Re: E. Wood's defence of Brenner/

["James M. Blaut" <70671.2032@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yoshie et al

Brenner's comment that we have to look at slavery in early Africa and class
structures in early Africa to understandthe insignificance of the  Atlantic
slave trade is -- in my view -- a thinly veiled recitation ofthe
conservative Africanst view ( Thornto, Curtin)that Africans were natural
slavers (Thornton: they valued wealth in slaves, not land) and were somehow
"naturally" in a slave mode of production.

>From which it follows that Eureopeans really weren't to blame for the
African slave trade-- they just put slavery to productive use. I call these
p[eople the "absolutionist hisaorians" because they absolve Euros of most
of the blame for the horrors of trhe Atlantic salve trade and New World
slavery,


Jim B