200th Anniversary Of U.K. Slave Trade Ban

(CBS/AP)  Ceremonies on both sides of the Atlantic have marked the 200-year anniversary of the day the British parliament passed a law banning the trade of human beings. But, two centuries later, there is still resentment, and governments of all sizes are still trying to step out from the dark shadow of slavery.

In 1672, the Royal Africa Company was founded in London, firmly basing the trade of slaves from Africa in Britain. Thousands of ships, burdened with their stock of chained men, women and children, would sail from west Africa, via England, to the New World. Millions died before the trade was abolished.

Enacted on March 25, 1807, the Slave Trade Act prohibited British ships from transporting slaves, although Britain did not abolish slavery in its territories until 1833.

People across the Caribbean bowed their heads for a moment of silence Monday to mark the end of the trans-Atlantic slave routes, which shaped the region's history.

In Jamaica, islanders held symbolic funeral rites in Kingston Harbour for African slaves who died during the perilous ocean crossing.

In Dominica, the cries of African slaves being led to cell blocks pierced the air as their lives were re-enacted.

Participants walked in chains to Roseau's Baraccoon building, where slaves were held before being auctioned off to plantation owners in the former French and British colony, and which now houses the City Council.

In Guyana, a tribute was held in the compound of parliament buildings where slaves were beaten and sometimes hanged.

"We unite as a region and as a people, in a collective moment of reflection, as we remember one of the greatest tragedies in the history of humanity, which denied over 25 million Africans, for over 400 years, the basic human right of freedom, the right to self actualization and for so many, denial of even their basic right to life," said Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and chairman of the Caribbean Community.

The majority of the African slaves taken from their homeland were destined for lives of servitude in America, most on the plantations of the south.

Ports in some eastern states served as unloading points for the ships from Britain. Auction blocks were set up, and white property owners tried to outbid each other for people whose lives had been assigned little more value than that of farm animals.

Little doubt can exist over the symbolic timing of the Maryland legislature's vote on Monday to formally apologize for the state's role in the slave trade, expressing "profound regret" that the state once "trafficked in human flesh."

Virginia issued a similar formal apology last month.

The Maryland resolution notes that slavery "fostered a climate of oppression not only for slaves and their descendants but also for people of color who moved to Maryland subsequent to slavery's abolition."

Democratic State Sen. Nathaniel Exum, a sponsor of the resolution, said he felt exhilarated that Maryland lawmakers had finally decided recognize the painful role the state played in slavery's past.

"Once we come to that recognition, maybe we will also recognize steps we need to do to get rid of the lingering effects of it on the people," Exum said Monday.

Back in the home of the slave trade, British Prime Minister Tony Blair marked the anniversary with a pre-recorded address. "This is a very special day. Two-hundred years ago the British parliament legislated to end the slave trade across the British Empire. The vote in our parliament began the long process of ending the trans-Atlantic slave trade, one of the most shameful enterprises in history," he said in the video.

Blair has previously said he's sorry for Britain's prominent involvement in the slave trade and expressed "deep sorrow," but the second-ranking cleric in the Church of England is urging the prime minister to go further.

Archbishop of York John Sentamu has called on Blair to issue a formal apology for Britain's role in slavery.

For others, a formal apology wouldn't go far enough. There are groups in both Britain and the United States which have lobbied for decades for monetary reparations to be paid to the descendents of slaves.

No legislation including reparations has been successful in either country, and the difficulty in determining who would be paid, how much they should be entitled to, and where the money would come from is likely to prevent it from coming to fruition.

Ceremonies, apologies, and even reparations aside, most of the people who took part in the events of Monday and Tuesday agree that the most important memorial is to ensure the evil of slavery is not forgotten — in the next 200 years, or ever.

[gunnerv1]

It's about time the Brits got nailed with this one. They started the slave trade with the making of Rum (got to have the big shiney bucks in the 'cane fields). If you don't belive me, look it up. It's history.

[toolmangler-2009]

That is the whole 'friggin' problem. everybody is living in the past. Apologies are sought for crimes that never happened the way they are told. The African people themselves sold their 'own' families into slavery. The monied peoples of the new world needed workers any way they could get them. Supply & demand! that is what makes the world turn. Its been that way from the beginning and it will be that way to the end. We are doomed to repeat history because we never learn from it (except how to obtain cheap labor). sssshhhhheeeeeeeeeessssshhh

[chuckabn]

Those SO SORRY shirts are ridiculous. The governments of former (heck current, like Sudan) slavery-supporting nations should issue a historical apology, but for individuals who are generations away from it on both sides to have those shirts on is absurd. I have traced my family back for hundreds of years and NO slaveowners in the lot. Even it there had been, I, my parents, grandparents, and greatgrandparents never had any. So, I refuse to apologize for being white. Besides, most African slaves were actually captured by rival African tribesmen and black slavetraders who sold them to whites. Hmmmm, maybe some Africans should be wearing an I'm sorry shirt? Slavery is and was and will forever be wrong and evil. However, in a never-talked-about FACT, the US descendants of slaves who are now American citizens with all of the rights and priveleges and opportunites thereof ACTUALLY BENIFIT from that atrocity. Not the slaves themselves, obviously, but the great-grandchildren who are now Americans and not stuck in some third-world misery like Sudan, Rwanda, DRC, Liberia, Sierra Leone.... are ironically better off. Slavery wrong. Not being in an African nightmare, better. Not politically correct to admit it, but true.

[bluestardad]

I know lets SHOW THE WORLD HOW REALLY SORRY WE ARE AND put a person in power just because of the color of his skin and see how that turns out! What about Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's Put in power in Rhodesia by America and Britain under the Christian Crusade of Racial Equality where once in power he kills all the white farmers gives their land to peasants so the economy collapses now people are eating rats in the streets of the capitol. This turn of events may have had something to do with the fact that originally Rhodesia was the first African Country to Break away from British Colonial Rule under the White minority earning their countries rights to keep the profits of their farming and mineral deposits. So Britain teams up with America and deposes their government for this outrage.It is OK to remember a fault from time to time as to never let it happen again, but to make a living from dredging up past wrongs is a disservice to all those who actually endured the hardship. I myself will not accept the hate, guilt, or be held accountable for the transgressions of people who claimed to be wronged by people before my Grandfather was born. Do not push your opinions on the rest of us. If you want to that is on you but do not expect me or millions of others to accept your guilt trip.