Britain families who benefited from slaves trade
Slaves trade made some of Britain families very rich and powerful. There are well known families in Britain such as Prime Minister of Britain David Cameron's family benefited from slaves trade. However, there is not national or international day to remember atrocities that it was committed cause of slaves trade or those families who benefited from the slaves trade.They never apologise for what their ancestors did to others human being but they are still benefiting financial today cause of slaves trade. Back then, British government compensated the former slave owners but it didn't pay any penny for former slaves. Why! Let look in more details. The past unseen records confirm exactly who received what in payouts from the Government when slave ownership was abolished by Britain much to the potential embarrassment of their descendants. According to Dr Nick Draper from University College London, who has studied the compensation papers, says as many as one-fifth of wealthy Victorian Britons originated or part of their fortunes from the slave economy.
As a result, there are now wealthy families all around the UK still indirectly enjoying the proceeds of
slavery where it has been passed on to them. Dr Draper said: "There was a feeding frenzy around the
compensation." A John Austin, for instance, owned 415 slaves, and got compensation of £20,511, a sum worth
nearly £17m today. And there were many who received far more. Among those revealed to have benefited from slavery are ancestors of the Prime Minister, David Cameron, former
minister Douglas Hogg, authors Graham Greene and George Orwell, poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and the new chairman
of the Arts Council, Peter Bazalgette. Other prominent names which feature in the records include scions of one of
the nation's oldest banking families, the Barings, and the second Earl of Harewood, Henry Lascelles, an ancestor
of the Queen's cousin. Some families used the money to invest in the railways and other aspects of the industrial
revolution; others bought or maintained their country houses. George Orwell's great-grandfather, Charles Blair,
received £4,442, equal to £3m today, for the 218 slaves he owned. The British government paid out £20 millions to compensate some 3,000 families that owned slaves for the loss of their "property" (slaves) when slave-ownership was abolished in Britain's colonies in 1833. This figure represented a staggering 40 per cent of the Treasury's annual spending budget and, in today's terms, calculated as wage values, equates to around £16.5bn. A total of £10m went to slave-owning families in the Caribbean and Africa, while the other half went to absentee
owners living in Britain. The biggest single payout went to James Blair, an MP(member of parliament) who had
homes in Marylebone, central London, and Scotland. He was awarded £83,530, the equivalent of £65m today,
for 1,598 slaves he owned on the plantation he had inherited in British Guyana.
But this amount was dwarfed by the amount paid to John Gladstone, the father of 19th-century Prime Minister
William Gladstone. He received £106,769 (modern equivalent £83m) for the 2,508 slaves he owned across nine
plantations. His son, who served as prime minister four times during his 60-year career, was heavily involved
in his father's claim.
Another illustrious political family that it appears still carries the name of a major slave owner is the Hogg dynasty, which includes the former cabinet minister Douglas Hogg. They are the descendants of Charles McGarel, a merchant who made a fortune from slave ownership. Between 1835 and 1837 he received £129,464, about £101m in today's terms, for the 2,489 slaves he owned. McGarel later went on to bring his younger brother-in-law Quintin Hogg into his hugely successful sugar firm, which still used indentured labour on plantations in British Guyana established under slavery. And it was Quintin's descendants that continued to keep the family name in the limelight, with both his son, Douglas McGarel Hogg, and his grandson, Quintin McGarel Hogg, becoming Lord Chancellor. Quoted to Dr Draper "Seeing the names of the slave-owners repeated in 20th century family naming practices is a very stark reminder about where those families saw their origins being from. In this case I'm thinking about the Hogg family. To have two Lord Chancellors in Britain in the 20th century bearing the name of a slave-owner from British Guiana, who went penniless to British Guyana, came back a very wealthy man and contributed to the formation of this political dynasty, which incorporated his name into their children in recognition - it seems to me to be an illuminating story and a potent example." Mr Hogg refused to comment yesterday, saying he "didn't know anything about it". Mr Cameron declined to comment after a request was made to the No 10 press office. Another demonstration of the extent to which slavery links stretch into modern Britain is Evelyn
Bazalgette, the uncle of one of the giants of Victorian engineering, Sir Joseph Bazalgette and ancestor
of Arts Council boss Sir Peter Bazalgette. He was paid £7,352 (£5.7m in today's money) for 420 slaves
from two estates in Jamaica. Sir Peter said yesterday: "It had always been rumoured that his father had
some interests in the Caribbean and I suspect Evelyn inherited that. So I heard rumours but this
confirms it, and guess it's the sort of thing wealthy people on the make did in the 1800s. He could
have put his money elsewhere but regrettably he put it in the Caribbean."
The TV chef Ainsley Harriott, who had slave-owners in his family on his grandfather's side, said yesterday he was shocked by the amount paid out by the government to the slave-owners. "You would think the government would have given at least some money to the freed slaves who need to find homes and start new lives," he said. "It seems a bit barbaric. It's like the rich protecting the rich." Slavery on an industrial scale was a major source of the wealth of the British empire, being the exploitation upon which the West Indies sugar trade and cotton crop in North America was based. Those who made money from it were not only the slave-owners, but also the investors in those who transported Africans to enslavement. In the century to 1810, British ships carried about three million to a life of forced labour. Campaigning against slavery began in the late 18th century as revulsion against the trade spread. This led, first, to the abolition of the trade in slaves, which came into law in 1808, and then, some 26 years later, to the Act of Parliament that would emancipate slaves. This legislation made provision for the staggering levels of compensation for slave-owners, but gave the former slaves not a penny in reparation. More than that, it said that only children under six would be immediately free; the rest being regarded as "apprentices" who would, in exchange for free board and lodging, have to work for their "owners" 40 and a half hours for nothing until 1840. Several large disturbances meant that the deadline was brought forward and so, in 1838, 700,000 slaves in the West Indies, 40,000 in South Africa and 20,000 in Mauritius were finally liberated. To included Black people and African now you know why you never got apologise or compensation for
suffering of your ancestors and some part of your miseries in your live nowadays because the wealth families and powerful one in Britain today are the
beneficiaries from slaves trade.
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Your commentsEducation is the key for Africans. These leaders are comming to Africa and we still receiving them like Gods. But the same people who had benefited for sale of our brothers. Then they come here saying that they want to help Africans just like their ancestors. Please take way your aids. At least there should be a day where the world should stop to remember the suffering of our ancestors. But we can?t wait for white men to create this day for us. In place like in Africa and West Indies they should have bank holiday to remember the lost of their brother and sisters. The Jewish people have one, to remember the atrocities that it was committed against them. Why not Black people! I'm descendant of slaves and I still wordship my former master.I would prefered to go to live in England instead to found out my roots in Africa!Ignorant of Black men. We are paying high prices in our life today because of our ignorances and lack of education. I thanks My Continent to raise slaves issue in their platform. For Black people to be able to achieve their rights,they need to be educated Once the European entered Africa that was when this parasitic capitalism system was born, and our suffering started from then. we went from slavery, colonialism and now neo-colonial. we must unite and form an African internationalism socialist party, that would give the African proletariat ( workers) and peasant to control our resources. Finally free from exploitation, imperialism and injustice. Don't forget the Africans who took European slaves. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_slave_trade |