Transcript
0:00I'm in the Rijksmuseum right now in Amsterdam
0:03I'm in a room that is covered with ship models and model ships
0:07many of these are from the Dutch Golden Age of quote
0:12unquote golden age of exploration
0:14trading and colonization
0:17one ship in particular that caught my attention was this tall
0:21masted white ship in the centre of this exhibit display
0:26there's a small plaque in a dark corner of the museum
0:29that explains what this ship is
0:32the extra wide hull and the extra tall masts
0:36identify this as a Dutch merchant ship
0:39specialising in the trade of enslaved people
0:43the ship is named as the White Elephant De Witte Olifant
0:47and it was specifically designed for the African slave trade
0:50the most disturbing part about this ship is the tall masts
0:54you can see that from all of the other ships in the display
0:58that one has clearly the highest and tallest masts for the largest sails
1:03the reason that it needed those sails
1:06was to go as fast as possible across the Atlantic
1:10because the human beings would die
1:13even with these ships being the most high speed of any of the Dutch ships
1:18at the time still close to one quarter of the human beings on board
1:24who were being brought across the Atlantic
1:27as enslaved workers would die in the crossing
1:32the fact that these new ships were designed faster
1:36with bigger and taller masks
1:38for this explicit purpose
1:40really shows us the fallacy at the root of the saying capitalism
1:45breeds innovation because really
1:48exactly what sort of innovation is being bred here
1:52it's gut wrenchingly awful and painful
1:56slavery was an abomination
1:58and the Rijksmuseum needs to do a better job contextualizing
2:01and condemning this barbaric practice
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