Statues of Jamaican National Hero Samuel
Sharpe and his followers in Sam Sharpe Square, Montego Bay. Sharpe was
executed in 1832, two years before Emancipation and six years before
'Full Freedom'.-FILE
Tracking down who cashed in on Britain's pay-off
So we know the families in Britain who benefited from slavery's riches, but what do we know about those in Jamaica?
Our research team intends to find out. But first, when noted historian and the late prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Eric Williams, published Capitalism and Slavery in 1944, he argued that the transatlantic trade in Africans and plantation slavery provided the impetus for Britain's industrial advancement.
Though controversial at the time, Williams has since been vindicated, as there is copious evidence linking Britain's rise as an industrial superpower to the exploitation of enslaved Africans and the creation of an Atlantic trading system that channelled mind-numbing wealth to their society. After all, Britain was Europe's (if not the world's) leading military and commercial power, and this advantage led to their dominating the human trafficking of enslaved Africans to plantations in the Americas.
The benefits of this system of trade and exploitation to the wider British society are significant: a vast amount of wealth generated from slavery was invested and reinvested in railroads, shipbuilding, insurance, the financial sector, the arts, the physical landscape, shopkeeping, and just about every conceivable facet of British society.
This level of wealth, and the way it pervaded the society, was the scaffold on which Britain achieved a second and more lasting Industrial Revolution. Therefore, the decision to abolish slavery in 1833 came as a huge financial blow to those who invested vast amounts of capital in slavery and the plantation system.
Emancipation also had far-reaching implications for the powerfully connected absentee owners. To soften the financial fallout, the compromise between the British government and the enslavers was for a term of Apprenticeship (where the period of enforced labour was extended for a fixed term of six years); and, most important, an unprecedented payment to enslavers of £20 million, or today's equivalent of £17 billion.
This bailout to enslavers represented a staggering 40 per cent of British public expenditure in 1834. The magnitude of the payout is more startling when compared to the miserly £19.9 million in today's money paid to the veterans of Kenya's Mau Mau conflict who suffered unimaginable brutality in their fight for liberation from British colonialism.
In order to facilitate the payments to enslavers, the British Parliament created the Compensation Commission, to which enslavers had to file claims before any monies could be disbursed. These claims were then investigated to ascertain their veracity.
Known collectively as the 'Compensation Claims', they are a rich source of data. For instance, information can be gleaned on the name, gender, and title of the claimants; the colony and parish for which the claim was made; the type of property specific to the claim (pens, coffee or sugar plantations, etc.); the number of enslaved people attached to the claim; and, most important, the value attributed to each claim.
Research reveals that almost 46,000 claims were submitted for 21 colonies, stretching from the Caribbean to Mauritius and the Cape Colony (part of modern-day South Africa). In short, a systematic analysis of the compensation records provides important insight into the nature of the ownership of enslaved people during the crucial period of transition from slavery to freedom.
More important, it allows researchers to 'follow the money'. As the researchers at the University College of London have shown, it is possible to trace in what ventures enslavers invested their monies. We now know that more than half of the £20 million paid in compensation stayed in Britain and that most of this money, as stated before, was reinvested in the financial sector, railroads, cultural institutions and other ventures.
It is worth highlighting that not all enslavers were absentees living in Britain. Jamaica, being the largest and most profitable British colony, had a sizeable white resident population comprising those who, like their counterparts in Britain, filed claims and received substantial compensation.
However, very little is known of claims filed and compensation received by resident Jamaican enslavers. Our team will examine the compensation claims filed by resident Jamaican enslavers.
Already, our preliminary findings show that 16,114 claims were filed for enslaved people in Jamaica by enslavers living in Britain, the United States, and throughout the Atlantic world, totalling £10.98 million, or roughly £9 billion in today's money. However, the great majority of claims, some 13,000, were filed by enslavers who resided in Jamaica and whose total compensation package amounted to £4.10 million, or the equivalent of over £3 billion in today's money.
largest disbursement
From the records, we have ascertained that 2,764 were filed for the parish of Kingston, while St Thomas in-the-East (now the parish of St Thomas) ranked highest as the parish for the largest disbursement of money, £943,755.
Analysis of the preliminary research findings not only demonstrates that the records point to the wide disparity in compensation paid to absentees living in Britain and residents in Jamaica, but it also raises other intriguing questions about plantation slavery and its legacy on the island.
For example: Who really were the resident enslavers? How much did each receive as compensation? In what ventures did they invest their monies, and what are the commercial, cultural, and physical legacies of their investments in Jamaican society today? In other words, are there Jamaicans and/or Jamaican businesses that continue to benefit from the material gains of slavery?
These are important questions that our research team intends to answer, and, more broadly, will help in facilitating the long overdue conversation on slavery and its continued legacy in Jamaica.
So we know the families in Britain who benefited from slavery's riches, but what do we know about those in Jamaica?
Our research team intends to find out. But first, when noted historian and the late prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Eric Williams, published Capitalism and Slavery in 1944, he argued that the transatlantic trade in Africans and plantation slavery provided the impetus for Britain's industrial advancement.
Though controversial at the time, Williams has since been vindicated, as there is copious evidence linking Britain's rise as an industrial superpower to the exploitation of enslaved Africans and the creation of an Atlantic trading system that channelled mind-numbing wealth to their society. After all, Britain was Europe's (if not the world's) leading military and commercial power, and this advantage led to their dominating the human trafficking of enslaved Africans to plantations in the Americas.
The benefits of this system of trade and exploitation to the wider British society are significant: a vast amount of wealth generated from slavery was invested and reinvested in railroads, shipbuilding, insurance, the financial sector, the arts, the physical landscape, shopkeeping, and just about every conceivable facet of British society.
This level of wealth, and the way it pervaded the society, was the scaffold on which Britain achieved a second and more lasting Industrial Revolution. Therefore, the decision to abolish slavery in 1833 came as a huge financial blow to those who invested vast amounts of capital in slavery and the plantation system.
Emancipation also had far-reaching implications for the powerfully connected absentee owners. To soften the financial fallout, the compromise between the British government and the enslavers was for a term of Apprenticeship (where the period of enforced labour was extended for a fixed term of six years); and, most important, an unprecedented payment to enslavers of £20 million, or today's equivalent of £17 billion.
This bailout to enslavers represented a staggering 40 per cent of British public expenditure in 1834. The magnitude of the payout is more startling when compared to the miserly £19.9 million in today's money paid to the veterans of Kenya's Mau Mau conflict who suffered unimaginable brutality in their fight for liberation from British colonialism.
In order to facilitate the payments to enslavers, the British Parliament created the Compensation Commission, to which enslavers had to file claims before any monies could be disbursed. These claims were then investigated to ascertain their veracity.
Known collectively as the 'Compensation Claims', they are a rich source of data. For instance, information can be gleaned on the name, gender, and title of the claimants; the colony and parish for which the claim was made; the type of property specific to the claim (pens, coffee or sugar plantations, etc.); the number of enslaved people attached to the claim; and, most important, the value attributed to each claim.
Research reveals that almost 46,000 claims were submitted for 21 colonies, stretching from the Caribbean to Mauritius and the Cape Colony (part of modern-day South Africa). In short, a systematic analysis of the compensation records provides important insight into the nature of the ownership of enslaved people during the crucial period of transition from slavery to freedom.
More important, it allows researchers to 'follow the money'. As the researchers at the University College of London have shown, it is possible to trace in what ventures enslavers invested their monies. We now know that more than half of the £20 million paid in compensation stayed in Britain and that most of this money, as stated before, was reinvested in the financial sector, railroads, cultural institutions and other ventures.
It is worth highlighting that not all enslavers were absentees living in Britain. Jamaica, being the largest and most profitable British colony, had a sizeable white resident population comprising those who, like their counterparts in Britain, filed claims and received substantial compensation.
However, very little is known of claims filed and compensation received by resident Jamaican enslavers. Our team will examine the compensation claims filed by resident Jamaican enslavers.
Already, our preliminary findings show that 16,114 claims were filed for enslaved people in Jamaica by enslavers living in Britain, the United States, and throughout the Atlantic world, totalling £10.98 million, or roughly £9 billion in today's money. However, the great majority of claims, some 13,000, were filed by enslavers who resided in Jamaica and whose total compensation package amounted to £4.10 million, or the equivalent of over £3 billion in today's money.
largest disbursement
From the records, we have ascertained that 2,764 were filed for the parish of Kingston, while St Thomas in-the-East (now the parish of St Thomas) ranked highest as the parish for the largest disbursement of money, £943,755.
Analysis of the preliminary research findings not only demonstrates that the records point to the wide disparity in compensation paid to absentees living in Britain and residents in Jamaica, but it also raises other intriguing questions about plantation slavery and its legacy on the island.
For example: Who really were the resident enslavers? How much did each receive as compensation? In what ventures did they invest their monies, and what are the commercial, cultural, and physical legacies of their investments in Jamaican society today? In other words, are there Jamaicans and/or Jamaican businesses that continue to benefit from the material gains of slavery?
These are important questions that our research team intends to answer, and, more broadly, will help in facilitating the long overdue conversation on slavery and its continued legacy in Jamaica.
Amed Reid
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