Thursday, August 6, 2015

Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners

Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners Roberta Estes blogs about Britain's over 200 years of slave ownership before the abolition of slavery in 1834. You can read her comments at:
http://dna-explained.com/2015/08/01/britains-forgotten-slave-owners/

When slavery was abolished, slave owners were compensated. There is a database of slave owners who received compensation at:
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/project/context/
In some cases there is biographical information.

Roberta also provides links to two BBC documentaries. I've only viewed the first, called Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners Episode 01
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=10&v=ENBYl8SaA3I
What astounded me was not only the tremendous amount of money paid out to the former slave owners for their loss of property, but just how many Brits were actually slave owners. The very wealthy ones with large plantations were concentrated in London, Bristol and Liverpool. as expected, but small slave owners were spread throughout the country and included clergyman, widows and many in Scotland.
Source: OGS, Toronto Branch

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