Recent remarks by U.S. conservative commentator Candace Owens alleging that Jewish people controlled the Atlantic slave trade have drawn sharp criticism from historians and civil rights advocates, who describe the claims as historically false and rooted in long-standing antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Scholars across ideological and religious lines say the Atlantic slave trade was a vast, state-driven enterprise dominated by European imperial powers, particularly Portugal, Spain, Britain, France and the Netherlands. The system relied on government-chartered companies, colonial administrations, insurers and plantation economies, structures from which Jewish communities were largely excluded during the 15th to 18th centuries.
Historians note that Jews in Europe during this period were a small, frequently persecuted minority, subject to expulsions, restrictive laws and violence. These conditions limited their access to political authority, military rank and membership in the powerful trading companies that controlled transatlantic commerce, including the slave trade.
While researchers acknowledge that a small number of Jewish individuals, like members of many other groups, owned slaves or participated in slave-related commerce in societies where slavery was legal, evidence shows such involvement was marginal. Studies indicate Jewish ownership of slave ships, plantations and major trading firms represented only a tiny fraction of the overall system.
Experts also point out that claims portraying Jews as central architects of the slave trade originate not from peer-reviewed scholarship but from polemical and extremist sources that have been widely discredited. These narratives, critics warn, recycle tropes of secret control and disproportionate influence that have historically fueled discrimination and violence against Jewish communities.
Analysts stress that rejecting these claims does not diminish the brutality of slavery or obscure responsibility. The moral and historical accountability, they say, rests with the imperial governments, colonial elites and economic systems that legalized and profited from human bondage.
Observers argue that the renewed spread of such assertions underscores the need for accurate historical education, particularly as influential media figures reach large audiences. They caution that misinformation framed as “hidden history” risks inflaming prejudice rather than fostering understanding of the complex realities of the past.
