The obsession with one particular version of slavery

Why are today's young scholars so obsessed with the supposed wickedness of the European people trade while apparently indifferent to the Roman slave economy, or for that matter the Arab one?

So said Max Hastings in a review of Tom Holland's book The Lives of The Caesars.

The only issue I'd take with that comment is the word "supposed" as there was undoubtedly wickedness.

But I'd go further. The nation that initiated the end of the transatlantic slave trade seems to be castigated more than any. How come?

I can't help thinking there's a simple answer. Those young scholars are suffused with guilt (rarely a helpful emotion, I find).  And so they jump on a bandwagon for reparations etc, being pushed by - guess who? Those who will benefit.

I've often been heard to say that my ancestors do not appear to have directly benefited from the slave trade. Oh, sure, they'll have possibly gained some indirect benefit through the wealth brought into the UK, though I'd estimate it as tiny.

Indeed, look further and I daresay that my ancestors (and yours) were victims too, of feudal system, serfdom etc. Moreover, if you look around the world and through history, enslavement of conquered nations and the less powerful was pretty much the norm. Rome wasn't built in a day - or without slaves.

It is impossible to right all past wrongs. Picking an aribitrary set of such wrongs, or an arbitrary cut off in how far one goes back, has no justification. I would argue that we should not go back beyond the lifetime of anyone's parents, as proving cause and consequence is otherwise problematic. 

Times have changed and, for the most improved at least in what we sometimes call the "free world". Most of the descendents of African slaves living in countries like the USA and UK are arguably better off than if their ancestors had not been taken (or sold by other Africans most likely). I realise that would probably a grossly offensive argument to those descendents of slaves (and those young scholars).

But does it make it any less true?

And, since outside of the "free world" slavery in various forms still persists around the world to this day, aren't there better and more important targets to focus on?

The Max Hastings book review appeared in the Sunday Times some time ago.