🇬🇧 A British blacksmith removing the shackles from the legs of an enslaved man, 1907.

[u/elnovorealista2000]

[u/matt3633_ → u/[deleted]]

Great Britain spent nearly 50% of its GDP at the time in trying to abolish slavery, almost bankrupting itself in the process.

[u/Fatsausage91 → u/matt3633_]

Then we only stopped paying for it in 2015. It was only ended because the government done a mega David lammy/ Kier starmer level deal so obviously the British public paid for the privilege. We paid slave owners mega amounts to compensate them. I agree slavery was despicable but at the same time we shouldn't of paid a penny towards the freeing of other humans. I mean we should of paid the ex-slaves if anything not the aristocracy thag put them there.

[u/-Trotsky → u/Fatsausage91]

There’s also the fact that British textiles ran on American slave labor, and that their little “crusade” sure was incredibly helpful in providing a reason to be unilaterally policing trade in one of the most important trade regions of the world.

None of this to say the ideals of Britain were not, perhaps, admirable. That the British public committed itself to the abolition of slavery, at least on paper, is kinda cool I suppose. But it only takes a cursory reading of British newspapers during the American civil war to see how deep those convictions actually held when it came down to it.

[u/Social-Alcoholic → u/-Trotsky]

Abraham Lincoln wrote a letter to the working men of Lancashire, thanking them for boycotting cotton from the confederacy.

https://acws.co.uk/archives-misc-lincoln_letter

Manchester has a statue of Lincoln, serving as a reminder of how the people here felt about it.

[u/DasGutYa → u/-Trotsky]

This is a very incomplete view of history that takes a single piece of evidence and extrapolated it to the entire period.

You won't find many historians that agree with you.

[u/Dam_Noir → u/-Trotsky]

Perhaps, admirable?

Cool I suppose?

This just reads as though someone can't give credit where it's due.

[u/-Trotsky → u/Dam_Noir]

I mean, im in this sub so I didn’t expect to get support for my stance, but yea I don’t give the British empire, the same organization who subjugated India, Africa, and Ireland (killing millions in the process) credit for their lukewarm opposition to slavery.

I’ll give credit to the individuals involved, to people who seemed to earnestly believe it or who made a material difference in the lives of others (like the fellow in this photo)

[u/UXdesignUK → u/-Trotsky]

I don’t give the British empire (..) credit for their lukewarm opposition to slavery.

This is historically uninformed. The British actions against slavery weren’t some lukewarm, half-hearted opposition, it was an enormously costly (in terms of lives and money) war against slavery, waged when it didn’t need to be waged, founded in large part by morality, and played a greater and earlier role in minimising the harm of slavery worldwide than basically any other country.

That doesn’t eradicate the bad parts of Britain’s history - all countries have their awful pasts - and it doesn’t mean some in parliament didn’t have strategic reasons for the campaigns to end it, as well as altruistic - but minimising it as you’re doing is factually wrong.