Most Britons do not know scale of UK’s involvement in slavery, survey finds
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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.
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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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.
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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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.
Good to know I'll have to teach my kid this stuff myself. Anyone got a friendly educational series they like, or are we just gonna be doing Behind the Bastards and frowning hella hard together as a family
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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 think most nations have similar lapses. I attended university in my late 40's and none of my younger classmates had ever heard of the October crisis that led to "Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (to invoke) the War Measures Act for the first time in Canadian history during peacetime."
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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.
It was covered a bit when I was in school. Although the main focus was "yeah we did some bad slavery stuff. But we got rid of slavery much sooner than America and some other countries did!"
So it wasn't exactly done in the best of ways. Although at the risk of repeating that same approach, as someone else here mentioned I think that's the case with pretty much every country that enslaved or abused people.
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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.
Wait until everyone realizes that everyone has been a slave since ancient civilization on every continent in the world.
They might be surprised.
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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.
We learnt about it at school, but England has a lot of history to learn and other than “it’s bad” it doesn’t exactly have a whole lot of relevance as far as applications go. The modern issues with racism are a bit more nuanced than “people who look different are animals”.
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Knowing the history of Great Brittan and not feeling immense and extreme sorry, pity and shame is the beginnings of being a psychopath.
Brittan for long periods of time is right up there with the Nazis and Soviets. They show you what happens when the bad guys win.
True and we did a lot of it to people who looked similar to us and lived on the same small island.
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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.
Andrea Levy explores that in this essay.
The whole essay is great and I recommend it.
"But all this happened 3,000 miles away from Britain, and as a result it has been possible for it to quietly disappear from British mainstream history. This is the absence, the gap in knowledge, the amnesia of the British that made the black man on the bus such an alien. It is unthinkable that a book on American history could leave out plantation slavery in the southern states. But in British history books the equivalent is the case, or at least the importance of those centuries of British slavery in the Caribbean is underplayed. That British plantation slavery has no lasting legacy for this country is absurd, but it is a claim that is made implicitly by this silence. It was so very long ago, it seems to say, we don’t need to dredge it up.
I remember what I was taught at school about Britain in the Caribbean. I had one lesson on the transatlantic slave trade. We looked at illustrations of slaves in ships. But that was all. I learned much more about William Wilberforce and the campaign for the abolition of slavery than anything about the life of a slave. We know more about slavery in the American South than in the British Caribbean. We are familiar with the struggles of African Americans from the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement. But American slavery was different from Caribbean slavery. In the Caribbean, slaves far outnumbered the white owners, and that mix of isolation, fear and dependency produced very different societies from those of the American South. America’s story will not do for us. Our legacy of slavery is unique, and we need to understand what it is."
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It was covered a bit when I was in school. Although the main focus was "yeah we did some bad slavery stuff. But we got rid of slavery much sooner than America and some other countries did!"
So it wasn't exactly done in the best of ways. Although at the risk of repeating that same approach, as someone else here mentioned I think that's the case with pretty much every country that enslaved or abused people.
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.
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We learnt about it at school, but England has a lot of history to learn and other than “it’s bad” it doesn’t exactly have a whole lot of relevance as far as applications go. The modern issues with racism are a bit more nuanced than “people who look different are animals”.
The scots, welsh, Irish etc don't look much different and one point of relevance is that African countries are asking for reparations. Also various places want their stolen objects back from our museums.
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True and we did a lot of it to people who looked similar to us and lived on the same small island.
It was legitimately everyone it was done to. There was a true global empire that is unlikely to ever be replicated. It hard to comprehend just how much of the world was subjugated.
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It was legitimately everyone it was done to. There was a true global empire that is unlikely to ever be replicated. It hard to comprehend just how much of the world was subjugated.
So the silver lining is that at least we fucked over everyone equally. It really does prove the adage that the bullied become the bullies, since we'd been invaded many times.
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And I thought we (the US) were the only ones this dumb.
dumbuneducated. -
So the silver lining is that at least we fucked over everyone equally. It really does prove the adage that the bullied become the bullies, since we'd been invaded many times.
That isn't the lesson you should have taken from this.
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That isn't the lesson you should have taken from this.
The first part was irony
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Wait until everyone realizes that everyone has been a slave since ancient civilization on every continent in the world.
They might be surprised.
Yes, the more notable thing is that, for some reason, the British decided the practice should end.
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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.
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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The scots, welsh, Irish etc don't look much different and one point of relevance is that African countries are asking for reparations. Also various places want their stolen objects back from our museums.
Also various places want their stolen objects back from our museums.
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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!
