Lloyd’s of London and Church of England also to be approached over role in past exploitation

  • rmuk@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    I wonder what they’re expecting? The British Empire was the first major world power to abolish slavery, decades or, sometimes, centuries before the others. They imposed a death penalty on slave traders, and the Carribbean island of Tortola (now in the Virgin Islands) was home to Kingstown, the first colony of freed slaves. The biggest opponent to the abolition of the slave trade was the royalty of Lagos, the ones who were actually farming the slaves and selling them; it took the British Royal Navy to put an end to them once and for all. The debts incurred by the British Empire from buying the slave’s freedom - and the Royal Navy policing the Atlantic and Carribbean seas looking for slave ships - were only paid off late in the 20th century.

    If they were serious, they’d be commemorating what the British Empire did to end a millenia-old tradition of people as property. Maybe they could do it in the crumbling ruins of St. Phillip’s Church?

    • DogMuffins
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      1 year ago

      They’re demanding reparations from the royal family, not the british empire. Apparently, they can trace financial benefits from the 1700s to King Charles III.

      Your proposed defense is basically that the practice of theft has been discontinued and that others were also thieves at that time.

    • tryptaminev 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      This is just ridicolous. The british royal family was massively involved in the slave trade.

      Also claiming the british empire was the first “major world power to abolish slavery” is rich, given that the empire became a world power because of slavery and genocidal colonization. Also it nicely ignores, that the british were still well involved in slave trade outside the mainland. A slave trade that was also genocidal, as hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans died even before reaching America.

      But British people skewing and denieing their history of slavery, genocide, robbery and brutal opression is typical. I hope the fallout of Brexit finally gets them off their high horse and onto the ground of reality.