BBC WORLD NEWS Middle East

David Olusoga

Chris Granlund

James Van Der Pool

Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners: Profit and Loss

Documentaries

Factual: History

Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners: Episode One

05/08/2017 GMT

Profit and Loss

Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners

BBC World News - Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners, Profit and Loss

Historian David Olusoga uncovers the untold stories of Britain's slave owners.

Documentary. David Olusoga discovers the price of the abolition of slavery. Huge sums of money were paid out in compensation, not to slaves, but to the slave owners.

In 1834 Britain abolished slavery, a defining and celebrated moment in our national history. What has been largely forgotten is that abolition came at a price. The government of the day took the extraordinary step of compensating the slave owners for loss of their 'property', as Britain's slave owners were paid 17bn GBP in today's money, whilst the slaves received nothing.

For nearly 200 years, the meticulous records that detail this story have lain in the archives virtually unexamined - until now. In an exclusive partnership with University College London, historian David Olusoga uncovers Britain's forgotten slave owners. Forensically examining the compensation records, he discovers the range of people who owned slaves and the scale of the slavery business.

What the records reveal is that the slave owners were not just the super-rich. They were widows, clergymen and shopkeepers - ordinary members of the middle-classes who exploited slave labour in distant lands. Yet many of them never looked a slave in the eye or experienced the brutal realities of plantation life.

In Barbados, David traces how Britain's slave economy emerged in the 17th century from just a few pioneering plantation owners. As David explores the systemic violence of slavery, in Jamaica he is introduced to some of the brutal tools used to terrorise the slaves and reads from the sadistic diaries of a notorious British slave owner. Elsewhere, on a visit to the spectacularly opulent Harewood House in Yorkshire, he glimpses how the slave owners' wealth seeped into every corner of Britain.

Finally, amongst the vast slave registers that record all 800,000 men, women and children in British hands at the point of abolition, David counts the tragic human cost of this chapter in our nation's history.

BBC World News

BBC  World News

Illuminating two-part series that reveals the forgotten price of the abolition of slavery.

Illuminating two-part series that reveals the forgotten price of the abolition of slavery and how its lasting impact has affected British society.

Illuminating two-part series that reveals the forgotten price of the abolition of slavery and how its lasting impact has affected British society. In 1833 Britain abolished slavery, a defining and celebrated moment in history. But it came at a price. Forty percent of the country's financial budget - £16.5 billion in today's money - was used to compensate the former slave owners. Exploring this extraordinary step taken by the British government, this series uses meticulously detailed records of the compensation to reveal the sheer scale of slavery across all social classes. At the same time, it also examines the political storm that surrounded abolition and emancipation - the 25 years of bitter argument that eventually led to compensation. The mass injection of cash that followed fundamentally changed British society - financially, politically, commercially, and culturally. Forgotten Slave Owners offers a fascinating, in-depth look at a key moment in British history - a time of great change that continues to be felt today.


BBC WORLD NEWS Europe

BBC WORLD NEWS Asia Pacific

BBC WORLD NEWS South Asia

BBC WORLD NEWS Latin America

The BBC's international 24-hour news and information channel, as seen by viewers in Africa.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners

Profit and Loss

Contributors

Genres

Formats

Series

BBC WORLD NEWS Middle East

About BBC World News