The Price of Emancipation
Overview
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 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 among 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 analysing this permeation of British society by slave-owners and their success in securing compensation from the state, the book challenges conventional narratives of abolitionist Britain and provides a fresh perspective of British society and politics on the eve of the Victorian era.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9780521115254
- ISBN-10: 0521115256
- Publisher: Cambridge University Press
- Publish Date: December 2009
- Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.72 pounds
- Page Count: 416
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