Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners

Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners (2015)

EndedDocumentary showHistory

Historian David Olusoga finds out about Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners and, as he forensically examines the compensation records, he learns about the surprising range of people who owned slaves. This illuminating two-part series 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. Britain's 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.

Network
Scheduleevery Wednesday at 21:00 (30 min)

Last Episode

The Price of Freedom
Season 1Episode 230 min

The Price of Freedom

Historian David Olusoga continues his examination of Britain's forgotten slave owners. In this episode, David explores how in 1834 the government arrived at the extraordinary decision to compensate the slave-owners with the equivalent of £17 billion in today's money. Tracing the bitter propaganda war waged between the pro-slavery lobby and the abolitionists, he reveals that paying off the slave owners for the loss of their human property was, ultimately, the only way to bring the system to an end.

Meticulously kept records held at the National Archives detail the names of the 46,000 slave owners from across the British Empire who had a slice of this vast handout. Combined with new research, shared exclusively with the BBC by University College London, it reveals more about Britain's slave owners than we've ever known before.

Of the 46,000 names in the 1834 compensation records, 3,000 lived in Britain, yet they owned half of the slaves across the empire and pocketed half of the compensation money. These include members of the clergy and of the House of Lords. The records also show that at the point of abolition, more than 40 percent of all the slave owners were women.

David goes on to investigate what happened to the wealth generated by the slave system and compensation pay out. He reveals aspects of Britain's spectacular industrialization in the 19th century, the consolidation of the City of London as a world center of finance, and a number of the country's most well-known institutions that all have links to slave-derived wealth.

Ultimately, David discovers that the country's debt to slavery is far greater than previously thought, shaping everything from the nation's property landscape to its ideas about race. It's a legacy that can still be felt today.

Jul 22, 2015

Recent Episodes

EpisodeNameAirdate
S01E02The Price of FreedomJul 22, 2015
S01E01Profit and LossJul 15, 2015
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Cast

David Olusoga

David Olusoga

plays Himself (Presenter)
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Characters

Himself (Presenter)

Himself (Presenter)

played by David Olusoga
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