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#Blaxit is making a huge comeback as many African Americans are deciding to LEAVE the USA forever, some are going overseas while others return home.
Forgive us, because we sold them,' says African ambassador on possible slave ship find The moment was a profound one for Posset. Not only does he hail from Benin, once known as the Kingdom of Dahomey, where the Clotilda captives were first captured by fellow Africans and then sold to the Americans, but Posset is actually a descendant of the nation's royal family. By the 1800s, the King of Dahomey was making about a quarter of a million dollars a year selling Africans to Europeans, Americans and Brazilians, according to historical records. To put that number in perspective, a quarter of a million dollars in 1860 would be worth roughly $50 million today. The prosperous kingdom was notorious as a hub of the slave trade, and home to the door of no return, through which millions of slaves, including perhaps the Clotilda captives, passed as they were transferred to slave ships for the middle passage. Asked to explain the words he spoke over the wreck, Posset covered his eyes for a moment as he regained composure and stifled a sob. "I am just begging them to forgive us, because we sold them. Our forefathers sold their brothers and sisters. I am not the person to talk to them. No! May their souls rest in peace, perfect peace. They should forgive us. They should," Posset said, wiping tears from his cheeks. "Qualified people will come and talk to them in due time. I feel so sad. "I am a prince of Dahomey," Posset explained later. "It was my ancestors who did this. We have ancestors who came here to this country forced. Forcibly, they didn't choose. I am not insulting those who came here who were forced to come, because they were forced. I am insulting those who sold them back home. No means, no money, no articles, no stuff can buy life, but we sold our people. Brothers sold brothers and sisters. Fathers sold kids and wife. I will never blame those who came here. I will always beg them for forgiveness." Posset said that even today, people in Benin do not like to sit beside a door when visiting friends. "That was how you ended up sold. Your friend, your relative, he would already have sold you before he invited you over. He would sit you by the door so when they came at the appointed time, they opened the door and grabbed you. This was even how the heirs to the king would move ahead in line to the throne, selling off rivals," Posset said. The journal of William Foster, the captain of the Clotilda, provides a detailed historical document regarding the slaving operations in Dahomey at the time of his journey. "Having agreeably transacted affairs with Prince, we went to the warehouse where they had in confinement four thousand captives in a state of nudity from which they gave me liberty to select one hundred and twenty-five as mine, offering to brand them for me, from which I peremptorily forbid. Commenced taking on cargo of negroes, successfully securing on board one hundred and ten." Posted by: Mr Obvious 2020-06-27 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=575392 |