Why read The Price of Emancipation?

Book cover of The Price of Emancipation: Slave-Ownership, Compensation and British Society at the End of Slavery

Book description

When colonial slavery was abolished in 1833 the British government paid GBP20 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…

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European history

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Price of Emancipation as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Brooke Newman

Author

Based on painstaking analysis of the surviving records of the Commissioners of Slave Compensation, this book provides a comprehensive look at British slave-ownership in 1833, when the British government abolished colonial slavery and paid £20 million to slave-owners as compensation for their loss of human property. After emancipation the enslaved received nothing. Moreover, they were forced to remain on their plantations and continue to labor for their former masters under the apprenticeship system, which was not abolished until 1838. Draper concludes that slave-owning was widespread in metropolitan Britain and that many individuals, businesses, and institutions derived wealth from African slavery.

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From Brooke's list on The best books on Britain and Atlantic slavery.