Summary
A new book, Ricardo’s Dream by Nat Dyer, reveals that Sir Isaac Newton’s wealth was closely tied to the transatlantic slave trade during his tenure as master of the mint at the Bank of England.
Newton profited from gold mined by enslaved Africans in Brazil, much of which was converted into British currency under his oversight, earning him a fee for each coin minted.
While Newton’s scientific legacy remains untarnished, the book highlights his financial entanglement with slavery, a common thread among Britain’s banking and finance elites of the era.
Isn’t that contingent on a person’s parameters for what they consider humane? Good and evil are subjective concepts that will never be objective. Wouldn’t you agree the definition for what you are calling humanitarian department is constantly evolving? For example, it was considered humane to designate women as the caretaker and men as the provider but now the idea of taking away a man or women’s option for how they want to build their family’s framework is inhumane as fuck. Also I’m not implying anything about a family being between a man and women or any gender related shit. I simply mean to include the full range of our species’ sexes.
Edit for further context: what i mean is that the fault doesn’t always point to historic records omitting truths to fit a narrative. There are plenty of examples of the records being accurate, but societal parameters for what is considered humane or inhumane is what evolved.