From The Metro:
Major British companies and institutions founded using the profits of slavery will be highlighted by a new study.
An online database of all the slave owners in the country at the time of abolition in 1833 will be created to trace how their wealth was used. This will be the first in-depth study of how the owners were involved in events such as building the railways. UCL's three-year study is funded by £613,000 from the Economic and Social Research Council.
UCL means University College London, which is largely State-funded, and the Economic and Social Research Council..? Ah ... see here:
"We are an independent organisation, established by Royal Charter, but receive most of our funding through the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. Our planned expenditure for 2008/09 is £203 million, which funds over 2,500 researchers in academic institutions and policy research institutes throughout the UK. We also support more than 2,000 postgraduate students."
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5 comments:
I am not prepared to be responsible for the sins of my Father.
I would also respectfully suggest that we would be better off trying to free the 20 odd million people that are still in slavery TODAY.
Far more in total than the British were ever responsible for.
I seem to recall that Tim Worstall had a bunch of things about how Britain spent far more on its navy disrupting the global slave trade than it made from it.
I'm sure that will also be mentioned.
JE, make that "the sins of my great-great-great-great-great-grandfather", apart from that, agreed.
TA, I vaguely remember that, what really rankles is the fact that the gummint is funding this (as NC points out) via a fakecharity, my particular bugbear - if people want to research this privately, then good luck to them.
One generation of my family poured much of its wealth into paying for the teaching of the children of Nyasaland to read. Do I get some sort of knighthood for it?
The vast majority of slaves who were transported across the Atlantic were enslaved and sold by Africans. Perhaps we should fund a study into how the Africans who made money from the slave trade used their wealth?
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