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.

  • TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    Did anyone bother to read this article?

    1. No one is calling to cancel him
    2. Dyer explicitly says an epochal thinker
    3. Dyer then says he was apart of his time
    4. And the last third of the article is quotes from other academic all like “That groks.” Or “matches what I researched in this corner.”
    • nek0d3r@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      If anything, all I can really imagine that’s necessary is to not worship him. Kind of like when you get out of grade school and find out that the US founding fathers were not in fact gods, but disgusting men that were products of their time.

    • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
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      22 days ago

      It’s amazing how

      He was a part of his time

      And

      He was apart of his time

      Sound like total opposites. The latter makes no sense though

        • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
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          22 days ago

          I hate the way that now you can

          Write a poem that doesn’t scan

          If it doesn’t even line up right

          It’s just someone talking shite

          Especially if it doesn’t rhyme

          It’s definitely the fault of the people who invented haiku

          Cunts