The Price of Emancipation

Description:

"When colonial slavery was abolished in 1833, the British government paid £20 million to slave-owners as compensation: the enslaved received nothing. Drawing on the records of the Commissioners of Slave Compensation, which represent a complete census of slave-ownership, this book provides for the first time a comprehensive analysis of the extent and importance of absentee slave-ownership and its impact on British society. Moving away from the historiographical tradition of isolated case studies, it reveals the extent of slave-ownership amongst metropolitan elites, and identifies concentrations of both rentier and mercantile slave-holders, tracing their influence in local and national politics, in business, and in institutions such as the church. In analysipermeationermation of British society by slave-owners, and their success in securing compensation from the state, the book challenges convenarrativesrativess of abolitionist Britain and provides a fresh perspective of British society and politics on the eve of the Victorian era.

subjects: Emancipation,  Slaveholders,  Slavery,  Slaves,  History,  Slaves, emancipation,  Slavery, great britain,  West indies, british,  Slaves--emancipation--history,  Slaves--emancipation--west indies, british--history,  Slaveholders--history,  Slaveholders--west indies, british--history,  Slavery--history,  Slavery--west indies, british--history,  Slaves--emancipation--great britain--history,  Slaveholders--great britain--history,  Slavery--great britain--history,  Ht1073 .d73 2010,  306.3/620941,  Antislavery movements, great britain

Places: History,  Great Britain,  British West Indies