Worst Book Review Ever Criticizes Slave History For Not Presenting 'Both Sides'

[Spider Jerusalem]

20. That's a pretty singularly ill-advised review...

although an objective look at the history involved there would also show that many of the African slaves who ended up in the New World were in fact sold into slavery by their fellow Africans as captives of war. Some tribal chiefs conducted raids to capture people specifically to sell them into slavery. This is well-documented history. It's also worth remembering that the Economist is a British magazine and as such one expects its writers would be better-acquainted with the history of slavery in Britain (including numerous cases before British courts in the 18th century that found that slaves became free as soon as they set foot on British soil, and the birth of the abolitionist movement among English Quakers). One would expect the Economist's reviewer to probably also be more familiar with other history, such as the Irish sold into slavery by Cromwell. So yes, the story of slavery does, in fact, involve both white victims and black villains. History is frequently messy like that.