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Public Memories of the Atlantic Slave Trade and Slavery in Contemporary Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2009

Gert Oostindie
Gert Oostindie*
Affiliation:
KITLV, P.O. Box 9515, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands. E-mail: oostindie@kitlv.nl
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Abstract

For centuries, major European states were involved in the Atlantic slave trade and in slavery in their colonies in the Americas. In the last decade, this subject has attracted serious but uneven attention in Europe beyond the realms of descendants and academia. The British, French and Dutch governments have engaged with the subject, expressing remorse and stimulating public commemorations. Portugal and Spain on the other hand have hardly addressed the subject. The reason for this remarkable divergence, the author suggests, lies with divergent commemorative traditions and the fact that the two Iberian countries have no substantial Caribbean communities as visible reminders of this past. The last part of the article discusses some problems associated with the politicized rediscovery of these embarrassing chapters in European history.

Type
Focus: Slavery
Information
European Review , Volume 17 , Issue 3-4 , October 2009 , pp. 611 - 626
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 2009

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References

1. According to the superb Emory University database, the number of enslaved Africans embarked between 1500 and 1866 totalled 11.5 millions, out of whom 10.7 millions were disembarked alive in the Americas. Of the 11.5 embarked Africans, Portugal/Brazil accounted for roughly half (5.8 million), followed by Great Britain (3.3 million), France (1.4 million), Spain (1.1 million), the Netherlands (554,000), the USA (305,000) and Denmark and the Baltic countries (111,000). See http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/assessment/estimates.faces (accessed 20 November 2008).Google Scholar
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