>>Now, if you agree with the idea that had the Africans not
>been
>>so willing to sell (by the by I should say that the reason
>>they were so willing was because they didn't look at it as
>>selling their fellow brother or sister, but as selling
>>neighbors and people they didn't know) then would you agree
>>with the idea that parts of Africa should be held
>responsible
>>for the atrocity that is slavery in America?
>
>hmmm depends on what you consider the crime.
>Is it the middle passage ?
>Is it the act of selling ?
>Is it the conditions Slaves in America lived under for 400
>years ?

(Edit: I had a much longer response typed out and went to post it and an error message came up, hence I lost it all. I retyped what I remembered so hopefully it is coherent)

I consider all those to be 'the crime' but I thought those were always thought of as such.

Like, if I had to percentage it, I'd say Americans and Europeans are responsible for 90% of the whole slave trade and subsquent slavery beause they continued to opress people from the moment the ships left various African ports until when slavery ended.

I mean, I just know that people sometimes say that African slavery wasn't as bad as American and European slavery and that is SO TRUE, so I'm not trying to debate that. I just wonder how that argumnet holds up if someone were to say, "Yes, but did the Africans think that the Europeans were just going to treat the slaves like the Africans did?" If they did, then does that absolve them of their crime? If not, then what? I mean if that's the case, does it matter? Isn't the act of selling them any bad enough?

Then one could rightfully wonder if perhaps the Europeans lied to the Africans and said that they would be treated humanely. I mean, is that how they got them to sell? If that's the case then that would open an interesting box....

So going back to the percentage thing, then I would say that Africans are like 10% responsible for what happened and even though that is a small number, and the Middle Passage, the selling of slaves that went on for years in the States and the conditions that were so deplorable for 400 years totally outweighed, you could say, however bad it was that the Africans *just* sold them, I still wonder if one could hold them responsible for their part of the deal.