The letter, "Slave trade history no simple matter," (Sept. 12), is an appalling example of the false narratives slavery apologists use to support their bigoted views. While Africans and Arabs did conduct a slave trade in Africa, and most kidnapped Africans went to places other than the present U.S., that doesn't excuse the slave trade here or the demand for slaves that fueled the system. Even slaveholder Thomas Jefferson recognized the unique cruelty of the Middle Passage, which he called "an execrable commerce," in the original draft of the Declaration of Independence.

To twist the horrors of the Middle Passage into something anyone should be grateful for is outrageous. The author ignores the dehumanizing legacy of race-based slavery as practiced in the U.S., which continues today; see who's in our prisons.

The stories of black slaveholders are very rare exceptions, not a justification. The slave trade began centuries of European exploitation of Africa for its human and material resources, establishing patterns of violence and creating borders that group peoples with a history of conflict, resulting in conditions he blames solely on Africans. The author cherry-picks history to suit his self-justifying views; "hastily weighing in," indeed.

Craig Edwards

Mystic