Previously unseen records have disclosed the true scale of Britain’s involvement in slave trade, revealing how wealthiest families, including those of the British Prime Minister David Cameron, reaped the benefits of the disgraceful practice.
According to a study by Dr Nick Draper who has examined 46,000 compensation papers in three years, one fifth of wealthy Victorian Britons obtained all or part of their fortunes from the slave economy, as they were given equivalent of billions of pounds in compensation from the government when slave ownership was abolished in Britain.
Hence, it is now very likely to have wealthy families all around the country, indirectly enjoying the proceeds of slavery passed to them.
Not surprisingly, among those who benefited from slavery were the PM’s ancestors who were given £4,101, equal to more than £3 million today, for the 202 slaves they forfeited on the Grange Sugar Estate in Jamaica.
According to the reports, parts of the money received by the rich in Britain after abolition was invested in the railways and other aspects of the industrial revolution, so it would not be hyperbolic to say that slavery had a significant role in the formation of modern Britain.
The database is available from today at: ucl.ac.uk/lbs.
Also find article from The Independent
