Trading human beings: what sick mind thought of this first? Brought by force and pushed to death: slavery, or the trade as they referred to it euphemistically. Exterminate All the Brutes II: Who the Fuck is Columbus
The silencing of the Haitian revolution is part of a narrative of global domination; nevertheless, the revolution played a central role in the collapse of the entire system of slavery and in the liberation of the land in America. Haiti created the possible. ibid.
In the beginning, the slaves had to clean the cotton with their bare hands. The invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney would change everything. But Cotton also destroyed the soil, while using slaves’ bodies like a commodity became the most lucrative enterprise around. More profitable than all lands, banks, railroads, factories and gold products put together. Slaves were used as collateral for mortgage, a newly developed tool of commerce. Exterminate All the Brutes IV: The Bright Colours of Fascism
By 1890, disarmed, held in concentration camps, their children taken away half-starved, the Lakota and Dakota survivors found a new resistance: ghost dancing. ibid.
Wounded Knee Massacre: East Indians killed: 300; Survivors: 51 (4 men, 47 women), Army casualties: 25 dead. ibid.
Frank Baum: The pioneer has before declared that our only safety depends on the total extermination of the Indians. Having wronged them for centuries we had better in order to protect our civilisation follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the Earth. The fact is, the Native Americans are still here, and this is still their home … The real fight remains the fight for self-determination and restitution. ibid.
As writer James Baldwin says, ‘There is scarcely any hope for the American dream. Because people who are denied participation in it, by their very presence will wreck it.’ ibid.
Lost souls on a pile of human confusion. The absence of any trace of empathy and genuine humanity is unbearable. The nightmare is buried deep in our consciousness. So deep that we do not recognise its ghosts. ibid.
The limits of superiority: privilege makes you vulnerable, and panic blended with ignorance and bigotry creates anger. Limitless and blinding anger. Everyone else becomes the enemy. The fortress becomes a prison. Everyone else looking in at you. ibid.
So educated Europeans today know how children die when the whip of debt and bombs whistle over poor countries. It is not knowledge that is lacking … Imperialism is a biologically necessary process that according to the laws of nature leads to the inevitable destruction of the lower races. ibid.
This knowledge is a fundamental prerequisite. That is why the narrator can tell his story as he does in Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness. He has no need to count the crimes Kurt committed. He has no need to describe them. He has no need to produce evidence. For no-one doubted it. ibid.
We follow criminals without them knowing. It’s as simple as that … Don’t get caught. Taken: Hunting the Sex Traffickers I, Channel 4 2021
Many are women, sex trafficked and hidden away in brothels. ibid.
This is an international trade in human misery. ibid.
Sex trafficking is one of the hardest crimes to prove as the victims are often too scared to come forward. ibid.
The potential link to organised crime and trafficking means the case is escalated and handed over to a high-level covert unit. ibid.
Across the UK organised crime groups are running pop-up brothels on an industrial scale. Taken: Hunting the Sex Traffickers II
It started off with an anonymous package through the door of the police station in Cirencester. ibid.
A specialist covert police unit has been tipped off about a group of sex traffickers … With Mark Viner out of the country, officers must follow all possible leads to prove he’s a human trafficker and a money launderer. For six months officers have been secretly filming the carpark of the premises believed to be at the centre of Mark Viner’s operation. Taken: Hunting the Sex Traffickers III, captions
Before the case reaches trial, Mark Viner pleads guilty to 2 counts of human trafficking, keeping a brothel and money laundering. He is sentenced to 5 years and 9 months in prison. ibid. caption
My ancestors came from here. They were taken from Africa in chains to power the greatest wealth-generating machine the world had ever known. During the slave trade more than twelve million Africans were trafficked across the Atlantic to north and south America and the Caribbean. More than two million died en route. The Atlantic Ocean floor is one huge graveyard and a crime scene. Enslaved with Samuel L Jackson I: A People Stolen, BBC 2021
The transatlantic slave trade existed for well over four-hundred years, involving more than forty-five thousand voyages from dozens of outposts along the African coast. ibid.
Revealing how much of the world we live in today was built on the backs of enslaved Africans. Enslaved: with Samuel L Jackson II: A Precious Cargo
Caribbean: millions and millions of African slaves were bought here just to cultivate this crop. It was a system that would later be perfected by the British in Barbados, and shipped across the world on an industrial scale. ibid.
Even when trafficked Africans were lost at sea, slave owners came up with inventive ways to turn their loss into profit. ibid.
Britain had bowed to 46,000 slave owners’ demands for compensation, paying them a staggering £17 billion in today’s money. ibid.
Many carried on as business as usual. ibid.
We travel through the US to tell the stories of those who resisted slavery. Often making the dangerous journey to freedom in Canada. Enslaved with Samuel L Jackson III: Follow the Money
A network of people who were striving to ensure the freedom of others. ibid.
In the early 1800s attitudes changed … London was at the very centre of the transatlantic slave trade. England’s enormous wealth was in part created by the trafficking of enslaved humans. Enslaved with Samuel L Jackson IV: Our People
There’s something about me you don’t know. It’s a secret I’ve been hiding since I was a child … The truth is, I’m not who you think I am … The Real Mo Farah, BBC 2022
I was born in Somaliland, north of Somali, as Hussein Abdi Kahin … I was brought into the UK illegally under the name of another child … From that moment, I knew I was in trouble. ibid.
I wasn’t treated as part of the family. I was always that kid who did everything. ibid.
The progress from there was just stratospheric. ibid. Mo’s PE teacher
Nothing brought wealth faster than forcing their captives into the highly profitable slave-trade. Vikings: The Rise and Fall s1e2: The Great Heathen Army, National Geographic 2022
The slave-trade was a lucrative business in the east. They wanted their share of the profits. Vikings: The Rise and Fall s1e3: As Far East as Baghdad
By the close of the 18th century, 40% of the world’s slaves were transported on ships that were launched from Liverpool. British Gangsters: Faces of the Underworld s2e1: Liverpool, Amazon 2024