Most Britons do not know scale of UK’s involvement in slavery, survey finds
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Also I was never taught about our museums hoarding stolen objects from the places we went and acted like total assholes, and which they still won't give back in most cases. Some of them have great religious or cultural value and the peoples they were stolen from have asked for them back.
Yeah, I was definitely not taught about that!
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I feel like most of Europe isn't, because Europeans get real uppity when slavery in America comes up, but like...y'all started it.
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In England we aren't taught about our involvement in slavery in school and not taught much about slavery at all IIRC.
We aren't taught much about the former British empire, our treatment of the welsh and scottish, involvement in the Irish famines... Notice a pattern? Kids are usually only taught about the parts of our history which make us look good, or old stuff we can blame on weird old fashioned people. So the world wars and something about the monarchy eg henry 8th, plus our invasions by William the conqueror, the Vikings etc.
Most of what I know about slavery came from TV series and movies I've watched as an adult.
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The slave trade is a mandatory part of the curriculum at ks3. You've just forgotten. And it's pretty worts and all as far as Britain's involvement goes.
I agree with your sentiments though, everyone likes to mythologise their history.
That's good! I wonder how long that's been part of the curriculum (I'm getting on now lol) and if I could have forgotten. I remember a lot from when I was young.
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In England we aren't taught about our involvement in slavery in school and not taught much about slavery at all IIRC.
We aren't taught much about the former British empire, our treatment of the welsh and scottish, involvement in the Irish famines... Notice a pattern? Kids are usually only taught about the parts of our history which make us look good, or old stuff we can blame on weird old fashioned people. So the world wars and something about the monarchy eg henry 8th, plus our invasions by William the conqueror, the Vikings etc.
Most of what I know about slavery came from TV series and movies I've watched as an adult.
I learned quite a bit when i was in secondary school around 2010ish
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Most Britons probably don't know about how the British navy patrolled the African coast for 50 years trying to stop slavery. Its a recent TIL for me, anyway.
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I learned quite a bit when i was in secondary school around 2010ish
I learned what we did in Scotland from braveheart and outlander
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In England we aren't taught about our involvement in slavery in school and not taught much about slavery at all IIRC.
We aren't taught much about the former British empire, our treatment of the welsh and scottish, involvement in the Irish famines... Notice a pattern? Kids are usually only taught about the parts of our history which make us look good, or old stuff we can blame on weird old fashioned people. So the world wars and something about the monarchy eg henry 8th, plus our invasions by William the conqueror, the Vikings etc.
Most of what I know about slavery came from TV series and movies I've watched as an adult.
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I feel like most of Europe isn't, because Europeans get real uppity when slavery in America comes up, but like...y'all started it.
Nobody started it. It's ever-present from prehistory to today.
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Britons are widely ignorant of the scale and legacy of Britain’s involvement in slavery and colonialism, a survey has found, with the vast majority unaware how many people were enslaved, how long the trade went on for, or for how long UK taxpayers were paying off a government loan to “compensate” enslavers after abolition.
The poll, released to coincide with Tuesday’s UN International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, was commissioned by the Repair Campaign, which is working with Caricom to secure reparatory justice for member states through health, education and infrastructure projects.
The sample of more than 2,000 people representative of the UK population found 85% did not know that more than 3 million people had been forcibly shipped from Africa to the Caribbean by British enslavers.
....with the vast majority unaware how many people were enslaved, how long the trade went on for, or for how long UK taxpayers were paying off a government loan to “compensate” enslavers after abolition.
Talk about having your cake and eating it.
Taxpayers paying for the freedom of enslaved people shows how dedicated the British people were to ending the Atlantic slave trade. The fact that they try to use this as a negative in our history stuns me. You can spin it as "compensating slavers" but the fact is the person was free. And at that time the UK did everything in it's power to free as many as it could by any method.
Yes, the empire has it's history with slavery and British citizens were involved in the slave trade. However British sailors died fighting to end to transatlantic slave trade. Sometimes, I expect there was British on both sides.
If you're going to educate people about our history you have to teach the negatives and the positives, and not spin the one in to the other.
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....with the vast majority unaware how many people were enslaved, how long the trade went on for, or for how long UK taxpayers were paying off a government loan to “compensate” enslavers after abolition.
Talk about having your cake and eating it.
Taxpayers paying for the freedom of enslaved people shows how dedicated the British people were to ending the Atlantic slave trade. The fact that they try to use this as a negative in our history stuns me. You can spin it as "compensating slavers" but the fact is the person was free. And at that time the UK did everything in it's power to free as many as it could by any method.
Yes, the empire has it's history with slavery and British citizens were involved in the slave trade. However British sailors died fighting to end to transatlantic slave trade. Sometimes, I expect there was British on both sides.
If you're going to educate people about our history you have to teach the negatives and the positives, and not spin the one in to the other.
Ya the "we spent money" makes the writer seem like and idiot.
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Yes, the more notable thing is that, for some reason, the British decided the practice should end.
When it was no longer profitable.
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We had the Gandhi tapes on VHS for one day.
