Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Britain's Massive Debt to Slavery


As reported in the UK Guardian, "Britain's massive debt to slavery: Today the records that detail just how much the trade in humans benefited the UK will be made public, by Catherine Hall, on 26 February 2013 -- Forgetting the violence, pain and shame that is an inevitable part of any country's historical record is a critical aspect of a nation's history. This disavowal of the past is an active process: forgetting Mau Mau, for example, and the brutality of the British response to it was done deliberately by occluding the archival record; it was only revealed by the patient work of determined survivors and dedicated historians.

Forgetting Britain's role in the slave trade began as soon as the trade was abolished in 1807. The abolitionist Thomas Clarkson's celebrated history of the campaign to end slavery focused on the work of white humanitarian men and their role in building a successful movement. He neglected not only the activism of black and female abolitionists but also the horrors of the trade itself, which he knew intimately.

A similar process took place in relation to emancipation in 1833. As soon as chattel slavery was abolished in the British West Indies, Mauritius and the Cape, the British began to congratulate themselves on their generosity. Abolition was redefined as a demonstration of Britain's commitment to liberty and freedom, and its claim to be the most progressive and civilised nation in the world.

In the language of the day, abolition was to wash away the sins of the nation. Yet the freedom that was granted by the imperial parliament to enslaved men and women was a relative one. They were to be "apprenticed" for four to six years – to work unpaid on the plantations for their former masters – while they "learned to labour". It took five more years of resistance in the Caribbean and campaigning "at home" to achieve "full freedom" in 1838.


What is more, £20m (equivalent to 40% of state expenditure in 1834) was paid in compensation by the British government to the slave owners to secure their agreement to the loss of "their" property – despite the fact that the moral basis of the campaign against slavery was that it was wrong to hold property in people. The "value" of the enslaved was judged according to the levels of their skill and the productivity of the colonies where they lived. An enslaved man in British Guiana was thus worth more than one in Jamaica, where productivity had declined; and men were worth more than women. This was yet another moment in the commodification of human beings – not now sold in the slave market but their price determined by colonial officials and settled in government offices.

Detailed records were kept of all those who claimed for compensation and those archives, never systematically studied before, throw new light on how the slavery business contributed in significant ways to Britain becoming the first industrial nation. Today, the encyclopedia that we have created using these archives goes online with free public access. It records the 46,000 individual claims which were made for compensation together with the information we have collected on the 3,000 or so Britons who lived in Britain but had property in people. These men and women (and there were a considerable number of women who lived off slave-ownership) were anxious that their identities as slave owners be forgotten. And until now they had been very successful.

Some of the direct descendants of slave owners are well-known: George Orwell, Graham Greene and Quintin Hogg – not to speak of the banks and legal firms built on slavery's profits. In focusing on slave owners, our purpose is not to name and shame. We seek to undo the forgetting: to re-remember, as Toni Morrison put it; to recognise the ways in which the fruits of slavery are part of our collective history – embedded in our country and town houses, the philanthropic institutions, the art collections, the merchant banks and legal firms, the railways, and the ways we continue to think about race. Slave owners were actively involved in reconfiguring race after slavery, popularising new legitimations for inequality that remain part of the legacy of Britain's colonial past. Captain Marryat, the son of a leading slave owner, and one of the most popular writers of naval fiction and children's stories, systematically racialised "others", creating hierarchies in which white Anglo Saxons were always at the top.

Across the Caribbean a movement is building for forms of restitution for the gross inequalities and underdevelopment that have persisted since the days of slavery. Their focus is on the state and governmental responsibility. In demonstrating Britain's debt to slavery, one of the ways in which modern Britain has benefited from and been disfigured by its colonial past, we hope we are contributing to a richer, more honest understanding of the connected histories of empire than is to be found in the parochialism and obsfuscations of Michael Gove's "island story".  (source: UK Guardian)

11 comments:

  1. Since the Samsung Galaxy N7000's screen is large, it makes maneuvering from one application to another very easy and convenient. Spec-wise, this $220 7-inch tablet is inferior to the $200 16 GB Nexus 7 in pretty much every way, except for having expandable memory and a rear-facing camera. Are you looking for more information on Samsung galaxy unlocked.

    Feel free to visit my web site ... samsung galaxy note

    ReplyDelete
  2. So it really is greater to decide a 5-8 mega pixel cam and pay out
    far more consideration to the Nikon digital camera batteries
    in its place. However, if you face a data loss situation,
    in absence of a valid backup, no need to worry. It is owner by Matt Furer who has
    been fixing cameras for 22 years.

    Have a look at my site: d7100

    ReplyDelete
  3. This article will help you find the best tablet PC.
    The rival has been bundled with replaceable Li-ion battery
    of 1500 m - Ah with the music playback time about 60 hours and also video playback time about 8 hours.

    Samsung galaxy has been developed as a star model that is available
    at best bargain deals.

    Here is my site; samsung galaxy tab 2

    ReplyDelete
  4. (Women believe this is true, whether they're from Fargo, Miami, or Sioux City. The latest offering in the Air series is the 11 and 13 inch laptops. Compared to the Mac - Book Professional especially, it has the slow processor.

    My homepage :: mac book air

    ReplyDelete
  5. For the better experience of audio-listening, HTC Desire C provides you
    with Beats Audio. Smartphone survey is an important app for
    Smartphone users that may keep them busy while giving some beneficial results.
    Moreover, it has been observed that Apple's i - Phone apps access personal data without asking user's
    permission the way it should be.

    My homepage; samsung galaxy s4

    ReplyDelete
  6. Find bargains for the family at local garage sales. The heat from
    the air moves into the cooled refrigerant. You paid a lot of
    money for the compressor to cool these coils,
    right.

    my web-site ... nest thermostat

    ReplyDelete
  7. S Voice has been advertised to do certain things Siri
    couldn't, like launch a camera app or a voice recording app, however I don't think I was
    able to get much out of S Voice. Equipped with the latest 3rd generation
    Intel Core series processors, a wide selection of
    ports, and up to 15 hours of real-world battery life,
    the T430 is one of the best business notebooks of 2012.

    On the other hand, Galaxy Note comes with three color choices – Black, White and Pink.


    My web blog :: galaxy s3

    ReplyDelete
  8. 5 MP is excellent resolution, but where and how can you achieve it.
    Canon cameras are the loved of millions of photographers who want to explore more sides of photography.
    While recording, you can also change the audio levels by using the touch wheel, so if
    the audio is riding a little too high, you can change on
    the fly.

    Here is my page canon 5d mark iii

    ReplyDelete
  9. Utilizing cloud storage requires that you have connectivity with the server.
    This is nothing to scoff at, but it does appear little compared to a 32
    GB micro SD card. You don't need additional plugins, VLC
    will do the magic.

    Take a look at my website :: kik for pc (ganardineroreal.com)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Your photo will be saved in your new album named as "Saved Pictures".
    Before they get married, she wants to speak out
    some things she's worried about. I think a Twitter Detox is in store for this weekend!


    my web site ... cydia sources - ,

    ReplyDelete
  11. Everyone loves it when folks get together and share ideas.
    Great blog, keep it up!

    Also visit my blog post: keraplex bio funciona (Fox.Noinyx.com)

    ReplyDelete

HOME

HOME
Click here to return to the US Slave Home Page