Using a new website from University College London, http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/
you can look up the names of those who received compensation, and the amount, from the British government for freeing their slaves. Check the surnames in your family tree to get an idea of how widespread slave-ownership was.
For example, 79 individuals with surname Reid received compensation, some with just a couple, two with more 1000 slaves.
According to an article at http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/2013/02/27/database-lets-britons-find-slave-owning-ancestors/WGcxMmzgTxFpkjiTJ7jlDL/story.html "about 46,000 people were paid a total of 20 million pounds — the equivalent of 40 percent of all annual government spending at the time — after the freeing of slaves in British colonies in the Caribbean, Mauritius and southern Africa."
1 comment:
This is very interesting. I find it shocking that the slave trade formally lasted as long as it did. It is a good reminder to us even today. I understand that in 2013 there are more people in slavery around the world, many of the children, than in the time of Wilberforce. The human race has much to answer for.
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