Why Was This Man Caged?

[piggynose]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53917733

[youngmafbog]

Read the article, it tells you.

Whether it was right or wrong is another question, or is that what you mean?

[piggynose]

Was it acceptable ymfb ?

[woofgang]

of course not.

[youngmafbog]

Do you really have to ask that?

Of course it wasnt but it happened in 1904. Things were very different then. We should not judge people in the past against the way we live today otherwise it would be never-ending. Perhaps a post next about the Romans shoving slaves into fights with Gladiators?

What we should do is observe and learn.

[barry1010]

The people responsible are long dead and can't answer your question, piggy.
Do you think it was acceptable?

[woofgang]

Allegedly slavery was abolished in the USA in 1865. It was wrong and protested at the time and yet it still happened. The people who did it conspired to cover up what they had done at the time. In this instance we can judge those people against the standards of the time and find them guilty.

[Prudie]

Of course it was unacceptable, even back then there was outrage but what do you expect people to say? By the same token we could go back and find a village in Mercia and ask why they were raped and pillaged.

[piggynose]

Barry1010. What do you think? Of course not!

[Spicerack]

Rhetorical 'question' of the week.

[allenlondon]

“We should not judge people in the past against the way we live today otherwise it would be never-ending,” writes YMB.

Not so sure. Certain aspects of morality were wrong, and are wrong. Dickens’ treatment of his wives comes to mind.

Slave-owning (?) in countries that had abolished slavery is another example.

YMB’s line has been too often used as an excuse.

[Spicerack]

Oh Gawd. They're going to ban A Christmas Carol now.

[andy-hughes]

Piggy - I think it's obvious from your link.

This young man was exhibited as an exotic curio - which was probably the thinking about native Africans at that time.

Remember, that most slave-owners regarded the negroes as a sub-human species, probably nearer to apes in their savagery than to humans.

That level of thinking would chime with the idea of a 'genuine savage' being something to exhibit and make money from.

I hope you will not ask me, as you asked YMFB, if it was acceptable - I am sure you have worked that one out for yourself.

[woofgang]

Prudie "Of course it was unacceptable, even back then there was outrage but what do you expect people to say?"

Well I don't expect them to say "things were very different then"

[andy-hughes]

allen - // “We should not judge people in the past against the way we live today otherwise it would be never-ending,” writes YMB.

Not so sure. Certain aspects of morality were wrong, and are wrong. Dickens’ treatment of his wives comes to mind.

Slave-owning (?) in countries that had abolished slavery is another example.

YMB’s line has been too often used as an excuse. //

I don;t think it's an 'excuse' but it is an explanation.

History always was, and always will be, about context.

There are behaviours from the past, from Slavery, to Charles Dickens' treatment of his wives (a link that appears to exist only in your mind), that are not acceptable today.

No-one excuses them, but accepting them as being the norms of the time is appropriate, it is not the same as denying that they would be wrong in today's society - but we cannot airbrush history because parts of it are uncomfortable to our modern mindsets.

[andy-hughes]

woofgang - // Well I don't expect them to say "things were very different then" //

Why not? It's a simple factual statement, it offers no excuse, it accepts what cannot be changed.

[Spicerack]

Good posts, Andy.

[woofgang]

woofgang - // Well I don't expect them to say "things were very different then" //

"Why not? It's a simple factual statement, it offers no excuse, it accepts what cannot be changed."

Things weren't THAT different then.

[andy-hughes]

woofgang - // woofgang - // Well I don't expect them to say "things were very different then" //

"Why not? It's a simple factual statement, it offers no excuse, it accepts what cannot be changed."

Things weren't THAT different then. //

Sorry, you've lost me - ?

[Jackdaw33]

What I cannot understand is why they brought a black man all the way from Africa when in Dixie they could be found in abundance. Yes, it is inhuman. The picture of him holding a monkey is particularly repugnant.

[pixie374]

Clearly not acceptable, although people also made money from slavery, "freak" shows etc. Thankfully, the world slowly moves on, but I see little point in apologising so much later, either.