  

 
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>Of likely greater importance to others, can someone provide the name of one
>African man who may share accountabilities for the enslaving of Africans and
>selling them at various African ports for profit, as described below. . . . 
Why focus on slave traders and
>only consider a secondary few in Virginia when others were primarily
>responsible for the endless supply to the world over centuries?
>

>Neil McDonald

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Paul Finkelman
President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law
     and Public Policy
Albany Law School
80 New Scotland Avenue
Albany, New York   12208-3494

518-445-3386 
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