What Elon Musk Gets Wrong About Slavery
Some time ago I came across this post by Elon Musk.
This post came after Musk expressed agreement with Matt Walsh’s statement that white people were the first to abolish slavery.
The argument which he puts forward here certainly is not a new one. It’s a common argument used by those who seek to downplay the role of Western nations in the slave trade. The argument is usually that slavery was a universal system which was practiced by most societies and that it was Western civilization (particularly Britain) which really led the effort to end slavery. This is why Eric Williams wrote that “British historians wrote almost as if Britain had introduced Negro slavery solely for the satisfaction of abolishing it.”
In the first place, it must be made clear that slavery is still legal in the United States. The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution states: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” It is clear from the text that slavery was never fully abolished. This provision allowed for the legalized re-enslavement of African Americans after the Civil War ended. Today the same policy helps to sustain the prison industrial complex in which companies make millions of dollars from the labor of prisoners who are either barely paid or are not paid at all. I mention this to show that the notion that Africa is the last place to have legal slavery is untrue. America still has legal slavery.
Secondly, it should also be remembered that after Britain abolished slavery in its West Indian colonies, Britain then implemented forced labor in its African colonies. One of the most brutal examples of this was British colonialism in Kenya. The brutal nature of colonialism in Kenya was summed up by Colonel Grogan when he stated: “We have stolen his land. Now we must steal his limbs. Compulsory labour is the corollary of our occupation of the country.” In other words, Britain never actually abolished slavery. Britain simply shifted its slave-driven colonial economic model from the Caribbean to Africa.
Finally, the notion that white people were the first to abolish slavery ignores any African agency in the fight to end slavery. Enslaved Africans themselves waged a number of slave revolts in an attempt to liberate themselves from slavery. The most successful of these revolts was led in Haiti. Britain not only failed to offer support for the revolution in Haiti, but Britain made an attempt to capture Haiti. The intention was obviously to include Haiti among Britain’s slave colonies in the Caribbean. Britain certainly was not spearheading the effort to support the revolutionary struggle against slavery in Haiti.
