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posted by CoolHand on Thursday December 17 2015, @06:41PM   Printer-friendly
from the un-reaffirming-faith-in-humanity dept.

The Economist is carrying a free story (free except for the annoying subscribe pop-up) about a French slave trading ship that crashed into a reef and sunk just off of the tiny island named "Île de Sable" on July 31st 1761.

The Island is a tiny mountain top of sand 500 miles east of Madagascar. The island was subsequently re-named Tromelin Island (google map link) for reasons explained in the article. Zoom in and out again to see just how desolate a place this still is.

The shipwrecked French crew, built a boat out of the wreckage of their ship, with the help of some of the slaves. The boat they built, for lack of materials, could accommodate only about half of the people stranded. So all 123 Frenchmen climbed into the boat, left the 88 remaining slaves (out of an original 160 or more), and sailed off toward Madagascar, with a promise to return.

The article is the story of how that promise was not kept, not entirely the fault of the French First Officer, who pleaded for a ship to rescue the slaves, but was rebuffed at every turn. Too busy worrying about the British fleet was the excuse.

Finally in November 1776, 15 years after the shipwreck, with the British Fleet otherwise distracted, a French ship arrived and rescued the last seven remaining survivors (all women except a 8 month old baby boy) from the island.

The story is an interesting read, and documents how easy it was to be callously abandoned in that day and age. (Not nearly as callous as being sold into slavery by your own disaffected relatives, mind you!).


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  • (Score: 2) by edIII on Thursday December 17 2015, @11:30PM

    by edIII (791) on Thursday December 17 2015, @11:30PM (#277993)

    He didn't just disagree, he vociferously denied his own culpability when no one accused him of culpability in the first place.

    Bull-fucking-shit.

    The AC said, 'white guilt' in response to actions that happened hundreds of years ago. I'm white. Were you meaning there are other white people around today that were the targets? I'm white, but I'm not being accused? He was using a rather large brush saying 'white'. That's a lot of people.

    Revisionist history is you believing that a couple of hours ago, that nobody accused me of having guilt over my skin. You can yourself incorrect by simply SCROLLING UP THE PAGE.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 17 2015, @11:54PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 17 2015, @11:54PM (#278003)

    > The AC said, 'white guilt' in response to actions that happened hundreds of years ago. I'm white.

    You are the one decided to apply the term white guilt to yourself. If you really believed you have no guilt then that term would have no more meaning to you than it would to a native of Poland. The innocent have no guilt.

    • (Score: 2) by edIII on Friday December 18 2015, @06:45AM

      by edIII (791) on Friday December 18 2015, @06:45AM (#278105)

      You are the one decided to apply the term white guilt to yourself.

      Are you mental?

      I decided? Somebody else literally stated that whites possessed guilt. If you happen to strongly identify, and be identified with, that particular skin pigmentation it's entirely reasonable to conclude the author was stating it was about you.

      Your protestations are inane, and worthless. Keep trying though.

      Why don't you demonstrate how I could reasonably conclude it wasn't about me?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 18 2015, @03:56AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 18 2015, @03:56AM (#278077)

    > actions that happened hundreds of years ago.

    Are you unaware of when slavery was abolished? Hint, it was less than 2 hundred years ago. Quite a bit less, in fact.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by edIII on Friday December 18 2015, @06:41AM

      by edIII (791) on Friday December 18 2015, @06:41AM (#278103)

      Immaterial. It doesn't matter if happened a couple hundred seconds before I was born. I will not be held accountable for actions of others, nor forcible grouped with them, simply because we share a range of skin pigmentation.

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      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 18 2015, @07:36PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 18 2015, @07:36PM (#278318)

        I will not be held accountable for actions of others, nor forcible grouped with them, simply because we share a range of skin pigmentation.

        Interesting. I am just curious what your views are on urban blacks. Also, what about Muslims? What do you think of them?

        • (Score: 2) by edIII on Friday December 18 2015, @08:05PM

          by edIII (791) on Friday December 18 2015, @08:05PM (#278333)

          Interesting. I am just curious what your views are on urban blacks. Also, what about Muslims? What do you think of them?

          I don't.

          urban blacks: Uhhh, what? What does that even mean? Are you asking how I feel about black people in urban areas? Interesting. I'm just curious as to why you limited it to urban areas? Do you feel black people are different in rural areas? cities? Do you feel I should care about the differences between urban people based on race? Do you feel there are that many differences based on race alone, and not economic or educational circumstances? Curious as well...

          The answer is, that I have no idea. You've grouped so many people together based on location and skin pigmentation, that I don't see the point.

          Muslims: Be more specific. Muslims exist everywhere with disparate cultures linked together by a common religion. A Muslim in Asia, while sharing the religion, exists in a different cultural "dialect" (if that's the right word I'm looking for) than a Muslim in Qatar, or Yemen. It would be more meaningful to ask me how I feel about Muslims in Pakistan specifically. Of which, I don't actually have any particular comment at the moment other than I don't appreciate the lack of moderation in the expression of their religion, or how women are treated under it.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 18 2015, @07:41PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 18 2015, @07:41PM (#278322)

      Are you unaware of when slavery was abolished? Hint, it was less than 2 hundred years ago. Quite a bit less, in fact.

      In fact, slavery continues even to this very day. True, it no longer involves white plantation owners and black slaves working the fields but it is still an issue, even here in the land of the free and the home of the brave.