Research into the impact of the slave trade and its abolition.
Legacies of the Slave Trade
When colonial slavery was abolished in 1833 the British government paid £20 million to slave-owners as compensation for the loss of their "property". In today's terms that figure equates to around £16.5 billion. The enslaved received nothing.
Legacies of British slave ownership
Legacies of British Slave-Ownership is the umbrella for two projects based at University College London (UCL):
- The Legacies of British Slave-Ownership
- The Structure and Significance of British Caribbean Slave-Ownership 1763 to 1833.
UCL has produced a searchable and freely accessible database of all slave-owners in the British Caribbean at the time slavery ended. The starting point for this work was the records of the Slave Compensation Commission, which distributed the compensation to slave-owners.
The UCL database concerns slave-owners. Registers of the enslaved are held by the National Archives. Further information is also available from The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database.
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The Road to Abolition
Learn about the formation of the Committee for Effecting the Abolition of the African Slave Trade.
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Notable Legal Cases
Read about some of the notable legal cases concerning slavery and the slave trade.
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Slavery After 1807
Find out what happened following the Abolition Act in 1807.
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Women Against Slavery
Find out about women abolitionists and listen to our podcasts about women's involvement in the anti-slavery campaign.
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1834: The End of Slavery?
Slavery continued in some territories run by the East India Company as not all parts of the British Empire came under the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act.
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Legacies of the Slave Trade
When slavery was abolished, slave owners were compensated, the enslaved received nothing. Here we link to registers of both owners and the enslaved.
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Legacies of Slavery and Abolition in Listed Places
The National Heritage List for England includes our research into places with a connection to the slave trade and the campaign for its abolition.