Transatlantic slave trade gravest crime against humanity, Juneteenth marks its end

Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the United States. (Reuters: Kevin Mohatt) Link copiedShareShare articleRi'chard Caldwell can remember being singled out in history class at school in the United States whenever the topic of slavery was raised. Born in California, Caldwell moved to Texas with his family at around the age of seven. "In school they did American history, they did US history, they did Texas history. But whenever it got to slavery they glossed over it and did the bare minimum," he says. "And even then, whenever that happened, they would ask the Black kids in class how they felt about it, if they had any input on it, which is a really embarrassing and awkward thing to do. "As if this 15-year-old was going to know better than a teacher and want to express such a vulnerable topic to other teenagers." Ri'chard Caldwell co-hosts the podcast Melanated in Melbourne. (Supplied: Sam Bourdais Paull) Caldwell, who arrived in Australia in 2017, is the co-host and founder of Melanated in Melbourne, a podcast that looks at the Australian lifestyle through the lens of two "Black American besties". He will be marking Juneteenth in Melbourne with an event on Sunday called Melanin Vol 2: Soulful Soulstice, which is also a celebration of Pride Month. Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in America. While the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1862, confederate holdouts in Texas refused to enact it. It wasn't until June 19, 1865, that enslaved African Americans in Texas were told they were free. On March 25 the UN General Assembly passed a resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade the gravest crime against humanity. Spearheaded by Ghana, the resolution was backed by 123 countries. Three were against — the US, Israel, and Argentina. There were 52 abstentions including Australia and the UK. Caldwell isn't convinced the resolution will have any kind of binding impact. "I remember hearing about it, but I also remember forgetting about it instantly because all these resolutions from the UN don't actually do anything," Caldwell says. "And so, even though the vote happened, if you look at who voted 'no' … and then … almost the entire EU abstained. "It was mostly African countries and other countries who look like us that were like, 'Yeah, it was awful. Like that ruined the world.' Ghana has called for reparations as a concrete step towards remedying historical wrongs, but Caldwell says he's sceptical about that ever happening. "People don't want to acknowledge that the atrocities happened in the first place," Caldwell says. "They're like, 'Oh, I don't know enough. It's been 300 years, but I don't know enough. If I take a stance, people might get mad at me.' "[But] people died. Generations have been lost. And you can't acknowledge that it happened." For almost 400 years from the 16th century an estimated 12.5 million people were captured in Africa and forced to work as slaves. Enslaved Africans were subjected to extreme violence, rape, servitude, and inhumane brutality, with families torn apart by the sale of people as chattel property. Associate professor of history at Deakin University, Clare Corbould, says the longevity of the slave trade makes it particularly distinct. "We're talking about hundreds of years of the trade," Dr Corbould says. "[It's] nearly 200 years in the United States, or 200 years in Britain, and coming up to 150 for Brazil since slavery ended and the effects are still being felt. "It's completely global in which a small group of people, relatively, build exceptional wealth from exploiting a very large other group of people." Clare Corbould says researchers know as much as they do due to the paper trail. (Supplied) More than two million people died aboard the ships used to transport captives due to disease, starvation, overcrowding and brutal treatment. Dr Corbould says this number doesn't account for the people who died before getting onto the ships, or those who died once transported. "Many people must have died immediately after arrival because they were so weakened by the trip. That doesn't even count those people," Dr Corbould says. "It's obviously a shocking number on its own, but it also doesn't account for, of course, the generations of people who followed. "It's not just the voyage itself. It's [those] who are born into slavery. It becomes an inheritable condition. "It's the attempt to strip those people of what makes us human … which is, strong, effective, emotional connections to other people. "[It's] how we define ourselves in relation to the people who bore us, who are our siblings, our neighbours, all of those things." Of the people who disembarked from the ships, 3.63 per cent of those who survived the journey ended up in North America, according to the SlaveVoyages database hosted by Rice University. Enslaved Africans also disembarked in the British Caribbean, the French Caribbean, the Spanish Americas and Brazil, which was a

Transatlantic slave trade gravest crime against humanity, Juneteenth marks its end

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Transatlantic slave trade gravest crime against humanity, Juneteenth marks its end

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