page_title: Slavery in Britain
section_title: Modern evaluations of economic impact
hierarchical_section_title: Slavery in Britain / Modern evaluations of economic impact
caption_attribution_description: English: Plate entitled "To the friends of Negro Emancipation", celebrating the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. (Having abolished the slave trade in 1807, popular interest in the issue of slavery declined. However, the revival of anti-slavery agitation, political reform campaigns at home and a massive slave rebellion in Jamaica in 1831 brought the issue to public notice. From 1830 the Anti-slavery Society campaigned for emancipation across all Britain’s colonies. An Abolition of Slavery Bill was eventually passed by parliament in 1833 with abolition set to take place in 1834. £22 million was paid to planters as compensation, although true freedom was not achieved until 1838. Creator: Rippingille, Alexander [artist] (1796-1858); Lucas, David [engraver]; Moon, Francis Graham [publisher] Credit line: National Maritime Museum, London)
context_page_description: Slavery in Great Britain existed and was recognised from before the Roman occupation until the 12th century, when chattel slavery disappeared, at least for a time, after the Norman Conquest. Former slaves merged into the larger body of serfs in Britain and no longer were recognized separately in law or custom.
  From the 17th century into the 19th century, transportation to the colonies as a criminal or an indentured servant served as punishment for both serious and petty crimes, or for simply being poor and viewed as an 'undesirable', facilitated by the Transportation Act of 1717. During the same period, workhouses employed people whose poverty left them no other alternative than to work under forced labour conditions.
context_section_description: Historians and economists have debated the economic effects of slavery for Great Britain and the North American colonies. Many analysts, such as Eric Williams, suggest that it allowed the formation of capital that financed the Industrial Revolution, although the evidence is inconclusive. Slave labour was integral to early settlement of the colonies, which needed more people for labour and other work. Also, slave labour produced the major consumer goods that were the basis of world trade during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries: coffee, cotton, rum, sugar, and tobacco. Slavery was far more important to the profitability of plantations and the economy in the American South; and the slave trade and associated businesses were important to both New York and New England.
  In 2006, the then British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, expressed his deep sorrow over the slave trade, which he described as "profoundly shameful". Some campaigners had demanded reparations from the former slave trading nations.
  In recent years, several institutions have begun to evaluate their own links with slavery. For instance, English Heritage produced a book on the extensive links between slavery and British country houses in 2013, Jesus College has a working group to examine the legacy of slavery within the college, and the Church of England, the Bank of England, Lloyd's of London and Greene King have all apologised for their historic links to slavery. UCL has developed a database examining the commercial, cultural, historical, imperial, physical and political legacies of slavery in Britain (see 'external links').
caption: "To the friends of Negro Emancipation", celebrating the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.
exif: {}