I put this piece together because I am tired of everything being a one-sided story about how bad the U.S. has been throughout history. The U.S. has saved the world multiple times and is doing it again by taking out Iran. But if you talk to anyone on the left, America is the scourge of the world because of being conservative and capitalist, which is our identity.
We never talk about what we did for the world, as displayed in the following graphic.
What if the U.S. joined the world of old and stayed with England rather than going on its own - 100 percent on its own to live freely, discover, invent and improve the world along the way? The world is in a better place because of our country. While we have our issues and always will, the attacks coming from those who don’t appreciate our country are baseless and only an ideology that will occur once one reaches heaven. Oh, I forgot, most progressives fear God because they cannot accept someone higher than their party whom they can’t control. Therefore, their ideology is nothing but a dream and doesn’t hold water in real life. Enough on that.
My goal for this piece is to inform, not gaslight or pick on a religion or group of people. All I want is for people to understand the dark side of slavery that always seems to be glossed over in favor of only telling part of the story, specifically the Atlantic Slave Trade. I hope this isn't a result of a woke-on-purpose approach to omitting history that doesn’t fit the narrative, but it wouldn't surprise me, since most history writing comes from professors on the left side, some more than others.
Here is a summary by ChatGpt”
“Islamic-world slave trades moved millions of Africans and others through trans-Saharan, Red Sea, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, and Central Asian routes over more than a millennium. Scholarly reconstructions often place African exports around 12–17 million, with higher estimates reaching roughly 25 million. The Atlantic trade is better documented: about 12.5 million embarked and 10.7 million arrived, implying about 1.8 million deaths during the Middle Passage. For Islamic-world routes, exact deaths from raids, forced marches, transport, castration, disease, and enslavement cannot be calculated reliably — but the underlying atrocities are extensively documented.”
Everyone knows the atrocities of the Atlantic Slave trade: people shackled and packed like sardines, not even treated as a person. We have seen this picture in our minds for decades now in movies, museums and historical remakes, with some bringing me to tears. We need to keep publicizing this horrible event, so we never forget.
But what about telling the whole story, which seems to be ignored, and that is the trans-Saharan, Red Sea, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, and Central Asian slave trade. Just like anyone involved in slavery, the results were unbelievable, with people dying along the trek through the desert from heat and violence. How many times have you seen a movie or historical video of this slavery of the past? Probably never. I found this through my research on many subjects and wonder how many other people are clueless.
It is unbelievable how people turn into animals when they get power and money, and there will be many of them going to hell for what they did. We can never forget the past, and we need to make sure we learn from mistakes, some of great magnitude, which will shock people in the future who won’t be able to comprehend how evil humans can be.
Have you ever heard about reparations from the Muslim nations because of slavery? No? If you have, please send me the information. Why the double standards? Is it fear of offending Islam? That would be my guess because the media and our educational systems are woke and would consider this an attack on a religion. But who the hell cares when it comes to the U.S.? We are always fair game, and what makes it bad is that our attacks come from within.
Ok, back to the facts and estimates. I say estimates because documentation for the trans-Saharan, Red Sea, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, and Central Asian slavery routes is thin, but some scholars have made estimates, and they range widely, as you will see.
How many folks do you think are aware of these numbers? My guess is not many, but I may be wrong. You will notice, though, that the numbers are on par with the Atlantic slave trade.
A couple of more things from the world of Islamic slavery:
Slave raids and kidnapping — captured in warfare, raids, or abductions and sold into slavery.
Forced marches across the Sahara — endured extreme heat, thirst, hunger, exhaustion, and death.
Red Sea and Indian Ocean transport — people were shipped long distances under harsh, crowded conditions.
Family separation — men, women, and children were routinely split apart and sold to different owners.
Sexual slavery and concubinage — enslaved women and girls were bought for domestic and sexual use.
Castration of boys and men — some male captives were castrated to supply eunuchs for courts, harems, and elite households; the procedure could be lethal.
Child enslavement — children were bought, sold, transported, and raised in servitude.
Plantation and agricultural labor — enslaved Africans worked under brutal conditions in places such as southern Iraq and Zanzibar.
Domestic servitude — many slaves worked as household servants with little control over their movement or lives.
Military slavery — some enslaved males were trained and compelled to serve as soldiers or guards.
Sale in slave markets — human beings were inspected, priced, bought, inherited, and resold as property.
Physical punishment — beatings, confinement, coercion, and harsh discipline were used to control enslaved people.
Deaths during capture and transit — many died before reaching markets from violence, disease, dehydration, starvation, and exhaustion.
Long-term hereditary slavery — in many societies, children born to enslaved women could themselves be enslaved, depending on legal status and circumstance.
Persistence for centuries — slavery continued in parts of the Islamic world into the 19th and early 20th centuries, long after many Atlantic systems had begun abolition.
That was a good summary from ChatGPT, and many of these points apply to the Atlantic Slave trade as well. One big difference is transport methods, with many, many dying while crossing the Saharan desert due to conditions and lack of water.
Another big difference is that the Atlantic Slave trade was well documented, and historians have ship counts and other records to arrive at numbers. So the estimates are reasonably on point.
However, it is different for the trans-Saharan, Red Sea, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, and Central Asian trade routes. Documentation is sparse, and estimates by historians vary widely, but one thing we know is that this slavery is on par with our horrible instance of the same.
One area of research that is lacking in all slave trade data is the deaths associated with transport, or from fighting to not be a slave, and some other conditions as well. And it seems one trade group had more men, while the other had women and kids primarily. This chart from AI breaks it down well.
Let me wrap this up by saying slavery is wrong no matter who does it. I can’t even imagine what some of these people went through or how people can do this to other people.
As a kid, long, long time ago, we never discussed slavery at the world level, but we certainly covered the Atlantic Slave trade leading to our Civil War. But times have changed, and we need to update history from a global perspective because we now represent the world like never before. We have Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, Whites, Conservatives, Liberals, Communists, Socialists, Marxists, Pro-life, Pro-death, LGBTQ+++ and who knows what I missed. My point is we really are the melting pot of the world. Not just by race, but by culture and ideology as well, which makes it tough to put so many differences in one pot. We do represent the world in many ways.
I hope you enjoyed this brief history of slavery and add it to your memory bank. All IMO. charley