Today heralds the 200th anniversary of the abolition of Slavery by the British Parliament, and everywhere it appears that someone is expecting the people of Britain to apologise for this attrocity committed against other human beings. I feel moved to write on this subject because it is too easy to ask for an apology without ever reasoning why one is expected and from whom the apologies should come.

200 years ago I wasnt born, my generation were not even a twinkle in our ancestors eyes. My ancestors possibly in common with other peoples ancestors were probably working in one of the now defunct local mills or the mines, which are now closed or perhaps as indentured servants for one of the mill or mine owners. Their living conditions would have been appalling, their means next to non-existent or perhaps if indentured their lot no better than that of those we traditionally think of as slaves. In scotland even miners were indentured to the mine owner, slaves in all but name. Perhaps one of my or your ancestors was one of those children sent in to clean the machinery in the factories, a task which often maimed or killed the child. Or perhaps one of our ancestors was a child cleaning the chimneys of the well to do. What I do know from my delving into geneaology is that not one of my ancestors was a slave trader and I am guessing that this is true for the majority of the population of the UK.

This morning I have been watching the BBC programme Heaven and Earth and was appalled to hear a gentleman expect that white children in the UK hang their heads in shame at the slave trade. Our government today was not in power in the days of the slave trade, we were not here. Our society finds Slavery an appalling part of our national History, we would not tolerate such abuses of human beings in our society or by any members of our society today. We have learned the lessons of history and drawn from them to create a better, fairer society and yet there are demands that we collectively feel shame for slavery and apologise for it.

The Slave owning famillies, those who traded in misery and made their fortunes off of the back of slavery may well have some kind of redress to make, but to whom should they make it? Non of those who were enslaved are alive today. Doubtless the life styles of some individuals today have their roots in the profits gleaned from trading in human beings, in the same vein there are also famillies today whose affluent lifestyles have their roots in the profits gleaned from the misery of the british population enslaved in all but name in factories, mills and mines. Then there are the sailors who worked on the slave ships, often press-ganged into service and forced to endure horrendous conditions of a life at sea. There are also famillies out there who made their fortune through events like the highland clearances, where land was grabbed for sheep and the former inhabitants of the land forced to the Isles to collect seaweed until there was no need of this and then they were forced onto ships and transported abroad.

This world we live in has a violent, barbaric and often heart breaking past, where one human has routinely exploited another in the name of profit. Where human treated human with such cruelty and disregard for suffering that we are often forced to ask the question ' was there an ounce of humanity in their souls'. But does this mean that generations later we should expect everyone to be shamed simply because of their nationality or their race?

The apologists representing organisations involved in attrocities like the slave trade are right to apologise on behalf of their organisation for their part. I am thinking here of the churches and the companies involved in slavery of all kinds. But I am still left questioning who the apologies should be directed at. Those to whom the apologies would have made a real difference are long dead.

If we go down the route of expecting apologies based on skin colour or nationality, will we expect the Itallians to apologise for enslaving the Britons or perhaps the Saxons to apologise for enslaving Celts. Slavery is part of a brutal past in HUMAN history, so should the population of the planet begin apologising to every race, nationality, tribe etc that they have ever been slave masters of?

I and you never participated in the slave trade, we collectively have probably never profited one iota from this trade in misery, there are famillies in our society who have and if they wish to apologise for the actions of their ancestors so be it. But I ask you this question do we expect apologies from the famillies of serial killers, do we expect apologies from the ancestors of those who commit attrocities or do we acceptt that the responsibility for the actions of an individual lie with the individual. Is it Just to blame Uganda for the actions of Amin for example or Cambodia for Polpot?

I feel sad about the transatlantic slave trade, I recognise it as an appalling abuse of human beings by human beings. I feel strongly that as the nation who led the way in abolishing slavery, we have a duty to mankind to tackle slavery wherever we find it, in the sex parlours of Glasgow, in the sweat shops of India, in the factories of China. But I will not join the apologetic throng sweeping the UK, blaming themselves for the Slave trade. Slavery was NOT YOUR FAULT, you have nothing to apologise for, you only have a duty as a human being to learn about the slave trade and to ensure that it can never be accepted that people in this world exist as slaves.