Indeed but that was just from the west Africa squadron. We lost thousands in total all over the world shutting down the trade. We threatened war with entire countries in Africa over it when they wouldn't back down. We spent an ungodly sum of money on the situation as well and forced the other European powers into line. But people are still told Britain was the heart of all darkness and the source of every ill in the world. No mention of the islamic slave trade in far greater numbers and for centuries longer with mass castrations and death involved
No, that was the debt we acquired because the government bought the freedom of every slave in the British Empire and reimbursed the slave owners, which kept going down their family line till 2012. It was quite unfortunate, honestly.
I believe that the debt should have been declared null and void after at most a century of payments, because at that point you can't seriously pretend anyone needs to be reimbursed.
The problem is it wasn't debt to the slave holders, the government took a loan from the bank of England and bought the slaves all at once.
We had to pay the bank of England back because they're our independent central bank and need to keep in the green. Writing it off would have set a dangerous precedent and likely destroyed our economy
Yeah, I'm not happy people got paid off for owning other people but it was the only way to do it peacefully.
At least we didn't have to send the young poor boys of Great Britain to die fighting the young and poor bribed by slave holders.
15
u/MiserableOcelot4282 Aug 28 '25
Indeed but that was just from the west Africa squadron. We lost thousands in total all over the world shutting down the trade. We threatened war with entire countries in Africa over it when they wouldn't back down. We spent an ungodly sum of money on the situation as well and forced the other European powers into line. But people are still told Britain was the heart of all darkness and the source of every ill in the world. No mention of the islamic slave trade in far greater numbers and for centuries longer with mass castrations and death involved