Louise Welsh states that we are not taught the history of slavery in our schools (We can't hide our dirty secret, Comment, October 11). Unfortunately this is very obvious from her unrealistic picture of slavery. This abhorrent trade has been ever present throughout recorded history.

The much admired founders of democracy, the ancient Greeks, kept slaves and so did the Romans. When they invaded Britain the Romans recorded that the Celts practised slavery. The Norse invaders took vast numbers of prisoners and sold them into slavery at a massive slave market in Dublin. But it was not only Europeans who took slaves. There were frequent raids on the coastal towns of these islands by the Barbary Corsairs. Islam prohibited the enslavement of believers so they sold European and African non believers into slavery.

Ms Welsh fails to consider that the frequency of Scottish names in the Caribbean could also reasonably have come from the large number of Highlanders who were sent there as slaves after the 45 Rebellion by the English.

I approve strongly of helping countries less fortunate then ourselves but let us do it for the right reasons and not out of masochistic national self-loathing.

David Stubley

Prestwick