Summary points:
The loan likely took so long (EDIT: to repay) because they kept refinancing it.
They paid the slaveholders. Not the slaves. This was not reparations to the enslaved for centuries of slavery…
In fact, they actually paid roughly half price for each slave and uh forced the former slaves to work as apprentices for 4 to 6 years to cover the rest of the cost. These apprentices received no compensation.
And then basically the entire history of the abolitionist movement in the UK was whitewashed, written about white abolitionists, many of whom were a ok with other forms of imperialism and colonialism, often directly profiting from it personally.
God forbid “owners” get hurt lol
Taxpayers had to make it right … There is a lesson in how this was handled and what we see today
And even after all that, some years later they started practicing Indentured Servitude, which was basically Slavery of the Poor.
Rented slaves
I won’t try to diminish or defend the massive hypocrisy or numerous ethical problems presented by the way the British government handled abolition. I’ll only say that it was better than doing nothing at all.
Better than a kick in the balls, as we like to call it
Unless you’re into that
The other option is violent revolution because groups of people can only be abused for so long before they end up at a point where they realize they either die enslaved or die trying to be free.
I think the Brits saw what happened in France earlier on and realized that you can’t abuse people too much, too far, for too long … because at one point, masses of people will start killing one another.
Those kind hearted poms…
Also remember all the shit that they stole, the atrocities they committed, and (continues to) lie about, from all of their colonies.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has a TV and Radio documentary series called “Stuff The British Stole”
I’m listening to this podcast, history of Africana philosophy, and is the first time I heard about history and the British empire, where they weren’t completely trash. Like they used the royal navy to patrol the African coast, capture slave ships and free the people onto Sierra Leone.
Oh they were complete trash
