Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners

The Price of Freedom (1x2)

Air date: Jul 22, 2015

Historian David Olusoga continues his examination of Britain's forgotten slave owners. In this episode, David traces the bitter propaganda war waged between the pro-slavery lobby and the abolitionists, revealing that paying off the slave owners for the loss of their human property was, ultimately, the only way to bring the system to an end. Records held at the National Archives detail the names of the 46,000 slave owners from across the British empire who had a slice of this vast hand-out. Of all the names, 3,000 lived in Britain, yet they owned half of the slaves across the empire. These include members of the clergy and of the House of Lords. Ultimately, David discovers that the country's debt to slavery is far greater than previously thought, shaping everything from the nation's property landscape to its ideas about race. A legacy that can still be felt today.