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Transatlantic Slave Trade

Hans Sloane collected this specimen of cacao in Jamaica in the 1680s. Sloane often collected on or near slave plantations, taking advantage of slavery’s infrastructure to advance his science.

Historians Expose Early Scientists’ Debt to the Slave Trade

By Editors' Choice, Reparations

By examining scientific papers, correspondence between naturalists, and the records of slaving companies, historians are now seeing new connections between science and slavery and piecing together just how deeply intertwined they were. By Sam Kean, Science Magazine — At the dawn of the 1700s, European science seemed poised to conquer all of nature. Isaac Newton had recently published his monumental theory of gravity. Telescopes were opening up the heavens to…

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Gayle King interviews Ralph Northam

Slavery vs Indentured Servitude: Which aids racism?

By Commentaries/Opinions, Reparations

Perhaps the main reason so many people objected to Virginia Governor Ralph Northam calling the first 20 Africans to land in Virginia in 1619 indentured servants, and not slaves, is that they believe the conditions of slavery were so much harsher than those of indentured servitude, that calling these Africans indentured servants amounts to a cover-up of their reality. That is because the popular image that we have been sold…

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Jay Speights, an interfaith leader who lives in Rockville, Md., made an accidental discovery last year: He is an African prince.

‘I’m a prince’: After years of searching for family history, a pastor discovers royal ties to Africa

By Editors' Choice

By Marissa J. Lang, The Washington Post — It was about 4 a.m. when his phone buzzed with a message from far away. He read it once, twice, three times before he woke his sleeping wife to tell her the news. “I’m a prince,” he whispered as she blinked herself awake. “A prince.” Jay Speights, an interfaith pastor from Rockville, Md., could hardly believe the words as he formed them…

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Commentary, Articles and Essays by Dr. Ron Daniels

African Diaspora Rising — The Year of “The Door of Return to Africa”

By Vantage Point Articles

Vantage Point by Dr. Ron Daniels — This year, 2019 marks the 400th year since the Dutch ship White Lion arrived in Jamestown in the British Colony that was to become the Commonwealth of Virginia with “20 and odd Negroes” from Africa. The arrival of these indentured enslaved Africans was the opening chapter in one of the most horrific events in human history, the holocaust of African enslavement, the MAAFA via the European slave trade. Proud African men and women from highly civilized…

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The University of Glasgow has announced it made £200 million ($255 million) from the transatlantic slave trade according to a comprehensive report, and because of that, will make reparations through a “reparative justice program” and by establishing ties with the University of the West Indies.

University of Glasgow Commits to Pay Reparations for Profiting From African Enslavement, Providing A Model for Others to Follow

By News & Current Affairs, Reparations

By David Love, Atlanta Black Star — Even as those who oppose reparations argue it is unfeasible or too costly, one British university is proving that it is both possible and necessary to make amends for the enslavement and genocide of African people. While the steps made so far may not seem so substantial, this institution could provide a model for others to follow. The University of Glasgow made £200…

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Christiansborg Castle, Osu, Ghana

Ghana’s Danish Osu castle and its role in the slave trade

By Reparations

What a Danish slave trade castle in Accra revealed about Ghana’s history and my family. By Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann, Hampshire College — As a Ghanaian archaeologist, I have been conducting research at Christiansborg Castle in Accra, Ghana. A UNESCO World Heritage site, the castle is a former seventeenth century trading post, colonial Danish and British seat of government, and Office of the President of the Republic of Ghana. Today,…

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