Crime or Tragedy 8 1
have set a precedent that means behaviour which was not seen as criminal at the
Could it therefore be reasonably argued that these
criminal acts were not punishable crimes at the
time of the Atlantic Slave Trade? Was there no
Crime Act during that period, one which kept
people under control, and abiding by the laws and
order of the land? Sure there was, it just didn’t
apply to chattel slaves and their families.
By stigmatizing the children of enslaved Africans
under historically enduced conditions of
empoverishness and inequality across the world,
the legacy of Western slave trading will remain
part of the study of the “Science of Victimization”
and the time for amends will never come.
Interestingly, the British government paid
compensation to slave owners after Parliament
passed the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833. For
example, the Bishop of Exeter’s 665 slaves resulted
in him receiving £12,700 compensation.
“ I have gathered all the wealth
from all over the world; beaten,
chained and shackled just to help
make their thing beautiful…”
If Britain and America are too cowardly to admit
that what happened during slavery and even after
its abolition was a ‘crime’ rather than a ‘tragedy’,
then they should at least pay indirectly through
donations of medication, food, clothing and other
assistance to the African continent devastated as
a result of their actions and leave F