It is reasonably well known that the UK abolished the Slave Trade in 1807 and created the West Africa Squadron in an attempt to suppress said trade worldwide. For this we are vilified these days on the grounds that if you do someone a good turn they will never forgive you.
It is also pointed out that we borrowed about £20 million to pay off the slave owners and even more frequently reminded that this loan was not finally repaid until 2015. The slaves themselves only got their freedom.
All this required legislation and guess who sat in the Houses of Parliament, you guessed it, loads of slave owners. It was highly predictable they were not going to give up their lucrative ways without compo.
I am not going to defend having an Empire nor am I going to defend the buying and selling of humans for profit. I find both of these completely wrong. Back around the year 1800 neither of these was considered wrong by a majority of countries and even people.
The Slave Trade enriched many people, the African Kings selling the slaves to the Europeans who transported them across the Atlantic and even the people who bought them at the other end of the voyage. There were massive profits to be made even when 20% or so of the slaves died on the voyage.
There is a theory that slavery in Great Britain has been illegal since the time of William the Conqueror and that merely setting foot in GB automatically made you a free man or woman. There was a court case where an American brought one of his slaves to this country and was not allowed to leave with what he considered his property. His property had become a free man simply by stepping ashore. It is probably wise to avoid mentioning the feudal system which was as close to slavery as you could get.
The West Africa Squadron did its best to suppress the trade and was eventually successful but along the way there were several road bumps or whatever the nautical equivalent is. There were strict rules about which ships could be stopped and in what circumstances. At least one American chap sued this Squadron and won.
When the squadron was established during the Napoleonic wars, few ships could be spared to patrol west Africa. We were also allies with the Portuguese and the Spanish against the French. This meant treading on eggshells when dealing with slave ships of those nations.
In 1815 Portugal banned the slave trade north of the Equator in return for a £750k payment from us, South of the Equator were Angola and Mozambique which still supplied slaves. In 1817 the Spanish abolished the slave trade. She also banned the importation of slaves in Spanish possessions beginning in 1820, this after we bunged them £400k. Grifting is nothing new.
As you can see there is the transportation of the slaves, the importation of slaves, the export of slaves and the buying and selling of slaves. There are also many in between steps. Just because a country banned the slave trade, it didn’t mean slavery was abolished. It basically meant that their merchants weren’t allowed to buy slaves in Africa and transport them to slave markets around the world. If someone else did that part, many countries were still in the market for these slaves. You may also note we had to bribe some of these countries to comply. The Islamic countries usually got a waiver for concubines in the ruler’s harem.
In the British Empire some colonies were still allowed to have slaves, For example slavery was not abolished in Bechuanaland, now Botswana, until 1936, Countries not only had to abolish slave trading but they also needed to make it a criminal offence. Chad only criminalised it in 2017. In the USA the 13th amendment prohibited slavery, Kentucky did not ratify it until 1976. The other point is that even if slavery is abolished, it needs to be policed to ensure there are no slaves. Even today there are estimates of 7 million Africans living in slavery and the odd case surfaces in this country where Middle Eastern types or those from the sub-continent are keeping slaves in their homes.
In 1926 the League of Nations created the Convention to suppress the slave trade and slavery. I believe every nation has now ratified this convention. Two of the last were Paraguay in 2007 and Kazakhstan in 2008. It has taken a while.
As far as reparations go it has to be a rat’s nest, Obviously nobody alive has ever been a slave traded by the British nor a slave in a British colony. If we are to pay reparations (Keith has said we won’t so get ready for it to happen) then who will get the money and who will pay. It is a racing certainty that many of the Caribbean chaps in the UK are descended from slaves. On the other hand is everyone in the West Indies descended from slaves, I suspect not. Some of the blacks were slave owners and others may have arrived since slavery was abolished. The more weary among us are certain the ruling class will snaffle all the money and the vast majority of people will not see a penny.
When we were impounding American ships involved in the slave trade, they were often unloaded in Nassau in the Bahamas and any slaves were set free and stayed in the Bahamas who are now clamouring for reparations. Slaves in ships captured in the Gulf of Guinea were either unloaded from whence they originated or freed in Sierra Leone. If you set an African ashore where his is not the ruling tribe he will probably be killed or re-enslaved hence Sierra Leone as a destination. I suppose technically these people were not slaves because they had not reached their destination. Bit of a tough call that one.
The West Africa Squadron captured about 6% of the transatlantic slave ships and freed around 150,000 Africans. Over 1,600 sailors died on duty with the Squadron, many from disease. Initially it was only allowed to operate against ships of enemy nations (the frogs then). Other nations were to be induced to stop by treaty but this was often half hearted. In 1820 the US Navy began to assist the Squadron
These days many lefties decry the work of the West Africa Squadron. It was too late, it was not done vigorously and so on. I think they did as much as they could with the available resources and the left always moan about everything.
Wait until the reparations bill becomes due, the left will be busy claiming exemption because they are the good guys. Will people in this country descended from slaves have to pay this money, are the Italians, Vikings and Danes going to pay us in reparations. It is a very slippery slope, OMG, not them as well.
The only thing that is certain is there will be a long line of grasping hands and we will be paying. Just wait and see how many countries decide they have suffered and need reparations.
© well_chuffed 2024