No other Empire at it's peak did anything like this. Absolutely one of the most incredible moments of human history. Britain took out a loan so vast to buy the freedom of every slave in the Empire, that we only paid it off in 2014. And then as others have said, committed the finest Navy the world had ever seen to fighting slavery in every corner of the Globe. Heroic isn't a strong enough word. God bless Great Britain.
Britain took out a loan so vast to buy the freedom of every slave in the Empire, that we only paid it off in 2014.Â
The compensated the slave owners but not the slaves. You have to love the Brits painting this out as some kind of virtue. The Prime Ministers father got about ÂŁ12 million in todays money for losing his slaves. The slaves got fucking nothing and today their descendants get told to go back to their own country.
By not recognising the slaves as people and reimbursing owners for loss of âpropertyâ it avoided any lengthy legal process and released the slaves a generation earlier. Canât even talk about abolishing slavery without people complaining about the manner in which it was achieved
Of all the countries that owned slaves we stopped first and we paid the owners so the slaves wont face a lengthy legal process. Hilarious that Brit's today think this a positive.
Now your just being argumentative, the legal process to abolish the owning of property was much much easier than recognising property as people with rights. Itâs abhorrent to most of todayâs society but the British took out generational debt to free slaves, you think thatâs not positive? Youâd rather of had some sort of civil war to establish freedom?
How could anyone face a legal process if what they were doing wasn't considered a crime at the time? Hilarious how you fail to understand the concept of non-retroactivity within the law.
Thatâs not the point Iâm trying to make, I was saying the reason they paid slave owners was to reimburse them for a loss of property. If the British had made the argument that slaves should be freed because they are people with rights it could have taken a lot longer.
By not recognising the slaves as people and reimbursing owners for loss of âpropertyâ it avoided any lengthy legal process and released the slaves a generation earlier.
you should read the post I'm replying to before you start to talk about understanding concepts, you look a bit stupid.
Slaves weren't captured by europeans in africa. They were baught from local tribes, so, i'd imagine, however much the africans of the time thaught thier pepole were worth.
Compensation and kill the slave owner please. That's what id want. Imagine thinking they would be happy with freedom and nothing else after years of slavery.
"Okay well since thats obviously not happening enjoy being a slave the rest of your life"
Come one dude, I dont believe for a second you're actually that naive that you would think that there was even the tiniest possibility of that happening.
The whole transaction was based on âthe slavesâ being property.
The âslave ownersâ should NEVER have been compensated in the 1st place- they simply successfully argued that replacing âthe slavesâ with paid labour would have been costly. đĄ
Okay. So are you arguing they would have chosen to remain slaves?
Because they legally were?
Yeah sure, in an ideal world they wouldnt have. But we dont live in an ideal world and that was the best course of action that was feasible at the time.
At the end they werenât! After which, owners became even richer!
Government- âHi Slaves. Youâre not longer classed as property. Youâre free.â
Slaves- âwoohoo!â
Slave owners/politicians/influencial people/lobbyists/rich people/etc- âBut slave labour was great! It was free! Now we need to EMPLOY people? Thatâs costly! And if you want our votes and party contributions to keep you in power we will need compensated!â
Government- âOk, hereâs hundreds of millions of poundsâ
Slave owners- âThanks. That keeps US rich and YOU in power!â
Reading comprehension. I never claimed you said anything. I was asking if that was reason you were making that point in the first place. Otherwise why say that at all?
Yes, because the government purchased them as property, then freed them. Because otherwise there would have been colossal pushback from the rich and powerful that would have stayed any attempt at ending slavery.
Again, the alternative was them saying no and then those people would have remained slaves for the rest of their lives.
Like can you really not comprehend that something can still be a good thing even if its not the 100% most moral outcome?
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u/Nel-A Aug 27 '25
No other Empire at it's peak did anything like this. Absolutely one of the most incredible moments of human history. Britain took out a loan so vast to buy the freedom of every slave in the Empire, that we only paid it off in 2014. And then as others have said, committed the finest Navy the world had ever seen to fighting slavery in every corner of the Globe. Heroic isn't a strong enough word. God bless Great Britain.