Who benefited from the transatlantic slave trade. The real architects exposed.

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]What's going on everybody? This is Afro Think Tank. Today we're going to learn about the complicated history of the transatlantic slave trade and who benefited. Right? Because the thing is we got European Americans and Europeans in Europe who are saying, "Why should we have to pay for something that happened hundreds of years ago?

[00:00:22]That's not us. That's not We didn't do it. Why should we have to pay reparations to black people globally?"

[00:00:28]Right? as they sit on a foundation built off the backs of our ancestors. You see European nations as you see them now, you know the places you like to vacation to, you know, the Netherlands where you go there and it just seems like those those Netherland people, Denmark and all they they're so advanced, right? They got so much so many things going on.

[00:00:49]They, you know, they doing hydrogen, they got nuclear energy, they you know, they seem to be so progressive. And you you go back and you think, well, what do these people have in a land that has, you know, limited resources? How did these people, these Dutch, these people from Denmark, these Netherland people, how do they get so uh financially successful? Why are they so rich? Why are their nations uh so so liberal, you know, to the to to the point to where they're the shining example of what America should be, right? If it was able to, you know, get out of its own ass, right? But it can't, right? H how do they get so much more advanced than everybody else? How did France build itself up? Why why why is why does France have so much infrastructure? Why do they sell so much chocolate when they don't produce chocolate? What how are they trading gold with other people and they ain't got no gold? Right? How do they finance their countries? Right? Spain, Portugal, how do these you look at Spain, look at Portugal, why there why are they so developed, uh where do these industries come from? you know, all the places that the current Europeans use to sustain themselves, you know, their government systems, their their warfare programs, right? Their infrastructure, right? All this culture they say they got, which is, you know, like we know what their culture is is it's uh stealing other people's cultures and melding it into their societies and saying it's theirs, right? How did they get here? You know, keep in mind these are the same people that say we we you know, we ain't got nothing to do with it, but they have they have everything to do with it because they still benefit from what their ancestors did. Rape, murder, and pillage, right?

[00:02:29]And we, the descendants of those, we still deal with the economic downfall of having done all this work and not gotten compensated for it. And I know we know Europeans believe in reparations because the slave owners got reparations more than once, right? Currently, right now, Donald Trump is trying to get reparations for the January 6ers because he believes that if you were arrested because you wanted to kill the vice president and stop the uh the process of a fear a clear fair election, right? If you you were a terrorist, a white European American terrorist, and you wanted to go kill some people and you got held accountable for that, you should, you know, you should be compensated. You should be given reparations. You should be let out of jail and give reparations. So, we know white people do believe in reparations.

[00:03:15]They understand the concept of repayment. Right. Right. But I think we as Americans, you know, if you notice, and I think globally, if you notice that time period of slavery, outside of every now and then talking about, oh yeah, there was slavery, we don't even talk about the the explicit details, the intricate details, the real players, right? You still got black people walking around saying black people sold black people into slavery as this as this. That is the end all beall and that's all they need to know, right?

[00:03:48]like they just, oh, black people sold black people into slavery because they're so weak-minded that they actually listened to the white people who told them that black people sold black people into slavery, which didn't.

[00:03:56]That's not the story, right? White people sold black people into slavery.

[00:04:00]It was white people, right? Cuz they benefited. You just got to look at who benefited. Which financial system benefited, right? What financial systems is this right now that wouldn't exist if the transatlantic slave trade wouldn't happen? How many banks do you think we would have in America that's, you know, this financially well off if it wasn't for the transatlantic slave trade? How many shipping companies would exist? How many European shipping companies uh exist nowadays? And how did they get their money off transporting what? Who are the parent companies? All these corporations because all the corporations that you see, right, are owned by corporations that you don't see, right? And those corporations that you don't see are owned by other corporations that you don't see, right?

[00:04:38]And how did they get their seed money?

[00:04:40]How did all these Europeans get their seed money to develop while talking [ __ ] about black folks even though Africa is like the richest place in the world yet, you know, not develop? And then they got the goal, the nerve to say, well, why didn't Africa develop? As if they don't understand why Africa is not developed now because the European barbarian savage who's asking the dumbass question. His ancestors are one who uncivilized the place. who who who who messed up their advancement, who stole all their [ __ ] stole their government systems, stole stole all their resources to build their white Wakandas. It's like a dumbass question that white people continue to ask, well, how come Africa didn't develop? It's because you savage, vicious, barbarian Neanderthal subhumans came there and destroyed an advanced civilization. Because all your historians say that West Africa was advanced, way more advanced than London, way more advanced than France, way more advanced than anything Europe had going on. But the only difference is, you know, the only difference is it was in Africa and Europe was Europe. That was the difference. But we were more advanced, just as advanced as any group of people. And we also washed, you know, cleaned ourselves, right? And it would have stayed that way if white people didn't go steal gunpowder from the Chinese and then make weapons of mass destruction where they had an overwhelming advantage. If it wasn't for if it wasn't for the Europeans stealing it, stealing gunpowder, there's absolutely no way any white people would have had enough motion to come to Africa and steal our [ __ ] because they couldn't do it. Not until they had a gun. Right?

[00:06:13]That was the major dynamic change in the world. And when white people could use guns and cannons and semi-automatic machine guns and fully automatic gatling guns to destroy true warriors who they couldn't fight handto hand, right? So of course a lot of business was done by the point of a gun. As you can see right now, a present example of white supremacy and white nations doing that.

[00:06:35]They're currently holding missiles on top of Iran to affect their economy, trying to tell them they don't have the right because they're Arab. Keep in mind the white people are telling Arabs right now, right? Well, not sorry, not Arabs.

[00:06:49]They're telling Persians, I apologize.

[00:06:51]They're telling Persians right now that they don't have self-determination, that they cannot use the resources given us to us by nature to develop power to power their countries efficiently.

[00:07:02]That's what they're telling them.

[00:07:03]They're saying that white Christian Europeans have the right to overlord over Arabs because they are better than them. Literally out in the open. You can't there there's no mistaking what it is. and they're trying to negotiate with bump bombs hanging over top of the Iranian's head. Same [ __ ] they did back then. Okay. So, without further ado, let's get into this long ass lesson. All right. We going to get into this lesson.

[00:07:27]You going to learn one or two things.

[00:07:29]Understand? Slavery was much more complicated than you guys understand.

[00:07:34]You know what I'm saying? Slavery was much more complicated than you guys understand. Anyway, tell me what you think in the comments sections. Afro Think Tank. Learn some, teach them. I'm out. Meet the man who illegally enslaved people in the United States against the king and queen's orders. Let's get into it. This is Edmund Molyneu and he became the British console to the United States in 1831 and he resided in Savannah, Georgia. Instead of Edmund doing his job as a British console in the United States, he decided to have some fun with the American aristocrats. In 1835, he married Eliza Johnston. Eliza came from the landowning elite. Her family enslaved hundreds of people. Her father, Colonel James Johnson, who came from a wealthy family, and her mother, Mrs. James Johnson, came from an aristocratic Scottish family, the Hostins. Her father was none other than Sir George Hston.

[00:08:21]Edmmond and Eliza lived in this house in Savannah. They were very wealthy and had a typical English household with a governness and all. But if enslavement was legal during this time in United States, how was Edmund doing it illegally? Because Edmund was a British subject. He wasn't supposed to enslave anyone, let alone participate in the trade. The Earl of Aberdine sent Malanu a letter to ensure you're not supposed to be participating in the slave trade.

[00:08:48]So if you are, stop now. And what did Edund do? He said what they don't know won't hurt them. And he even helped other British Americans participate in the slave trade. Edund Molyneu even tried to reinslave a free family that Frederick Douglas was associated with.

[00:09:04]Yes, this is the Johnson home in New Bedford, Massachusetts that provided Frederick Douglas sanctuary when he ran north. This was also the home where Patrick Gibson, an enslaver from Georgia, bought his mistress and her children so they could be free. There was one major obstacle in front of the Gibson girls in freedom, and that was Edmund Molyneu. And that's because Patrick Gibson, their father, had willed them and his entire estate, including the other 30 enslaved people, to Edmund.

[00:09:30]Edmond Malu said he would take the girls to Jamaica where they would be free. But when word got around that he referred to the women as slaves, all hell broke loose and the whole town was in an uproar and they said, "Do not give Malu back the Gibson girls." And they remained in New Bedford. Edmund continued on participating in the Plantation Aristocracy and this was one of his favorite homes, Brooklyn.

[00:09:52]Brooklyn is located in the Flat Rock District, which is the surrounding Asheville area in North Carolina. The most famous home in this area is Builtmore, the Cecil Vanderbilt home.

[00:10:04]But during that time, Edmund was rubbing shoulders with the landowning elite such as Governor Wade Hampton, as well as the Desiselle family, aristocratic family from France, cousins to the king who owned this home. Princess Diana's family, the Bearings, were also residing in the area. Princess Diana's great great grandmother, Margaret Bearing, was a cousin to Charles Baron. They were at one time one of the richest families in the world. So despite Malanu receiving many letters from the king and queen's council to stop participating in the slave trade, he did not stop. Thank God he wasn't able to reinslave these two beautiful women. See what happens when you don't enforce the law. Oh, the irony. The British abandoned America after the revolution, but they end up expanding American slavery. Thomas Jefferson originally drafted a blistering passage in the Declaration condemning Britain for forcing slavery onto the American colonies. That passage is deleted, but the accusation is clear.

[00:11:04]Fast forward 30 years. Jefferson as president now needs money to buy the Louisiana purchase. And the very power Britain that he once condemned becomes indispensable. Britain gives him the money and they get the last laugh. Look, when the Revolutionary War ends, Britain has lost political control of the US, but not economic control. The US desperately needs Britain as a market for its largest export, cotton, and it needs Britain's banks and treasury. In 1803, when Jefferson agrees to the Louisiana purchase, the US just doesn't have the cash. $15 million is far beyond the capacity of our young, thin treasury, and this is where Great Britain steps in. We're told that this would help weaken France, but it's not Britain's long-term play. Jefferson's imagining a westward expansion as a way to promote small farmers, relocate native peoples, and perhaps even dilute or maybe even end the plantation plantation system altogether. Southern planters see something entirely different. They don't care about the Dakotas or Nebraska. They care about Louisiana and East Texas. Warm, wet, fertile lands, perfect for cotton.

[00:12:07]British financiers see the same thing.

[00:12:09]They've just lost Haitian cotton to Hades independence, and that was 25% of their supply. And they know they don't need another European colony to save them. They don't need to own the land anymore. They just need the cotton.

[00:12:22]Financing the Louisiana purchase ensures millions of new acres will be open to slave grown cotton, feeding British mills for decades. And Britain gets the last laugh. In 1833, Parliament abolishes slavery within the British Empire, and it congratulates itself on its moral leadership. But Britain's industrial economy remains dependent on American slave cut. By the time of the US Civil War, British newspapers warned of famine and mass unemployment. While manufacturers pleaded that American emancipation would threaten Britain's manufacturing supremacy, Britain didn't sever its relationship with slavery. It outsourced it. It financed its expansion and continued to profit from it until the system finally collapses under the weight of war. And with that, the American Civil War, the British cotton industry would never be the same.

[00:13:09]>> The Revolutionary War was started by a case that you've probably never heard of. This guy, Charles Stewart, is traveling from Boston to England and he brings with him James Somerset, a man who Charles Stewart is enslaving.

[00:13:21]Somerset escapes, but he is caught and he's imprisoned on a ship because Steuart plans to sell him back into slavery, this time in Jamaica, but James Somerset has these new godparents from his baptism, and they're Quakers and abolitionists. So, they take it to court, to the court of Lord Mansfield, and he tries to give Charles Stewart an out, which went something like this.

[00:13:41]Hey, Big Dog, what's up? You know, I don't mind slavery, right? And I know you enjoy slavery. I do. But we haven't officially made any slavery laws in England. Oh, for real? Obviously, we enslave people, but it's like under the table if I rule on your case, though.

[00:13:54]I'll basically have to tell everyone that slavery isn't legal in England, and that's going to make a lot of people upset. The Americans are already itching for a reason to revolt. So, why don't you do me a favor and drop this case?

[00:14:05]set James Summer free so we the English can keep doing our under the table slavery like we've been doing for generations. Okay.

[00:14:14]No. Lord Manfield says bet. And then takes an entire month to make a decision. Because enslavement is technically not legal in England.

[00:14:21]Mansfield can't legally consider Somerset to be enslaved by Stuart.

[00:14:25]Therefore, Somerset cannot be imprisoned on that boat and cannot be forcibly sent to Jamaica. This is an acknowledgement that enslavery cannot be enforced in England. But it's not technically a ban.

[00:14:35]Although it is widely interpreted as a ban or at least a precursor to a ban on slavery in England and soon the 13 colonies. The fear that slavery would become abolished in England and then would soon be abolished in England's colonies is part of what sparks the American Revolution. So yeah, sure, the American Revolution was about freedom from the tyranny of the English. No taxation without representation. But it also was about preserving the institution of child slavery in the United States. So freedom my >> it's crazy that the British who instituted slavery for the United States were able to end slavery 30 years before the Americans without a giant civil war that killed 700,000 of their own people.

[00:15:19]White cargo.

[00:15:21]They forgotten history. The Brits and the white slaves in America. And it say British America said America.

[00:15:31]Brutal European slaver system before child slavery.

[00:15:38]Over 300,000 were forcibly sent to American colonies, not the British colonies. So is America first.

[00:15:48]America first.

[00:15:52]We have to learn the real history.

[00:15:57]Something to talk about.

[00:16:00]White.

[00:16:02]White.

[00:16:05]They're not white cargo.

[00:16:10]Say, man, y'all really need to look into it because they are the ones running the country right now. They are the ones running the country right now.

[00:16:21]>> Long death of slavery in the British Empire. The first time we get a big emancipation in the British Empire was in the American Revolution. In the American Revolution, black slaves were recruited by the British and in return for fighting for the British, they'd get their freedom. And after the conflict, many of these black freed slaves were sent to Nova Scotia. However, issues plagued them once they got there. They didn't get supplies, didn't get any money, compensation for their work, and they didn't have any food really with them. So, they suffered greatly during their time in Nova Scotia. After some time, Nova Scotia, many of these slaves moved to Freetown in Sierra Leone. And this was set up by the British. It had a natural harbor and it was built from scratch basically. However, yet again, they wasn't given supplies and they had to fend for themselves and it was very difficult. For over 20 years, this man here, William Wilberforce, campaigned against the slave trade in Britain. And finally, in 1807, the slave trade act was passed. And this banned the slave trade. A big part of Wilbur Force wanting to end the slave trading in slavery was because he fought because a massive Christian and with the values that a slave couldn't freely tr choose Christ and in his book this was wrong.

[00:17:36]They had to choose Christ freely. The slave trade act of 1807 also formed the West African Squadron and this was the Royal Naval ships or intercepted slave ships and would take slaves back to Africa. However, they wouldn't take them back where they came from. They would take them to Freetown in Sierra Leone.

[00:17:53]And what they do, the slaves would get off the boat and then they would have to do 16 years of bondage labor. So they're basically slaves for 16 years till they could be free again. In 1833, the abolition act was brought in and this banned slavery across the empire.

[00:18:08]However, the East India Company was still allowed to trade. So East Indian Company territory in India and modern day Sri Lanka still had slavery. And the slaves didn't even get freed straight away. They had to wait 4 years.

[00:18:22]Originally, it was planned that they have to carry on being slaves for 12 years. However, from outside groups, it was bought down to four years. And also, the slaves got no compensation, nothing from being slaves. Um, however, the slave holders did get compensation for slavery because they're seen as property. And Britain did not pay off the debt till 2015. The Indian slavery act of 1843 banned all the essential things for um economic transaction of slaves. How this not fully banned slavery in East Indian Company territory. This was not till 1861. By 1861, Britain ruled India directly and they criminalized slavery. Originally in 1843, many East Indian Company civil servants were worried and feared the reaction of Muslims and also Hindus. Um, and they were worried about a mutiny kicking off. Truth or lie? Britain ended slavery before America did.

[00:19:23]Lie. What Britain actually did was convert their labor system without interrupting any profits. Let's start with the money. In 1833, when Britain abolishes slavery and law, Parliament pays 20 million pounds to slave owners as compensation, 40% of their national budget, billions in today's dollars, one of the largest government bailouts in British history. In fact, British taxpayers, including working people, only finished paying off that debt in 2015. So, no, abolition did not dismantle the plantation economy. It ensured it. Let's look at sugar. The British Caribbean sugar plantations, they didn't disappear after abolition.

[00:19:56]They kept producing. They kept exporting. They kept enriching Britain.

[00:19:59]Their only problem was where do we find labor? So Britain solves it the same way multinational corporations do today.

[00:20:04]They outsource it. Between 1834 and 1917, Britain moves 1.3 to 1.5 million Indians into indentured labor systems across their empire. The Caribbean, Maitius, Fiji, South Africa, East Africa. These workers, they're overwhelmingly poor, illiterate, and low cast. And they sign contracts they can't read. These contracts bind them for 5 to 10 years, often renewable, often enforced with criminal penalties. If they quit, they're jailed. that they resist their beaten. If they survive, many can't afford to return home. Free labor. In practice, unfree labor with legal cover. This is not an accident.

[00:20:36]British officials explicitly describe endanger as a solution to abolition, a way to maintain plantation output without chains. And now the the British Royal Navy, they they love their story of these anti-slavery patrols. But here's the part they leave out. When British ships intercept slave vessels, Africans aren't returned to their home regions. They're sent to Sierra Leone or Liberia like refugee states where these people are made to serve as servants to the local British and elite Creole families. Others are placed directly into colonial economies that still need workers like in the Caribbean. This freedom often meant forced relocation into another British labor system. So when Britain says it's ending slavery, what it actually ends is one labor category, not exploitation. And this is the same model everyone uses today. When companies say we don't use sweat shops, they sign contracts. This is legal under local law. This is the same logic Britain perfected. So no, Britain didn't end slavery. It invents the modern outsourced labor economy. One where exploitation is legal, distant, deniable, and defended by contracts instead of chains. Most people know that when Britain abolished slavery in 1833, the slave owners were compensated. But most people don't know that the slave owners were compensated twice. Look, the House of Lords was packed with slave owners who demanded payment for losing the people they claimed as property. To appease them, the British government borrowed 20 million pounds, which was 40% of its annual budget back then. They got it from major London banks like the Bank of England. Money raised through long-term government bonds. And here's the rub. Many of those same slaveolding families were also investors in the very bonds used to pay them. Meaning they were compensated once with a massive payout and then paid again through nearly 200 years of interest on the debt created to fund their compensation.

[00:22:14]Meanwhile, the British taxpayers, the very public pushing for abolition, they were the ones who carried that debt until it was finally paid off in, wait for it, 2015, turning abolition into a system that financially punished the reformers and rewarded the oppressors.

[00:22:28]And even then, slavery didn't disappear.

[00:22:29]Britain replaced it with apprenticeship, a coerced labor regime that kept Caribbean Africans on plantations until 1838, and then imported more than 1.3 million indentured Indians. So, when Britain brags about abolition, remember, slave owners got paid twice. Banks profited for two centuries. Plantations stayed open and the Caribbean stayed unfree. And the British people footed the bill.

[00:22:51]>> I bet you did not learn that between 1718 and 1775, Britain sent over 52,000 convicts to America. Before that, British criminals were either whipped, branded, or hanged. The British Transportation Act of 1718 changed all that. Convicts were now sentenced to seven or 14 years of enslavement in America. Convicts and enslaved people were gathered together in a ship for the voyages. Enslaved people, they were enslaved for life and their families from there on were also included in that. Convicts were only sold for 7 to 14 years. Quite often convicts were bought by poor farmers. It is estimated that 25% of the British immigrants to colonial America during that period were actually convicts.

[00:23:41]Land of the free. At the same time as Bruce adds, the king ordered his provincial officers to treat as invalid all Virginia laws which prohibit the importation of British felons. In 1649, the surviving prisoners were shipped across the Atlantic.

[00:23:56]that the next winter two vessels set out from London with prisoners designed for the plantations in Virginia. That in 1653, Richard Netherway of Bristol was permitted to export from Ireland. 800 Tories from Ireland. Now we got Irish here. Who were to be sold as slaves in Virginia? Who? Irish to be sold as what?

[00:24:17]Slaves in Virginia. These are not Africans.

[00:24:21]>> Maybe someday people will learn that this argument is never the flex that they think it is. Because first of all, who indentured the Irish who came to the American colonies as servants? The same people who forced enslaved Africans to the American colonies. So why then do Irish Americans not join with black Americans in fighting against the systems of oppression that their shared oppressors created? It's not because those systems of oppression don't exist anymore. It's because they no longer affect Irish Americans. And the video that you're responding to was about how whiteness in the United States is not something that requires protecting from black people because black Americans have shown throughout United States history that they possess a deeper morality than the people who enslaved them. So pointing out how white European Caucasians have also been enslaved actually proves the point that they did not learn from their experience to do better and to not commit those same atrocities and worse against other people on the basis of race. Because given the opportunity to assimilate into whiteness, Irishameans didn't say no because we experienced that treatment and we are not going to do the same to others. They jumped at the opportunity to become overseers, slave patrollers, and police officers.

[00:25:29]Oh, and by the way, Viking was an occupation, not an ethnicity. It wasn't even an exclusively European occupation.

[00:25:37]I feel like Spain, at least in the United States, gets off the hook for slavery because we've all been taught the legendary story of the Spanish priest who supposedly fought to end slavery in the new world, Barthalma de Lasassas. But he wasn't fighting to end slavery. He was fighting to end the enslavement of indigenous people. Spain was already too deep into African slavery politically, economically, and theologically to ever quit it. Because a full century before Columbus even sailed, Spain built a fully functioning African slave economy inside Iberia itself. Port cities like Sevilla, Valencia, they were already trafficking Africans directly from West Africa. And Spain had developed a racial hierarchy to manage them. Both they were newly imported Africans considered raw, pagan, ideal for hard labor and Latinos, African or afro descended people who'd been forced to adopt Spanish language and Catholicism. So it wasn't improvisation. Spain had pricing systems for bzales, legal codes for punishment, baptism rules, and an entire bureaucracy around African captivity even before the Americas were discovered. And Spain didn't wait for the Caribbean to experiment. They tested their system on the Canary Islands. They enslaved the indigenous, then replaced them with Bzales Africans. When indigenous slavery collapsed when the indigenous died in the 1400s, decades before 1492, Spain built Europe's first prototype sugar plantations. They had overseers, gang labor, whipping post, forced conversion, and and racialized discipline. So when they crossed the Atlantic, they didn't come as explorers, but as exporters of a century old slave system. Look, across the 1500s, Spain trafficked 100,000 Africans into its American colonies.

[00:27:09]Spain and Portugal controlled 95% of the entire transatlantic slave trade. Spain alone accounted for 40%. And before 1600, England, barely 2%, like a rounding error. Spain then distributed enslaved Africans across their imperial geography. Hispanola, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Colombia, Panama, in Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and even the Spanish outpost in what's now the US, including St. Augustine, Florida. And unlike the later British model, Spain wasn't chasing one crop. They were building a diversified slave economy. This is the world Las Casa stepped into. This campaign to end indigenous slavery was courageous, but it barely touched the African slavery system. Spain had already perfected over a century before and embedded across two continents. If I could tell you exactly which families financed the transatlantic slave trade and wiped out about 90 million indigenous people, would you want me to tell you? So the conversos were called cryptojwe and they were the invisible arteries of the transatlantic slave train. They only intermarried within their specific families. It was the Khaval family, the Rodriguez family. Um I already forgot the other ones. They were based out of Lima, Peru, uh Mexico City, um Jamaica, um and Receife. and they were mining silver, gold, and um white sugar. And what they were able to do is they had double books. So they would show one set of books to the Royal Navy and one set of books to each other. They had like fake money that they would mark with certain codes and send it back and forth to, you know, square up. And um they had a lot of systems like that to hide the money. you couldn't be part of the Royal Navy at that time because you had to have what was called um limp uh limpa sangre clean blood something like that so you had to have clean blood and Jewish people couldn't be a part of that navy but they were the invisible arteries operating under the imperial rule um I read that those are not my words so um very interesting and once the Dutch who allowed Judaism once once they captured Receife in Brazil. Then they opened a Jewish synagogue there and then it made trading a lot easier. But Jamaica was actually the place where they would like change their books and switch the story I guess and continue the shipments.

[00:29:47]Conversos were obviously like forced to convert to Christianity, but most of them pretended to convert and then became cryptojews and practiced Judaism in secret. This started because I wanted to know who financed the Suez Canal. And it was a fa married a Pereira and a Rodriguez. And those are the three families from Spain and Portugal that were not actually Catholic. They were not Spanish. They were not European. They were Jewish. And they were able to intermar with each other for several hundred years and keep the financing going for a lot of the shipping and colonization basically to to enable colonization to occur to kill off 90 million indigenous. And there were even certain families like Nova Leon. Um that city off the coast of of Mexico by Texas that was founded by a converso who got permission from the Spanish crown to go and you know just like destroy the indigenous and take over. And eventually he was actually accused of um Judais Judaizing. Is that how you say it? He was basically practicing Judaism. Sorry it's 10 o'clock at night. That's the only time I can make these videos. So, long story short, um he people in his family were executed for practicing Judaism uh in secret cuz they were cryptojews. But what it said was that nevertheless the whole land was North America was colonized anyway. The territory was taken anyway. And it's so weird because when I do the ancestry of any of my Latin American friends or any of my American friends, most of my American friends go back to the British royalty. Most of my Latin American friends go back to the Spanish royalty. And it's the same thing on repeat. I was just researching someone from Zakatas and I was learning all about the silver mines and the families that were wealthy and the families that were not. And here we are, the families that are wealthy and the families that are not. 12.5 million people taken from the transatlantic slave trade, not to mention hundreds of years of abuse. 90 million indigenous wiped out. So from the coast uh from the tip of Chile to the top of uh Canada and Alaska, 90 million indigenous killed. We all learned about the transatlantic slave trade in school, but we didn't learn how it started or how far back it goes. So let me fill you in. So contrary to popular belief, subsaharan Africa was home to three great empires that rivaled any contemporary European or Arab state of the time. Civilization started a lot later here than the rest of Eurasia. But around 300ish AD, farmers near the Niger River, hoping to protect themselves from ever more powerful nomadic tribes, banded together and started the Kingdom of Ghana. It was a really great place for civilization. The river was fertile.

[00:32:46]There was plenty of salt to preserve food and the land was very rich in gold.

[00:32:51]During the 600s when Arabs conquered North Africa, camels were introduced to the area and for the first time in history, subsahara Africa was connected to the Mediterranean world and by 800, Ghana was the westernmost destination of the transurasian trade route. By trading gold, Ghana became incredibly rich.

[00:33:12]Unfortunately, they also became the primary source of slaves for the Arab slave trade, also known as the Trans Saharan slave trade. The Ghana were then replaced by the Mallay who are today famous for Mansam Musa, the richest man who has ever lived. Yes, much of his wealth came from trading gold and salt, but often ignored is his slave trading with the Arabs. It was during this time Arab historian Ivan Calen wrote, "The only people to accept slavery are the Negroes because of their lower degree of humanity, their place being closer to the animal stage." Then in the 1400s the sanghai started replacing the Marley.

[00:33:50]They peaked with Asia the Great who took power in 1492 1493. Now this was the year that something else monumental happened on the other side of the world.

[00:34:01]Christopher Columbus had just discovered the Americas. Keep that in the back of your mind. Near the end of his reign, he started going blind and his power was usurpered by one of his sons, Musa. And this illegitimate palace coup resulted with a terrible civil war that lasted two decades. It decimated the population, trade routes and gold mines.

[00:34:22]The economy was in tatters. And these African armies were also very dependent on cavalry. And these horses had to be imported from North Africa and Europe at great expense. How to pay for them when you have no gold? Well, because of the abundance of prisoners of war captured by all sides during the Civil War, they were paid using slaves. Lamenting these events, the Timbuktu Chronicles asks, "What caused the ruin of the state of Sanghai and compelled God to throw it into disorder? What brought divine punishment down upon its citizens? Was it their failure to observe the laws of God, the injustice of slavery? And it just happens that during this time the Portuguese were setting up trade posts from Morocco down and around Africa and the Spanish were looking for laborers to work on their plantations in the new world. Within 50 years of the death of Asia the Great, a quarter of a million Africans had been transported to the new world as slaves. The Songhai would reunify, but it would now genuinely be a proper slave economy in every sense of the term with the former citizen farmers being replaced with slave plantations and the main export being slaves. In 1583, the empire would fall again, and the Arab Moroccans would invade, sack, and pillage the remains of the empire, leaving a destitute, divided, and damaged populace, who devolved into small tribes, selling slaves to the Europeans and the Arabs. By the 19th century, 12 million people from West Africa would be sold into the transatlantic slave trade, and perhaps 17 million were sold into the Arab one.

[00:36:03]West Africa was ruined. And on that somber note, thanks for listening.

[00:36:08]>> This is Pope Nicholas V. He's the one that wrote the papal bull to enslave all black people. That was him right there.

[00:36:15]He instituted the transatlantic slave trade. Now give me Santa Claus. They call Santa Claus center clause on the right. Their Santa Claus is Pope Nicholas V. That's Staint Nick. Jolly Saint Nick. Now, there were two Saint Nicks. One in Russia who gave gifts on Hanukkah, but not that one.

[00:36:37]It's the other one, Pope Nicholas V.

[00:36:40]That's what this is in honor of. So, see how there St. Santa Claus or Santa Claus wears red, gold, and white. He wears the Pope's hat. Okay.

[00:36:51]>> Yeah.

[00:36:51]>> Give me the next image.

[00:36:56]Now, you may ask yourself, okay, that's Pope Nicholas V, St. Nick in the center.

[00:37:01]But who are these two black people on the side?

[00:37:04]>> Remember Pope Nicholas V instituted the transatlantic slave trade. One of the first places they started to conquer was Spain and Portugal, the Iberian Peninsula, where the Moors, the word Moore is Latin meaning blacks. They conquered our people in Spain and Portugal and enslaved us.

[00:37:26]That's why Pope Nicholas I St. Nick has Santa's helpers. The helpers is a euphemism or a nice way of saying slaves.

[00:37:39]>> I don't need black America to be ignorant to this subject. When people say Africans sold their own in the transatlantic slave trade, 20% of the Africans that were sold across the America were sold to them by Muslims.

[00:37:54]And those black Muslims were forced to be Muslims in the Muslim peace treaty during the first slave trade. It was the East African slave trade.

[00:38:05]They invaded the sultans, the Persians, the Indians. They invaded Africa. Yes.

[00:38:12]took over Egypt, North Africa, forced Berber and Mali, Central and North Africans to be Muslims or they would continue to run rapid through that part of Africa, raping the women, killing the man. And in exchange in exchange for peace, black males, Berber, Mali, North African, Central Africans converted into Islam.

[00:38:41]and protected Muslims when they would go into Africa, steal African slaves because like you had to there was a in in the Quran in exchange you had to give uh for each tribe you had to give away like 300 slaves in each tribes and there's millions of tribes in Africa.

[00:39:02]There were so many tribes in Africa. So basically black black people would protect these sultans and Persians and Indians even Chinese while they would steal our people.

[00:39:20]Yes, 20% of black people were sold by their own kind. But they were those black folks, those Berbers, those Mali, those Muslims were forced into Islam in exchange for peace. So, does Africa need to pay reparations? I do believe 20% of Africa should be paying reparations, but those other Africans did not come to America through Muslims. 20% of the of the Africans in the transatlantic slave trade were sold by Muslims. Absolutely, that's correct. People don't talk about the first slave trade that happened in Africa. And Arab Arabs don't like to bring it up. Persians don't like to bring it up. Chinese don't like to bring it up and Indians don't like to bring it up. The sultans, they don't. But it needs to be spoken about. It needs to be spoken about. So that means Iran owes reparations. North Africa owes reparation.

[00:40:15]They do. China, India, anyone involved in the East African slave trade, y'all do deserve to also be paying reparation alongside Europeans.

[00:40:27]But we have to stop saying black people were sold by Africa. Only 20% of Africans were sold by their own. Did you know a company of Sun Dodgers made about $600,000 in two months off of slave trading? And on top of that, 29 of the 230 slaves passed away. And the ship sank and they still made $600,000.

[00:40:55]America and major cities inside of America was built off the backs of slavery, but also the UK was too. Did you know that? Did you know the cities like Bristol, London, Liverpool all were built off of slavery? Hm. Now, let's think about how much they was actually making off of slavery because they fought to keep slavery. One, because it was so lucrative. And do you know how much that they were making?

[00:41:20]Yeah. Did you know that there was a possibility that you can have a 50% to 100% uh margin gain or whatever the [ __ ] you want to call it? Basically saying they will double their profit. Did you know that? Now, let's look at a little case real quick. I'm going to start doing these more often, too, so y'all can, you know, get the gist of what was really going on and understanding the magnitude of the the money, the wealth, and everything that was accumulating.

[00:41:46]because out of slavery become comes things like insurance, um venture capital, all these types of things come out of slavery. Now, let's look at this real quick. This is from Bristol um.org.

[00:41:58]Discovering Bristol, which one of the major cities that I was talking about over in the UK that was a major player in the slave trade, them and um company and Merchant Ventures, which came out of Bristol. I'm telling you, we going to go into all this though, but nevertheless, let's look at this real quick. We're going to look at the this last paragraph and matter of fact we can go to this paragraph right quick. So I want you to know in this trade they went to West Africa now know as Nigeria you know Calabar and they got 230 slaves prime slaves which is crazy to call a person prime when we're talking about a human being in a function of work cuz you're calling them a machine basically like you're saying they're prime machine they're prime cattle they're prime like it's as far as not in human like you can say you prime in sports but this is not what they mean cuz you can be you can be your prime prime in your late 30s or in your mid30s. You might hit your prime or in something else. And in life in general, you might hit your prime in your 30s.

[00:42:56]Oh, not with them. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Prime is way before you hit your your your late 20s. We talking about early 20s, 18s, you know. But anyway, look, I want you to look. They had, like I said, 230 slaves, 115 men and 115 women. Now only 201 slaves survived getting through the middle passage landing in St. Vincent. By the way, the middle passage six was about six to eight weeks. So this is just one of the cases. The name of the ship is called the Juba by the way. And the owners are on there too right there.

[00:43:34]Thomas and Coulson Company. But anyway, they sold each slave for $33 pounds. I'm sorry. 33 pounds. And that today is 1,650 lb. That's around, let's get the exact measurement.50 lb is about $2,200 in in the USA. You get what I'm saying? So they sold each person cuz we're not calling them slaves. They sold each person for $2,200.

[00:44:03]$2,200.

[00:44:06]Now hold on. Let's see how much they actually put into this this trip. Cuz what people don't understand is, and this is where, like we've been talking about the venture capital and all that, but this is where um people need to understand that it wasn't just you just get a ship and then y'all just sell. No, this was fullblown companies. This was a fullon industry.

[00:44:26]This was a fullblown economy. So, with that being said, they spent money on ships. They retrofitted their ships.

[00:44:32]They um updated their ships, upgraded their ships, put insurance on their ships, put insurance on the slaves, everything that you would think about going into making your company. Today, they did the same thing for the slave trade. So, with that being said, they had to put a little down payment on. You know what I'm saying? A little money down to to just like how you invest. Put put a little money down and let's see what your investment going going to grant you, right? So, let's see what they So, they put about 4,678 lb, which is the equivalent of £370,000 today. Now, 370,000 lb today is about $500,000 in America. Now, how much did they make?

[00:45:18]They made about £450,000 today. Now, get this.

[00:45:23]They lost 29 slaves. The ship wrecked.

[00:45:28]Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The ship wrecked, you know. So, they lost some of the supplies, but they had insurance. So, how much did they make? They made $450,000 today. Now, how much is $450,000? Cuz I'm not going to give you estimate. I'm going to give you the real thing.

[00:45:50]$68,894.98 in six to eight weeks.

[00:45:59]And you wonder how they built these cities. You wonder how they built the countries. You wonder how they built all these super uh uh mega rich people that you will never ever be able to touch or ever ever ever be able to see. And you [ __ ] think that you can hold a candle to them by rapping.

[00:46:20]Never.

[00:46:22]And you want to play the same game as them. I'm going to keep doing this. I'm going to keep teaching y'all cuz y'all got to understand what really was going on and the the detriment that it caused our people. We talking about people that made $600,000 in two months off of the backs of our people. This is just the trading, the the capturing, taking them to the middle, taking through the middle passage to the Caribbean islands or to the Americas, which is called the the triangular trade, then back to [ __ ] UK. And this ship sank and it still made $600,000.

[00:46:59]>> Portugal was number one amongst all European nations when it came down to the sponsoring and procurement of enslaved Atlantic Africans. They were the first to start in 1501 and the last to stop the practice altogether in 1869 resulting in around 5.8 million people being forced onto Portuguese vessels.

[00:47:16]Initially it was done from the capital of today's Portugal Lisbon where they primarily focused on the upper Guinea region first and then later Lwanda Angola which became their home base.

[00:47:26]Enslaved people were first taken to islands like Sattoi and Principi and Cape Verd off of the upper Yini coast and then sent to parts of the Spanish Caribbean due to Aento in the colony which would later become Brazil. After 1640, Brazil started to become the launching pad for slave expeditions due to their proximity to West Central Africa. They were also able to establish trade relations with those in Togo Benin and Lagos Nigeria much later on which is probably why many Brazilians and other Latin Americans have a good amount of their ancestry coming from the upper Nigeria Togo Benin and today's DRC Congo and Angola. Who benefited the most from the transatlantic slave trade? This is one of the biggest questions in the reparations debate today. Let's break it down. Between the 15th and 19th centuries, millions of Africans were forcibly taken from the continent and transported to the Americas. This period is known as the transatlantic slave trade. Several countries benefited economically, including United Kingdom, Portugal, and Spain, France, the Netherlands, and the United States.

[00:48:25]These countries built major industries using slave labor. Slave labor was used to produce sugar, cotton, and tobacco.

[00:48:31]Coffee and rice. These products generated enormous wealth. The profits from slavery helped build banks, fund industries, and develop infrastructure, grow global economies. Some experts argue slavery helped fuel modern capitalism. This is why many countries argue reparations are necessary. They say the wealth created during slavery still benefits nations today. The debate continues, but understanding who benefited is key to understanding why reparations are being discussed. I am Austin Adob. Follow for more global trade insights.

[00:49:03]Who taught you to hate the texture of your hair?

[00:49:07]Who taught you to hate the shape of your nose?

[00:49:11]Who taught you to hate the color of your skin to such extent that you bleach?

[00:49:17]Who taught you to hate yourself from the top of your head to the soles of your feet?

[00:49:24]Before you come asking Mr. Muhammad, does he teach hate? You should ASK YOURSELF, WHO TAUGHT YOU TO HATE BEING WHAT God gave you?

[00:49:55]Free Sudan. BOYCOTT DIAMONDS AND GOLD.

[00:49:58]FREE SUDAN. BOYCOTT DIAMONDS AND GOLD.

[00:50:02]We most definitely cannot forget about the people of Sudan.

[00:50:06]>> Thanks for watching Afro Think Tank.

[00:50:08]Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe, and follow me on Substack and Patreon for more content. Remember, it's pan-Africanism or nothing.