The History of Slave Traders of Old & in the modern climate

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Britain's businesses confront slavery legacy: Some of UK's top firms were built up from compensation paid to former slave owners, says MAGGIE PAGANO 

When the British government abolished slavery in 1833, around 47,000 individuals involved in the slave trade were compensated for the 'property' they had lost overseas.The property in question referred to the men, women and children whom they owned as slaves, as well as the plantations. To compensate for their loss of slaves, the UK paid out £20m.

The debt was only paid back in 2015. Academics at University College London have created a database which tracks the slave-owners who benefited.

The sums paid out are not to be sneezed at: Benjamin Greene, founder of the Greene King brewery and pubs chain, was granted nearly £500,000 in today's money when he surrendered rights to three plantations in the West Indies. 

Simon Fraser, one of the founder members of the Lloyd's of London insurance market, was given nearly £400,000 to surrender an estate in Dominica.

The Bank of England apologised for its part in the kidnapping and transportation of thousands of slaves, promising to remove portraits of those involved in this 'unacceptable part of English history'.

Greene King and Lloyd's of London were also quick to apologise for their past role in the slave trade after news of their links were published. 

They have offered to make amends for their slave legacy, saying they will fund projects to help black and other ethnic minorities. They are right to do so, and to have reacted so promptly.

Cynics might say they did so to avoid any damage done to the brand if those same protesters who have been pulling down statues of slave-owners were to boycott their pints or insurance services. 

That view seems unfair. Greene King's boss, Nick Mackenzie, sounded genuinely mortified by the brewery's 'inexcusable' past. 

More pertinently – and more importantly for future generations – he said the company's website would be updated to include the history of its slave-owner founder. 

Similar contrition has been shown by Lloyd's of London, and the insurer will also be contributing to charities. But the banks, which also have links to the slave trade – Lloyds, RBS, HSBC and Barclays – have yet to comment on the UCL report.

Many will question where this thirst for raking over history will take us. Should every company in Britain, which was in existence at the relevant time, go through its archive to see what lies buried?

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16 comments

SAW THE piece on the news about the 'red skins'    &  'choccos,     dear lord,  what next,   people looking for inuendo where there is none,      

Humans are not alone in having slavery figure for much of its history over the past 6000 years, and no doubt long before. The slave making ant is a social parasite that raids broods of other ants to work in its nest after hatching.

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16 comments



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