Let's not be so kind.

While European involvement in the Transatlantic slave trade to the Americas
(that included Virginia) lasted for just over three centuries, the Arab
involvement in slave trade lasted *fourteen* centuries, and in some parts of
the Muslim world is still continuing to this day.  Over 28 Million Africans
have been enslaved in the Muslim world during this time, with some estimates
being 'much' higher.  A comparison of the Muslim slave trade to the American
slave trade reveals some interesting contrasts.

While two out of every three slaves shipped across the Atlantic were men,
the proportions were reversed in the Muslim slave trade. Two women for every
man were enslaved by the Muslims.

While the mortality rate for slaves being transported across the Atlantic
was as high as 10%, the percentage of slaves dying in transit in the
Transsahara and East African slave trade was between 80 and 90%!

While almost all the slaves shipped across the Atlantic were for
agricultural work, most of the slaves destined for the Muslim Middle East
were for sexual exploitation as concubines, in harems, and for military
service.

While many children were born to slaves in the Americas, and millions of
their descendants are citizens in Brazil and the USA to this day, very few
descendants of the slaves that ended up in the Middle East survive.  (Maybe
they were just "incorporated into society," huh??)

While most slaves who went to the Americas could marry and have families,
most of the male slaves destined for the Middle East were castrated, and
most of the children born to the women were killed at birth.

Of the estimated 11 million Africans transported across the Atlantic (the
actual number is debatable), approximately 95% went to South and Central
America, mainly to Portuguese, Spanish and French possessions.
'Only' 4-5% of the total were transported to what was to become
The United States. (It seems terrible to discuss slavery in statistical 
terms.)

While Christian Reformers spearheaded the antislavery abolitionist movements
in Europe and North America, and Great Britain mobilized her Navy,
throughout most of the 19th Century, to intercept slave ships and set
captives free, there was no comparable opposition to slavery within the
Muslim world.

Even after Britain outlawed the slave trade in 1807 and Europe abolished the
slave trade in 1815, Muslim slave traders enslaved a further 2 million
Africans. This despite vigorous British Naval activity and military
intervention to limit the Muslim slave trade.

By some calculations the number of victims of the 14 centuries of Muslim
slave trade could exceed 180 million. Nearly 100 years after President
Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in America, and 130
years after all slaves within the British Empire were set free by
parliamentary decree, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, in 1962, and Mauritania in
1980, begrudgingly removed legalized slavery from their statute books.

And this only after international pressure was brought to bear. Today
numerous international organizations (and news media) document that slavery
in its worst terms still continues in some Muslim countries -- like Darfur,
Sudan, Somalia, Mauritania and Chad among others.

Much of the above statistical data from Assyrian International News Agency's
study of many sources, some of which are available online.
http://www.aina.org/

My feelings about slavery was posted 3/2/07 during a prior thread concerning
WPA Slave Narratives, see copy far below.  With such strongly felt emotions
against slavery then and now, by many (including Southerners), wouldn't
Virginian historians and members at this list be better served to take
positive action against slavery yet existing in today's Muslim world than
trying to squeeze more and more out of apologies by today's society, whether
or not their ancestors were slave owners?  Emotions by common citizens of
our Southen States during the sorry times of our nation's Civil War involved
more than slavery.  It seems, for some, that 'something' will always be
lacking from today's apologies, including that of Virginia's
legislature....it's never quite enough....

With history discussions at this list repeating 'identical' topics and 
commentary
about slavery, WPA slave narratives, etc quite often, a young visitor might
wonder whether anything else happened in Virginia's past.

Neil McDonald

 ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Heinegg" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 6:03 PM
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Islamic Slavery (was Re: Slavery and immoral stance,
etc.)


> If you read Lovejoy or other works that discuss the Islamic trade in
> slaves
> from Africa to the Middle East, you may be--as I was--amazed to learn the
> huge numbers
> that were involved.
> -------------
> Segal estimates it to be about the same as the Atlantic trade, but it took
> place over eight centuries+.
>
> Many of the men were eunuchs. It is estimated that 1 in 200 potential
> eunuchs made it alive to their destinations. Those that survived were
> greatly revered in Muslim society, some becoming generals, heads of state,
> etc. In the early 20th century when eunuchs entered the tramcars in
> Istanbul, all Turks would stand and greet them, and remain standing until
> they took their seat.
>
> The survival rate from walking 2,500 miles across the Sahara from West
> Africa to Egypt or Northern Africa was, as you might imagine, much worse
> than the survival rate in the Atlantic trade on ships.
>
> Under pressure from the British the Turks closed the slave market in
> Istanbul in 1846, but in 1855 "the head of the Muslim community in Mecca
> issued a fatwa declaring that the ban was a breach of Islamic holy law and
> that the Turks were apostates and heathens upon whom it was obligatory to
> wage holy war." Slavery was still legal in Saudi in the 1950s and
> continued
> to some extent into the 1980s. It was replaced by hiring Filipino and
> Indian
> "house maids." When I worked in Saudi, I used to hear my Saudi work mates
> joking about taking advantage of their maids.
>
> I think the South has the same problem as the Saudis. Emancipation was
> enforced. The recent state legislature apologies to African Americans for
> the damage slavery did to the African American community both before and
> after slavery is a great stride toward ridding the soul of those past
> actions. The only thing that is lacking in the apologies is the
> acknowledgement of how wrong it was for their white ancestors in the 1860s
> to still be fighting to maintain slavery. One wonders when they would have
> agreed to emancipation if left to their own devices.
>
> Paul
>

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "macbd1" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 1:11 PM
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Slave Narrative for WPA Project


> How can we allow, let alone participate in, such a bland discussion about
> basic human rights, where some even believe, or rather 'say,' that slaves
> were apparently happy with their plight.  Human slavery and traumatic
> family upheaval and transportation, is/was such an abomination, so
> demeaning, so  basically inhuman, so cruel, so wrong, so unacceptable.
> Freedom with liberty for all is man's ultimate way (it's sad that I feel 
> inclined
> to add for this forum, meaning all of humankind.)  Read the words and 
> minds
> of those who violently rebelled, those who ran away, those who had the 
> will
> and found the means for obtaining freedom or death, those who sacrificed
> so much in so many ways, to truly understand.  Do the same for the many
> individuals who helped the rebels and runaways.  Think about words of the
> old hymn, 'Free at Last,' and interpretations of many other 'old Negro
> spirituals' (historical context) of the early/mid 19th century.  Read 
> other
> sources, many on-line, for personal letters by slaves and ex-slaves.  Look
> inside yourself and extrapolate the dots.
>
> Should we expect ex-slaves to have exclaimed:  I believe it is
> self-evident, that all men are created equal, that we are endowed, by our
> Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, 
> Liberty,
> and the pursuit of Happiness -- and, by God, never forget as to prevent
> slavery's recurrence or appearance elsewhere!
>
> Some conclusions simply don't require much discussion, IMHO.
>
> Neil McDonald
>
> An old Scotch-Irishman
> having early/mid-19th century ancestors
> just above Ripley, Ohio.