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Well, all these are bad. But I don't know. All of these examples resulted in less loss of life, lasted less time, and had less residual effects than American Slavery. Slavery killed some 60 million Africans/African Americans, it lasted for many generations (1500s to 1865), and the negative residual affects can still be felt to this day.
I might say westward expansion and the destruction of Native Americans may be a tie or a close second. But every other example (albeit tragic) were relatively brief. For example, the holocaust lasted from the early 1900s to 1945 and resulted in the deaths of 11 to 17 million people.
It's one thing to be murdered. It's another to have your entire history and knowledge of your people erased and treated worse than an animal for generation after generation coupled with torture and murder as a daily part of life for several lifetimes... And we haven't even started getting into post-emancipation lynchings and Jim Crow...
Now it's semantics but everything I've read has stated that not that many died because of slavery. They were enslaved when they died but it would be pretty stupid for a slave owner to go around killing slaves he paid money for. Think about it, everyone is dead that lived at that time so it wasn't slavery that would be on the death cert.
Based on that alone the number of deaths would be nowhere near what WWI or WWII.
there is no such thing as the worst crime done to humanity
they are by far evil and sickening
people go through different things but the worst disease on humanity is the spreading of HATRED AND EVIL ugh!!
The War in the Philippines was pretty bad. The U.S. killed somewhere between 300,000-3,000,000 filipinos. At one point the U.S. military shot every male they came across who was over 10 years of age.
I see your point, but you seem to only be talking about the United States. Remember, the large majority of African slaves ended up in South America and the Caribbean.
I see both your points, but:
True, 60 million is the higher estimate. But not abnormally so. Remember, the transatlantic slave trade started in the 1500's and slavery in America ended in 1865. One of your sources start calculating 300 years after slavery started. I was also curious how they got the estimated population of the entire continent of Africa. They were taking a census even in small isolated tribes? Remember that early in the slave trade, Europeans could not even go into Africa's interior because many Europeans could not handle the harsh foreign environmental conditions and climate.
In addition, we are not just talking about the trip to the Americas, many more millions of Africans and African-Americans died during the institution of slavery. Think about the millions of Africans that were tortured and murdered in the seasoning camps of the Caribbean. Then think about all the blacks that were murdered during reconstruction and the Jim Crow south. (Do you think that has a direct correlation to the institution of slavery?)
All in all, considering every aspect of slavery of Africans by Europeans in the western hemisphere from the 1500's to the late 1800's, I will concede a little and say 50 to 30 million is a pretty fair estimation…
However, even if it were 20 million, that is still far more loss of life and spans for a far longer time than, say, the Jewish holocaust for example… (Although that was quite tragic as well).
As for the Native American population. The following is a PRIMARY source written in 1542 accounting for the destruction of the native populations JUST in the Carribean and Costal South America. This was written by Bartolome de las Casas.
At a conservative estimate, the despotic and diabolical behaviour of the Christians has, over the last forty years, led to the unjust and totally unwarranted deaths of more than twelve million souls, women and children among them, and there are grounds for believing my own estimate of more than fifteen million to be nearer the mark. There are two main ways in which those who have travelled to this part of the world pretending to be Christians have uprooted these pitiful peoples and wiped them from the face of the earth. First, they have waged war on them: unjust, cruel, bloody and tyrannical war. Second, they have murdered anyone and everyone who has shown the slightest sign of resistance, or even of wishing to escape the torment to which they have subjected him. This latter policy has been instrumental in suppressing the native leaders, and, indeed, given that the Spaniards normally spare only women and children, it has led to the annihilation of all adult males, whom they habitually subject to the harshest and most iniquitous and brutal slavery that man has ever devised for his fellow-men, treating them, in fact, worse than animals. All the many and infinitely varied ways that have been devised for oppressing these peoples can be seen to flow from one or other of these two diabolical and tyrannical policies.
Sounds like pretty bad stuff. I vote for the total destruction of thousands of Native American tribes and civilizations as the worst crime. It's highly ignored and is still underestimated because of ongoing beliefs that it didn't really ever exsist. People still believe that Columbus discovered America and Natives were a few brutes who didn't have anything. I think that 10-100 million people is a fair number. There are other primary sources that speak of huge populations of people in Mexico (larger than European cities) by Cortes, de Soto left notes on large populations in southeastern North America, and Pizzaro in Peru. The first hand stories are as ghastly as any I read about African slavery in the Americas and are compounded by the fact that people deny the scope of what happened. Children used to test the sharpness of a blade. Hands cut off because the gold could not be found. The US government lying and cheating Natives out of practically all their land. Read accounts about the Trail of Tears and Wounded Knee or any of the other massacres of Native population. The saddest thing is that even many of those decendants don't even know of or understand the scope of it. Genocide; the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group; fits here perfectly.
The War in the Philippines was pretty bad. The U.S. killed somewhere between 300,000-3,000,000 filipinos. At one point the U.S. military shot every male they came across who was over 10 years of age.
The War in the Philippines was pretty bad. The U.S. killed somewhere between 300,000-3,000,000 filipinos. At one point the U.S. military shot every male they came across who was over 10 years of age.
The Philippine Scouts were fighting on the American side, the Philippine army could muster 80,000 soldiers. Their battle deaths were approx. 10,000, the American losses were 4000+.
The estimated population of the entire Philippines in 1900 was 7.5 Million.
Now it's semantics but everything I've read has stated that not that many died because of slavery. They were enslaved when they died but it would be pretty stupid for a slave owner to go around killing slaves he paid money for. Think about it, everyone is dead that lived at that time so it wasn't slavery that would be on the death cert.
Based on that alone the number of deaths would be nowhere near what WWI or WWII.
The idea of trying to Guestimate which group had more millions killed or enslaved is pointless.
Slavery is wrong, it has been carried out by nearly every society since the dawn of the species, and it continues in many cultures today.
Those claiming african slavery was worse, well it was happening in Africa as millions of Africans were killed and enslaved by their neighbors through tribal and clan warfare. Then many sold those or their own to the Europeans.
The Aztecs, Inca's, Mayan's and american native tribes all took slaves and captives, some were more ruthless than others. and too Miami teacher, it was European Disease which killed most of the inhabitants not slavery or war.
To debate which group or culture is to blame for the worst atrocity is just an exercise in political stupidity. Your either trying to prop up your own worldview or diminish others. Not much different than those who burned sacred scrolls, books, or destroyed oral histories to eliminate the collective memory of a people.
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