Compensation For Slavery Should We Demand It?

NCLF Newsletter Editor picks Leading Stories from 2013 No.3

Independent Newspaper Headlines Sunday 24 February 2013 reads:

Britain’s colonial shame: Slave-owners given huge payouts after abolition

NCLF REPORTS: Various news media, including the Independent Newspaper, reported this month that the equivalent of 16bn was paid out to wealthy families who were compensated when slavery was abolished in Britain’s colonies during 1838.

These families are said to include the descendants of well known politicians of our day – including those of the Prime Minister David Cameron. However, benefactors of these extraordinary payouts by the Government of the day were also British families who ordinarily would not have experienced such wealth.

The revelations came to light following three years of research, led by Dr Nick Draper and his team of academics of University College London who have compiled over 46,000 documents with the full details of each family and the figures involved.

The findings have renewed the debate over reparations for the descendants of enslaved Africans in the Caribbean who received no compensation for the wrongs done to them and who continued to suffer under the slow process of emancipation, colonialism and neocolonialism. The Barbadian government has been a leader in calling for reparations.

A full breakdown of who actually received these monies is now available for the public to view online via University College London website.