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Comment by nathancahill | Hacker News Reader

Really fascinating methods. Visiting the Slavery Museum in Luanda shows some of the origin pathways too. Interesting to compare the exhibits in the musuem in Angola with the (incredible) exhibits in the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC. Both approach the subject from opposite angles.

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here in Coastal California we definitely hear about the historical topic as social stress rises generally.. given the museum exhibit in DC and the history of commercial slavery in North America.. it strikes me as profound that many (most?) of the active slave owners and traders in the USA were actually killed in a short time span, called the US Civil War. The anger and resentment and race hate culminating in literally shooting and killing on such a mass scale. The literal, physical brutality of entire cycle seems so distant in the modern time.

Since so much of the literate, conscious slave trade comes from societies of Central Asia (apparently also elements of Sweden and England, and of course the Portugese).. I was curious and asked an observant Muslim here about slavery.. he just looked calmly and replied "it was time for it to end" .. I got the feeling that the Muslim world had some kind of internal reckoning, and did (mostly) end the slavery trade at a certain time, similar time frame to the Civil War.

From the outside, not a specialist here.. it seems like the remaining modern slave trade is mostly driven by raw commerce.. like the fishing boats for example.. Zooming out, it seems like selling known-addictive drugs has similar drives..

Most people (including Muslims) have forgotten that the Muslim world used to capture and enslave large number of Christians on a regular basis.

In fact, it was one of the drivers of the Crusades, an idea conveniently forgotten by Muslims who point at the Crusades as evidence of the West's hostility to Muslims.

Enslaving others is, while not necessarily normal, not uncommon. The enlightenment really changed things around, which shows the power of ideas.

Nope, in the Muslim world slavery ended much later. Mostly halfway the 20th century. Mauretania was the last country to abolish slavery, in 1981. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_the_Musl...

got it - long read.. many new items for me there

There's still slavery, and I don't mean "modern day" or "Socratic" slavery. In Mauritania.

I'm sure Al Jazeera has a documentary.

I can testify that most of the enslavers did not perish during the Civil War - my great grandfather’s family - most likely from Angola/Congo and brought via Charleston - was enslaved in a small farm along the route taken by Sherman. His father was also the “slaveowner” and served in a small defense unit (equivalent of national guard). This is not a unique story, there are many Black families that managed to, for a time, hold onto land passed from those who enslaved them. Most of it was illegally taken back by 1900 - by the slaveowning families.

Where did you learn that most of the slave owners were killed in the war? Most of the South's slave owning political leadership including Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis lived long and healthy lives after the war.

". it strikes me as profound that many (most?) of the active slave owners and traders in the USA were actually killed in a short time span"

what is not clear about that question mark?

You have a very-colorful impression of the Civil War.

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