Scotland did not share the same laws as England so if you were a slaver and brought a slave in England that slave would legally speaking automatically be free as a person could not be a slave on English soil, Scotland had no such law and as such people bringing slaves into Scotland was slightly more protected. Scotland only banned slavery in 1778 after your story of 1756. Whilst slavery in England was diminished after the Norman conquest, Scottish raids into England happened throughout the medieval period and slaves were taken back to Scotland from England, by the start of the 13th century slavery in England was non existent. Slavery was NEVER legalised in England and in a court case in 1569 it was stated "English law could not recognise slavery" and subsequently in 1701 the Lord Chief Justice ruled that "a slave became free as soon as he arrived in England"
@Ransom Bits I have lived in countries that were both the source and the designation of slavery in both the Portuguese and British Slave trade. In both cases source AND destination of two former British/Portuguese colonies each (the two biggest trans-Atlantic slavers). So I know a fair bit about it and took the item to visit the infrastructure/historical sites. It is mental gymnastics those that claim becuase slavery was less present in the nations of Great Britain then in the colonies this is somehow worthy of praise, similar those to skip over the indentured labour and tenancy (feudal) system in place in Ireland but by modern standards comparable to slavery. These very same people claim that colonialism brought all these benefit of parliamentary democracy conveniently skipping over the fact that colonial subject had none of the rights of citizens of the UK to benefit from them and it was only when the subjects started fighting for independence was there credible reforms. I also lived near Wilberforce's Church in Clapham and where there was somewhat of a base for Abolitionists, and appreciate their struggle. But lets not pretend that intercepting slave slave ships was anything other then colonial powers fighting each other, controlling access to wealth, and is not some moral high ground. What happened in India was really a response to loosing ground in America, and it suited us to use the mechanisms in place already. I am no collectivist nor am I woke. Having spent time all over the world and more recently in Ireland/NI as well having lived and in the UK, never in my life have I experienced fellow Brits to be be more lacking in self-awareness, arrogant (despite stereotyping the Americans that way), unmeasured, and lacking knowledge about their own history, as the present. This is really down to a fashion for a kind base level reductionist nationalism, and love of lecturing others on things they have no practical understanding of, which highlights just how tone deaf folk have become. Of course not all are like this, maybe be there is a silent majority who are not, but there is no doubt the one thing we are exporting is not something to improve our reputation. Maybe it is because reactionaries like their opposition to be reactionary, but we seem to have reverted to a Victorian self-aggrandisement, and false sense of decency.
@@paulthomas8262 thank you! So much! I live in scotland and i have noticed that in all the Museums, slavery gets either Not mentioned or the Focus is on the abolitionist people. It ignores how long slavery was actually participated in. I live in Glasgow, entire streets in the City Center were bought by rich slavers and renamed by them to make a Mark on the city. All the grand buildings in jamaice street are a really obvious sign of that. Why is it called jamaice street? Because the Guy owning it had huge plantations in jamaica. Just because slavery didnt "happen" on british soil doesnt mean the british nations didnt participate. The big Ports admitted Slave ships and the whole POINT of the colonies was that slavery was legal there. The colonies were owned by britain. Rich merchants Made their money there. So it's always been a mystery to me how anyone can argue that there wasnt slavery in britain. It was simply outsourced thats all. None of the Major European nations can say they were free of slavery. Not france, Not Portugal, spain, belgium, the netherlands and certainly Not the Uk. Heck, slavery was outlawed by the time Germany acquired colonies but we still managed to brutally kill the herrero for simply Standing Up for themselves and murdered a Prince who didnt even ask for Independence but simply wanted German colonisers to stop mistreating His people and stop seizing their property. Sadly, Germany tends to ignore that as well, we tend to hide behind the Nazi era and avoid engaging with the other shady stuff in our history. Thank you for pointing that out.
@@annabeinglazy5580 I lived Jamaica in 90s, my dad was friends with sottish Jamaicans of that linage, I have stayed in great houses of estates/pens. I don't take a simplistic view of any of this but there are some who try to crassly pat themselves on that back for something they where not a part of and know little about. What I can say of these friends is that generation were popular in Jamaica becuase of the work they did in developing Jamaica post independence, such as low cost housing. Another Jamaican friend of my dad was lawyer and historian who happen to study at the same university as my father. He was the the one who showed us around Good Hope plantation and the slave port of Falmouth. I definitely recommend visiting Falmouth if you ever go to Jamaica. I would do your research and find a local historian guide before going though. Another friend of my dads was from Jewish family who were dirt/broke poor growing up in down town Kingston. His family of Portuguese Jews had arrived when Jamaica was a Spanish colony and had escaped persecution in the Iberian peninsular. His wife was from from similar family in Panama. The town synagogue is supposed to have a sandpit which is is symbolic of softening the footsteps of those running away in the night. He turned into one of the most successful business men in Jamaica and did a lot of charity work and development work too.
Thank you for citing your sources, providing material examples, and for using history as a means to talk about the present. I really appreciate the work you have put in and look forward to more videos!
I meant to add that you and your viewers are very welcome to visit us at the International Slavery Museum here in Liverpool to find out more about the slave trade and the British Empire and also modern day slavery (once it reopens!). The museum has been around for almost thirty years and is an incredible source of research. We also have slavery tours around the Georgian Quarter every weekend. Sorry, I can't seem to find my original comment to add this to.
No worries! I remember your museum well from my undergraduate days. I believe you’ve just been planning some new projects for when you’re back up and running. Can’t wait to come and see everything.
@@TheWelshViking It would be awesome to see Edinburgh do slave trade tours like yours here and Liverpool's. There have definitely been bigger crowds for them here in the past few weeks, even though it's only locals just now. Ps. I love that Allan Ramsay portrait in the thumbnail, I've not been able to find out who the sitter is. It would be amazing to know since Allan Ramsay was such an important part of the Enlightenment in art and thinking.
@@lornam3637 Yes! Supposedly it's either Olaudah Equiano or Ignatius Sancho, but it'd be wonderful to put a name to the face. Locals are the ones to start the ball rolling with on that kind of event, I reckon. There's actually been a walking tour in Edinburgh already led by the Caribbean Association, but a permanent one would be absolutely wonderful. I think it went down quite well, it was certainly very enlightening to me!
I am so grateful I grew up near your museum and so visited it as a child both with school and with parents. I learned so much and it left such a deep impression on me. I also really appreciate how the museum has grown and evolved over the years to reflect current knowledge and attitudes. I will definitely try and visit again and I really encourage others to do so as well, once restrictions allow!
It would also be great if Liverpool Museum or the ISM could do an exhibition on Liverpool and it’s close ties with the Confederacy of the Southern States during the American Civil War. In fact Liverpool is the last place of surrender of the Confederacy after the war had ended.
The fact that Myrtilla, a woman who undoubtedly had thoughts, skills, strengths and weaknesses, memories, and potential that was wasted by racism is now buried with her enslaver’s name taking up more space than any description of who she was- which was only recorded as the crime done to her- I don’t know what to say. Slave. Imagine that being the only thing written about you, remembered, or immortalized. Imagine that being all you will ever be known for. We can’t just forget about all this. We can’t forget about her.
True true and if people don't remember the history correctly they will also overlook the amazing political fortitude of William Wilberforce, an abolitionist who helped end the British slave trade.
@UCWjHygUT6eW-cH8pFZbCCug So... Having read your duplicated comment, I think you have good intentions? I think you're trying to say that the current state of slavery is deplorable and not only in the past. And I agree with you! You just took a sidebar into denigrating our understanding of history? Clarifying that slavery was illegal in England but not Scotland may not be relevant here as the video was filmed in Scotland? And stating that England is the only country to ever repudiate slavery is a bit much? Also I'm not really sure what your comment adds to ours in that we were noting how close but under-discussed the monuments of slavery are? Just some food for thought :)
Don’t you think by removing that deplorable artefact from the street you are erasing another part of history? Yes it maybe going to a museum hidden away in a dark corner somewhere, but how many people adults children would have walked past over the years it in its original place read the plaque and asked questions and been educated about the wrongs of our past, we can not and should not forget!! It’s like taking a bulldozer to Auschwitz!! they should stand to remind us of our past not to glorify it we should never forget.
@@Golfmax101 Sorry, did anyone in this chain advocate for that? This is a video literally teaching people the history available to see on their own streets?
Slavery was a universal institution... Difference is, it no longer exists in Gr. Britain, or in the United State of America, while it is flourishing in Africa, India, China, and SE Asia...
@@sagebalsys7390 Penal servitude is a very different thing from chattel slavery. Only a mind thoroughly confused by a lack of morals could confound the two.
I never conflated it with *chattal* slavery, however the system that exists there is a form of slavery that does continue into the present day, it is wholly unlike the penal servitude found in other western countries. I dont understand why you felt the need to insult me, did my statement have an emotional effect?
@@sagebalsys7390 Don't take my observations of your mental state as an insult. They were an impartial statement of obvious fact, unlike your comment about barbarism...
I have heard a lot of people recently repeating the idea that slavery was always illegal within (at least post-medieval) Britain, usually with anecdotal reference to slaves escaping off ships and thus becoming free by the technicalities of common law. As if it were ever that simple, and as if such runaways weren't actively hunted down. Thank you for this -- the sources you've linked and the knowledge you've shared will come in handy.
Thank you too! Feel free to share this if it helps to teach them a little more. The runaway slave database from Glasgow uni is a genuinely fascinating and enlightening place to research. It shows how unabashed and unashamed people were in the UK of just operating slavery as it was done elsewhere.
Well it is written in the doomsday book that slavery in britain is illegal clearly there has always been those who are in positions to abuse there powers and shows that us the people must hold current abusers accountable but we dont most obviously during the great recession when we the people bailed out the banks who fucked up the world economy through there greed
@@scipioafrica just because something is illegal doesn't mean that it doesn't exist it's a bit like paedophilia or rape or anything bad theres still slavery in britain today which pisses me off if I'm honest that we aren't doing enough like targeting heroin dealers beings how heroine and sex trafficking runs in similar circuls
I don't know why people would claim this when there is documented information surrounding slavery in Britain. Slave Trade Act 1807, Slavery Abolition Act 1833.
Those two acts made it illegal in the British Empire but it had already been illegal in England and Scotland. There was a lot of confusion in the 18th century as to whether it was illegal or not. Slaves were bought and sold at markets in London and Liverpool, however many different legal cases made it clear that it was illegal such as 1569 a guy called Cartwright bought a slave from Russia, the court ruled that English law did not recognize slavery. 1705 Lord Chief Justice John holt stated the common law no man can have property in another" Stanley v Harvey(1763) "soon as a man sets foot on English ground he is free". The Somersett case in 1772 made it clearer that it was illegal to take a person out of England against his free will. Knight v Wedderburn(1778) Chattel slavery was not recognised under the law of Scotland. However a legal opinion was published that slavery was legal in 1729 the Yorke-Talbot slavery opinion. So this might be why there were slaves in Britain even though it was illegal.
@@thomasmain5986 well I believe welsh law was the same as English law since Henry the 8th. And only recently diverged due to devolution. As for Scottish Law I'm not aware of when it was made illegal, but one of those cases that I put in my other comment refers to it as illegal in the late 1700s. And yes you're correct there are apparently still slaves in Britain and across the world, despite it being illegal.
What needs to be remembered is that life for ordinary people in UK at that time was not much different than being a slave. Workers were "tied" to their bosses, paid with tokens that could only be spent in shops owned by the boss. Children forced up chimneys to clean them, woman and kids worked in the coal mines and cotton mills. In the country the theft of a rabbit or chicken could carry a death sentence. As its said : "Life in England was violent, dirty and short, and so were the people!"
Nice video. This is a super complex subject and a difficult one to convey all aspects in a short episode. Slavery was illegal in the UK before anywhere else in the world and essentially illegal in England since the domesday book. Saying there were no slaves is a bit like today saying no one owns an automatic rifle, where the real point is it is illegal to do so even though there will always be criminals. The numbers are so tiny compared to the slave trade in Africa,Middle East and China and I feel your point muddies the more important point of British citizens involvement and profits in the international slave trade. Plus modern slavery exists today in the UK, let's talk about that!
I misunderstood and for some reason that slavery was against the law in the UK during the American Civil War. Thank you for taking the time to research and to show us the truth!
The Welsh Viking that makes sense. I had my years wrong! By the way, it just boggles the mind that people felt it was just fine and dandy to “own” another human at different times and places in history. I can barely read what it was like for the slaves and how the families were sold apart from each other- even children at very young ages. It shows how very low humankind can sink! By the way, here is an excellent interview with a black man who was an Assistant Attorney General in the 1950’s - it just shows that slavery continued - just in a different form - until the sixties. Still to this day we deal with racial issues because of our past! ruclips.net/video/IXUFiXeNZV4/видео.html
That was a fascinating watch, thanks for that. Yes, it’s an incredibly influential part of the world’s history, and far too few people know about the details and how much it affected our modern societies
@@TheWelshViking no, there is not evidence to that effect, the examples are so few and far between that across two centuries the same few are named again and again, I’m sure it was more, but not many thousands as you state, there was black people in the U.K. but also in slavery? It was illegal and just didn’t happen other than these few exceptions, the database you link to shows 836 entries over 80 years so I suppose 1-2000 over the whole period England was involved in the transatlantic slave trade is possible, but this is still a tiny number
@@yeahno.... slavery is bad regardless. The uk and many European countries bought the cotton that slaves made. I don’t think they really cared about the American slaves.
@@royalwayne7244 so are you campaigning to end slavery in the Middle East or Africa now? What about in China? The Great Britain ended the transatlantic slave trade for everyone, not just GB but Denmark, Portugal, Spain, Germany, France etc etc, America took almost another century to stop profiting from it
Going for a walk… let’s do this! I’m an American who can’t stand the claustrophobia of long trips. Seeing the homes of others so far away from the perspective of the relative locals is probably the most valuable part of you tube for me. And you throw in history… man this is great.
If only we were so enthusiastic about solving the actual modern day slavery that is going on all across North Africa and the Middle East as well as Europe
I think we are. This is one YT video. The UN anti-slavery taskforce has hundreds of trained law enforcement and military professionals working full time.
The average working class Brit never had slaves, he/she was a slave to the Monarchy and the rich here in Britain, it took 2 world wars and millions dead before that yoke was loosened.
Serfdom and subjection are both terrible conditions to exist in, but calling either of them "slavery" is an insult to the countless millions of humans living under chattel slavery who suffered and died as legal property to their slave masters.
My sister and her family live in Edinburgh. It's crazy to see the Royal Mile so empty. Thank you for bring more international attention/support to the Black Lives Matter movement.
The above accounting sounds horrific but slavery was what the Scots have survived for a thousand years. The early ancestors of the Scots, Alba and Pics were enslaved as early as the first century BC. Varro, a Roman philosopher stated in his agricultural manuscripts that white slaves were only things with a voice or instrumenti vocali. Julius Caesar enslaves as many as one million whites from Gaul.
I was totally unaware of the Criccieth link, next time we visit I'll be sure to mention it to my children - I suspect we have already been in the graveyard pictured as it looked very familiar. Diolch yn fawr.
@@TheWelshViking It absolutely is - being an American, I only now the "whitewashed" version of English history, so this is inspiring a dive down the rabbit hole of research!
I plan to do some videos on classical and early medieval slavery at some point, but we'll be discussing Britons, Angles, Saxons, Irish, and Jutes (and the slavery they also practised) rather than British, of course ;)
The judges of Edinburgh Scotland during the years 1662-1665 ordered the enslavement and shipment to the colonies a large number of rogues and others who made life unpleasant for the British upper class. (Register for the Privy Council of Scotland, third series, vol. 1, p 181, vol. 2, p 101).
Scottish colonies between the years of 1662 and 1665 ... where? There were earlier Scottish colonies, and later ones, but none at that time. You see, I've done a search and found that your wording is copied directly from a certain web page's comment section; so unless you can give the wording of the actual reference (you have read it haven't you?) or any actual evidence at all, I'm not succumbing to the myth of "white slaves" being shipped out to the Caribbean.
It was illegal to murder people in England too, but it did not mean it did not happen. People trafficking still happens, even in the UK so there are probably some people still enslaved today but fundamentally, England was a nation without slaves.
Except for the thousands of slaves that were imported from the West Indies in the 18th century to work as household "servants." This is documented, if you bother to look it up and not make assumptions.
@@andrewwigglesworth3030 Servants were not slaves. Here is an example. "In the neighbouring village of Bramdean, John Rippon, a black servant to the Earl of Powis, left the large sum of £63 to his fellow servants and others as well as £71 17s 9d to the poor of his parish on his death in 1800. In his will he described himself as a ‘gentleman’ - a term that couldn’t be applied to the overwhelming majority of black people living in Britain at the time." Servants were not necessarily rich but they could be black or white, the majority being white.
@@jdudb Oh Lord, please continue to send me opponents that argue with such stupidity. Paul Cuffee was a black man born in 1759 Massachusetts, he wasn't a slave and died in 1817 leaving an estate of $20,000 (yes, a lot of money in 1817). Using your logic, I have disproved the existence of slavery in the US. If you can't see how stupid this argument is, then I fear for you. Instead of doing this, what do you call it? "Independent research", perhaps you could have followed the links Mr Johnson provided and started to educate yourself. PS. It's even more insulting to use people like Paul Cuffee in these kinds of arguments since he was an avid opponent of slavery.
Excellent video. I offer one caution about gravestones: The information placed on them may not always be completely accurate. My father-in-law had four brothers. All of them served in the US military in World War II. But my father-in-law was over a year too young to enlist. So he lied about his age. The birthdate he gave went into official government records, and was eventually inscribed on his gravestone, the one issued by the US Government. But his mother told me his real birthdate, and showed the entry in her family Bible which she had made when he was born. I'm sure that the status of being enslaved, entered on a gravestone, has a much better chance of being accurate than my father-in-law's birthdate. Seems highly unlikely that a free person's relatives or friends would describe them as enslaved on a grave marker.
What does it matter even if UK people managed to keep the slaves out of their borders to not have them offend their sensitive eyes and not stir their consciences? All that suddenly oh so affordable imported goods that were previously so ridiculously expensive when imported from faraway lands populated by NOT YET ENSLAVED people, became affordable and widely accessible because SLAVES MADE THEM. I saw some really smart, more or less triangular graph illustrating how: 1. UK imported exotic colonial goods while exporting the local products to Africa where 2. The exported wares were sold in order to pay for slaves who 3. were shipped to the colonies to produce the exotic colonial goods imported by UK So yeah, there they have it. BTW. A plantation slave or any other one that had to do hard physical labor did not work until retirement in his or her 60's. They usually survived not more than a couple of years ("Call a doctor to a slave? Pffft! Just hack off the smashed limb and send him back to work!"), also not that awfully many survived the sea passage even if they were young, healthy and strong men, so they had to be replaced quite often and the slave hunters did always have their hands full of work. And no, pulling down monuments to villains is not erasing history. It's erasing undeserved praise for the people they depict.
Yes, we even had slaves here in Australia in Queensland to cut the sugar cane. They were 'black birded' from New Caledonia and other islands and collectively called Kanackas, which I was taught in school but is now a racially charged word so not to be used out of context. I would imagine there were slaves anywhere there were English colonies that required back breaking work.
You literally contradicted yourself several times. The first one died before he could gain his freedom in the law. That doesnt mean it was legal to own a slave in britian it proves the exact opposite of what youre saying. Dying in prison was very common in those days so there are plenty of people who were innocent that the same thing happened to them. The other man you mentioned in wales you out right say he was a freeman? This only proves that it was illegal to own a slave in Britain but obviously there are going to be those who break the law. Its illegal to own slaves now and you still see modern day slavery and human trafficking. The claim your trying to make is disingenuous. Not to mention the extent Britain went to ensure slavery is today a rarity when back then it was acceptable throughout the world. Infact if you paid any tax before 2014 to the british government you were helping pay off the debt we took on to compensate slave owners so they would peacefully free the slaves. Rule Britannia
You think it was okay that they compensated the slave owners, and not the enslaved people? Also, the very fact that Britain did compensate slavers shows that slavery was indeed a thing that existed in Britain. Google the role of Bristol on the slave trade. Though I don’t hold much hope of you doing the work, given that you seem to take pride in imperialism and colonialism. Fuck Britannia.
@@katherinemorelle7115 Would you of rather the slaves died? Because many were willing to kill them rather than free them peacefully. I personally am happy that it was resolved peacefully. Rather than a river of blood as the slavers saw them as lovestock and so did much of the world. I mean all you need to do is google William the conqueror and it will tell you that he outlawed slavery in 1100's. Then google the west africa squadren but I doubt you will because I assume youre one of the vandals that baught down a public statue for the sake of your feelings or atleast agree with the criminals that did it. Actually I know a hell of a lot about the slave trade and how Britain was the one to abolish it through out the known world despite it being against its own interests and it being accepted as something akin to animal husbandry. Im sure you read one article in the guardian about Bristol being "a centre for slavery" or some such nonsense rather than looking at credible sources rather than opinion pieces. Rule britannia and God save the Queen!
It did, the people mentioned in the video were in enslavement before then :( Scotland had different laws, but the laws of England and Wales were combined in the 16th century :)
Read "They we're white and they were slaves" then let me know how you feel about the hand full of Africans that went to England and the colonies By the way Africans were not referred to as Slaves until the 20th century prior they were called negros or servants Slave comes from SLAV due to all the slavic people who were enslaved
Yeah no. They were referred to as slaves, see the runaway slave ads I mention, and that has nothing to do with the etymology of the word, which does come from Sclava. Nice try though! I read it. And it doesn't negate the fact there were Afro-Caribbean slaves in Britain in the 18th century (if by handful you mean upwards of 1000. My, what big hands you have! lol). Again, thanks for the engagement! It really helps to grow the channel and its reach with every comment, and earns me more revenue :)
@@TheWelshViking From the mid to late 18th century there were between 10 to 20 thousand black people (ie. people of black African descent imported as slaves from the West Indies to be house "servants") living in London. That is 1.4% rising to 2% of the population of the capital. How many of these were still slaves doesn't seem to be clear, or maybe I just haven't found the estimates. There was an outcry (yep, ignorant people) that Doctor Who portrayed black people in London at the last frost fair (1814?). Apart from the fact that black actors exist and are perfectly capable of playing these roles, black people in substantial numbers existed in London (and other places) at that time.
The British Empire effectively turned a blind eye to and even protected some forms of slavery for years after its official abolition as well. After the US Civil War, some former slavers relocated from the Atlantic to the Pacific, kidnapping islanders and indigenous Australians and forcing them to work as indentured labourers on ranches and plantations where they were subjected to inhuman abuses and a high proportion died. The practice was called 'Blackbirding' and lasted into the early years of the 20th century. The Royal Navy occasionally made moves to clamp down on 'Blackbirders', but in reality was just as likely to act in support of them, even engaging in retributive massacres of people whose only 'crime' had been to try to defend themselves from the slavers.
William Wilberforce and other English abolitionists were trying to abolish the transatlantic slave trade and enforce England's abolition laws onto other nations around the world inc. the British Empire. It was already outlawed in the UK and already banned in England.
Im really shocked bro..i really am as a african American..they dont even teach this in school.this is great knowledge..it really opened up my eyes..eepecially the British an other European countries..i love you.
Aw thanks :) Yeah, there's a fascinating project I linked to in the description that's putting together all the newspaper material from then. Very sobering reading.
No doubt there are STILL people today in Britain who are living as 'slaves' - brought here by relocating foreign families. BUT thankfully instances of such must be very rare, as they were all those years ago.
Absolutely incorrect. There were upwards of a thousand enslaved people in London alone. The ads for their sale and runaway ads (see description) make for sobering reading. The legality of it meant tragically little.
Are you forgetting about all the Islamic countries who kept slaves a 1000 years before Europeans or maybe the slaves in Africa kept by Africans or the slaves in china and India.I think you're being quite selective there
@@kevinwoods4724 100% agree mate. Its hilarious how people have a huge capacity to "forget" facts that don't suit their narrative. Virtually every race and nationality has, at some time in history been enslaved by someone. Up until the 19th century slavery of one kind or another was normal. Nobody alive today should be blamed or appologise for things that happened before they were even born it's!! It's crazy to judge people in the past by today's standards! I sometimes think that (in the west at least) we have so few REAL problems to deal with (I mean we know we've got access to food/water/medicine etc.) that we have to make things up! 🤣🤣
The point of this video is that there were also thousands of enslaved people in the UK, who are widely ignored by historians, so it's not lies, thank you. Here's a great project on it www.runaways.gla.ac.uk/ Slavery was a very widespread and evil practice, and its terrible widespread use must always be remembered and stamped out.
... and French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish and others. The French slave trade, as just one example, often exceeded that of the British. Many European countries engaged in the slave trade and of course there was a British slave trade, absolutely ... and no buts or excuses.
Scotland did not share the same laws as England so if you were a slaver and brought a slave in England that slave would legally speaking automatically be free as a person could not be a slave on English soil, Scotland had no such law and as such people bringing slaves into Scotland was slightly more protected. Scotland only banned slavery in 1778 after your story of 1756. Whilst slavery in England was diminished after the Norman conquest, Scottish raids into England happened throughout the medieval period and slaves were taken back to Scotland from England, by the start of the 13th century slavery in England was non existent. Slavery was NEVER legalised in England and in a court case in 1569 it was stated "English law could not recognise slavery" and subsequently in 1701 the Lord Chief Justice ruled that "a slave became free as soon as he arrived in England"
Came here to say exactly this, England and Scotland were different.
@Ransom Bits I have lived in countries that were both the source and the designation of slavery in both the Portuguese and British Slave trade. In both cases source AND destination of two former British/Portuguese colonies each (the two biggest trans-Atlantic slavers). So I know a fair bit about it and took the item to visit the infrastructure/historical sites.
It is mental gymnastics those that claim becuase slavery was less present in the nations of Great Britain then in the colonies this is somehow worthy of praise, similar those to skip over the indentured labour and tenancy (feudal) system in place in Ireland but by modern standards comparable to slavery. These very same people claim that colonialism brought all these benefit of parliamentary democracy conveniently skipping over the fact that colonial subject had none of the rights of citizens of the UK to benefit from them and it was only when the subjects started fighting for independence was there credible reforms.
I also lived near Wilberforce's Church in Clapham and where there was somewhat of a base for Abolitionists, and appreciate their struggle. But lets not pretend that intercepting slave slave ships was anything other then colonial powers fighting each other, controlling access to wealth, and is not some moral high ground. What happened in India was really a response to loosing ground in America, and it suited us to use the mechanisms in place already.
I am no collectivist nor am I woke. Having spent time all over the world and more recently in Ireland/NI as well having lived and in the UK, never in my life have I experienced fellow Brits to be be more lacking in self-awareness, arrogant (despite stereotyping the Americans that way), unmeasured, and lacking knowledge about their own history, as the present. This is really down to a fashion for a kind base level reductionist nationalism, and love of lecturing others on things they have no practical understanding of, which highlights just how tone deaf folk have become. Of course not all are like this, maybe be there is a silent majority who are not, but there is no doubt the one thing we are exporting is not something to improve our reputation.
Maybe it is because reactionaries like their opposition to be reactionary, but we seem to have reverted to a Victorian self-aggrandisement, and false sense of decency.
@@paulthomas8262 thank you! So much! I live in scotland and i have noticed that in all the Museums, slavery gets either Not mentioned or the Focus is on the abolitionist people. It ignores how long slavery was actually participated in. I live in Glasgow, entire streets in the City Center were bought by rich slavers and renamed by them to make a Mark on the city. All the grand buildings in jamaice street are a really obvious sign of that. Why is it called jamaice street? Because the Guy owning it had huge plantations in jamaica. Just because slavery didnt "happen" on british soil doesnt mean the british nations didnt participate. The big Ports admitted Slave ships and the whole POINT of the colonies was that slavery was legal there. The colonies were owned by britain. Rich merchants Made their money there. So it's always been a mystery to me how anyone can argue that there wasnt slavery in britain. It was simply outsourced thats all.
None of the Major European nations can say they were free of slavery. Not france, Not Portugal, spain, belgium, the netherlands and certainly Not the Uk. Heck, slavery was outlawed by the time Germany acquired colonies but we still managed to brutally kill the herrero for simply Standing Up for themselves and murdered a Prince who didnt even ask for Independence but simply wanted German colonisers to stop mistreating His people and stop seizing their property. Sadly, Germany tends to ignore that as well, we tend to hide behind the Nazi era and avoid engaging with the other shady stuff in our history.
Thank you for pointing that out.
@@annabeinglazy5580 I lived Jamaica in 90s, my dad was friends with sottish Jamaicans of that linage, I have stayed in great houses of estates/pens. I don't take a simplistic view of any of this but there are some who try to crassly pat themselves on that back for something they where not a part of and know little about.
What I can say of these friends is that generation were popular in Jamaica becuase of the work they did in developing Jamaica post independence, such as low cost housing.
Another Jamaican friend of my dad was lawyer and historian who happen to study at the same university as my father. He was the the one who showed us around Good Hope plantation and the slave port of Falmouth. I definitely recommend visiting Falmouth if you ever go to Jamaica. I would do your research and find a local historian guide before going though.
Another friend of my dads was from Jewish family who were dirt/broke poor growing up in down town Kingston. His family of Portuguese Jews had arrived when Jamaica was a Spanish colony and had escaped persecution in the Iberian peninsular. His wife was from from similar family in Panama. The town synagogue is supposed to have a sandpit which is is symbolic of softening the footsteps of those running away in the night. He turned into one of the most successful business men in Jamaica and did a lot of charity work and development work too.
He was also bid fan of the painter L. S. Lowry and bought many of those painting and I donated woudl have donated them to the museum.
Thank you for citing your sources, providing material examples, and for using history as a means to talk about the present. I really appreciate the work you have put in and look forward to more videos!
Thanks so much, Maria, how kind :) I’ll try to live up to your expectations and maintain standards. Welcome to the channel!
@Gavin Lisle you missing that bit does not give you a free pass to attack Maria.
I meant to add that you and your viewers are very welcome to visit us at the International Slavery Museum here in Liverpool to find out more about the slave trade and the British Empire and also modern day slavery (once it reopens!). The museum has been around for almost thirty years and is an incredible source of research. We also have slavery tours around the Georgian Quarter every weekend. Sorry, I can't seem to find my original comment to add this to.
No worries! I remember your museum well from my undergraduate days. I believe you’ve just been planning some new projects for when you’re back up and running. Can’t wait to come and see everything.
@@TheWelshViking It would be awesome to see Edinburgh do slave trade tours like yours here and Liverpool's. There have definitely been bigger crowds for them here in the past few weeks, even though it's only locals just now. Ps. I love that Allan Ramsay portrait in the thumbnail, I've not been able to find out who the sitter is. It would be amazing to know since Allan Ramsay was such an important part of the Enlightenment in art and thinking.
@@lornam3637 Yes! Supposedly it's either Olaudah Equiano or Ignatius Sancho, but it'd be wonderful to put a name to the face.
Locals are the ones to start the ball rolling with on that kind of event, I reckon.
There's actually been a walking tour in Edinburgh already led by the Caribbean Association, but a permanent one would be absolutely wonderful. I think it went down quite well, it was certainly very enlightening to me!
I am so grateful I grew up near your museum and so visited it as a child both with school and with parents. I learned so much and it left such a deep impression on me. I also really appreciate how the museum has grown and evolved over the years to reflect current knowledge and attitudes. I will definitely try and visit again and I really encourage others to do so as well, once restrictions allow!
It would also be great if Liverpool Museum or the ISM could do an exhibition on Liverpool and it’s close ties with the Confederacy of the Southern States during the American Civil War. In fact Liverpool is the last place of surrender of the Confederacy after the war had ended.
The fact that Myrtilla, a woman who undoubtedly had thoughts, skills, strengths and weaknesses, memories, and potential that was wasted by racism is now buried with her enslaver’s name taking up more space than any description of who she was- which was only recorded as the crime done to her- I don’t know what to say. Slave. Imagine that being the only thing written about you, remembered, or immortalized. Imagine that being all you will ever be known for. We can’t just forget about all this. We can’t forget about her.
True true and if people don't remember the history correctly they will also overlook the amazing political fortitude of William Wilberforce, an abolitionist who helped end the British slave trade.
Especially appreciate that you, with a short walk could show the physical places where slavery happened. Thank you
Thank you! I’m so glad it was helpful for you :) So odd that it’s so close and yet seems to have been forgotten so completely here
A simple mission: find the history of slavery where you live
@UCWjHygUT6eW-cH8pFZbCCug So... Having read your duplicated comment, I think you have good intentions? I think you're trying to say that the current state of slavery is deplorable and not only in the past. And I agree with you! You just took a sidebar into denigrating our understanding of history? Clarifying that slavery was illegal in England but not Scotland may not be relevant here as the video was filmed in Scotland? And stating that England is the only country to ever repudiate slavery is a bit much? Also I'm not really sure what your comment adds to ours in that we were noting how close but under-discussed the monuments of slavery are? Just some food for thought :)
Don’t you think by removing that deplorable artefact from the street you are erasing another part of history? Yes it maybe going to a museum hidden away in a dark corner somewhere, but how many people adults children would have walked past over the years it in its original place read the plaque and asked questions and been educated about the wrongs of our past, we can not and should not forget!! It’s like taking a bulldozer to Auschwitz!! they should stand to remind us of our past not to glorify it we should never forget.
@@Golfmax101 Sorry, did anyone in this chain advocate for that? This is a video literally teaching people the history available to see on their own streets?
Slavery was a universal institution... Difference is, it no longer exists in Gr. Britain, or in the United State of America, while it is flourishing in Africa, India, China, and SE Asia...
It exists in america through their barbaric prison system.
@@sagebalsys7390 Penal servitude is a very different thing from chattel slavery. Only a mind thoroughly confused by a lack of morals could confound the two.
I never conflated it with *chattal* slavery, however the system that exists there is a form of slavery that does continue into the present day, it is wholly unlike the penal servitude found in other western countries. I dont understand why you felt the need to insult me, did my statement have an emotional effect?
@@sagebalsys7390 Don't take my observations of your mental state as an insult. They were an impartial statement of obvious fact, unlike your comment about barbarism...
We are all slaves
I have heard a lot of people recently repeating the idea that slavery was always illegal within (at least post-medieval) Britain, usually with anecdotal reference to slaves escaping off ships and thus becoming free by the technicalities of common law. As if it were ever that simple, and as if such runaways weren't actively hunted down. Thank you for this -- the sources you've linked and the knowledge you've shared will come in handy.
Thank you too! Feel free to share this if it helps to teach them a little more. The runaway slave database from Glasgow uni is a genuinely fascinating and enlightening place to research. It shows how unabashed and unashamed people were in the UK of just operating slavery as it was done elsewhere.
Well it is written in the doomsday book that slavery in britain is illegal clearly there has always been those who are in positions to abuse there powers and shows that us the people must hold current abusers accountable but we dont most obviously during the great recession when we the people bailed out the banks who fucked up the world economy through there greed
@@Jack-lk7wk Is it? According to the National Archive, Domesday records about ten percent of the population of England as slaves.
@@scipioafrica just because something is illegal doesn't mean that it doesn't exist it's a bit like paedophilia or rape or anything bad theres still slavery in britain today which pisses me off if I'm honest that we aren't doing enough like targeting heroin dealers beings how heroine and sex trafficking runs in similar circuls
You must be one of my fav youtubers. Congratulations for such great content
Very important message at the end. Great video Jimmy.
Thanks, dude :)
Excellent video. Thank you for educating us.
Well put mate, excellent video. ❤️
Your channel is great. Can't wait for you to reach a well deserved million subscribers.
Oh crikey! You might have to! We’re not quite there yet! But that’s very sweet of you, many thanks :)
I don't know why people would claim this when there is documented information surrounding slavery in Britain. Slave Trade Act 1807, Slavery Abolition Act 1833.
Exactly! Tragically very few people know about even those landmarks.
Those two acts made it illegal in the British Empire but it had already been illegal in England and Scotland.
There was a lot of confusion in the 18th century as to whether it was illegal or not. Slaves were bought and sold at markets in London and Liverpool, however many different legal cases made it clear that it was illegal
such as 1569 a guy called Cartwright bought a slave from Russia, the court ruled that English law did not recognize slavery.
1705 Lord Chief Justice John holt stated the common law no man can have property in another"
Stanley v Harvey(1763) "soon as a man sets foot on English ground he is free".
The Somersett case in 1772 made it clearer that it was illegal to take a person out of England against his free will.
Knight v Wedderburn(1778) Chattel slavery was not recognised under the law of Scotland.
However a legal opinion was published that slavery was legal in 1729 the Yorke-Talbot slavery opinion. So this might be why there were slaves in Britain even though it was illegal.
@@thomasmain5986 well I believe welsh law was the same as English law since Henry the 8th. And only recently diverged due to devolution.
As for Scottish Law I'm not aware of when it was made illegal, but one of those cases that I put in my other comment refers to it as illegal in the late 1700s.
And yes you're correct there are apparently still slaves in Britain and across the world, despite it being illegal.
Yes . And don't forget the chimney sweeps.
I think the youngest known was 3 years.
Those boys endured terrible,,horrific suffering.
Pre-child labour legislation Britain was a truly vile place. Vile.
What needs to be remembered is that life for ordinary people in UK at that time was not much different than being a slave. Workers were "tied" to their bosses, paid with tokens that could only be spent in shops owned by the boss. Children forced up chimneys to clean them, woman and kids worked in the coal mines and cotton mills. In the country the theft of a rabbit or chicken could carry a death sentence. As its said : "Life in England was violent, dirty and short, and so were the people!"
I respect this guy for the facts. I am an african
Nice video. This is a super complex subject and a difficult one to convey all aspects in a short episode. Slavery was illegal in the UK before anywhere else in the world and essentially illegal in England since the domesday book. Saying there were no slaves is a bit like today saying no one owns an automatic rifle, where the real point is it is illegal to do so even though there will always be criminals. The numbers are so tiny compared to the slave trade in Africa,Middle East and China and I feel your point muddies the more important point of British citizens involvement and profits in the international slave trade. Plus modern slavery exists today in the UK, let's talk about that!
Great video!
I misunderstood and for some reason that slavery was against the law in the UK during the American Civil War. Thank you for taking the time to research and to show us the truth!
Hi! By the 1860s it was! But in the 18th century there were thousands of enslaved people in the UK.
The Welsh Viking that makes sense. I had my years wrong! By the way, it just boggles the mind that people felt it was just fine and dandy to “own” another human at different times and places in history. I can barely read what it was like for the slaves and how the families were sold apart from each other- even children at very young ages. It shows how very low humankind can sink! By the way, here is an excellent interview with a black man who was an Assistant Attorney General in the 1950’s - it just shows that slavery continued - just in a different form - until the sixties. Still to this day we deal with racial issues because of our past!
ruclips.net/video/IXUFiXeNZV4/видео.html
That was a fascinating watch, thanks for that. Yes, it’s an incredibly influential part of the world’s history, and far too few people know about the details and how much it affected our modern societies
@@DawnOldham Slavery was normal for most of human history. We happily live in the abnormal time when slavery is rare.
@@DoddyIshamel yes, sadly I do know that. I grew up going to Sunday School and slavery was a commonplace thing then, as well.
Remember reading Olaudah Equiano's book and beyond the obvious, taking some assurance in the fact that it was at least published.
5 people in the whole of the U.K.?
These are literally the exceptions to the rule
No, five people in my video. Try thousands of people in the UK
@@TheWelshViking no, there is not evidence to that effect, the examples are so few and far between that across two centuries the same few are named again and again, I’m sure it was more, but not many thousands as you state, there was black people in the U.K. but also in slavery? It was illegal and just didn’t happen other than these few exceptions, the database you link to shows 836 entries over 80 years so I suppose 1-2000 over the whole period England was involved in the transatlantic slave trade is possible, but this is still a tiny number
@@TheWelshViking but great video, subscribed and liked and look forward to more of this type of history 👍🏻
@@yeahno.... slavery is bad regardless. The uk and many European countries bought the cotton that slaves made. I don’t think they really cared about the American slaves.
@@royalwayne7244 so are you campaigning to end slavery in the Middle East or Africa now?
What about in China? The Great Britain ended the transatlantic slave trade for everyone, not just GB but Denmark, Portugal, Spain, Germany, France etc etc, America took almost another century to stop profiting from it
Going for a walk… let’s do this! I’m an American who can’t stand the claustrophobia of long trips. Seeing the homes of others so far away from the perspective of the relative locals is probably the most valuable part of you tube for me. And you throw in history… man this is great.
Thanks! Glad to provide! :D
If only we were so enthusiastic about solving the actual modern day slavery that is going on all across North Africa and the Middle East as well as Europe
I think we are. This is one YT video. The UN anti-slavery taskforce has hundreds of trained law enforcement and military professionals working full time.
We all want cheap stuff and dont want to think too hard about where it comes from.
Why not both? I vote for paying attention to both and ending the modern version.
The history: invaluable and deeply important.
The scenery of Edinburgh: making me unexpectedly homesick.
The average working class Brit never had slaves, he/she was a slave to the Monarchy and the rich here in Britain, it took 2 world wars and millions dead before that yoke was loosened.
Serfdom and subjection are both terrible conditions to exist in, but calling either of them "slavery" is an insult to the countless millions of humans living under chattel slavery who suffered and died as legal property to their slave masters.
malvina wells is suspected to be a distant relative of mine, really sad she was enslaved till she died.
My sister and her family live in Edinburgh. It's crazy to see the Royal Mile so empty.
Thank you for bring more international attention/support to the Black Lives Matter movement.
It’s been even emptier at times! I’m so glad you find it helpful and please take good care of yourself whilst fighting.
Very interesting. Thank you.
I’m really pleased it was interesting for you! Thank you right back :)
How many slaves in Britain?
How many slaves in every other country on earth?
The above accounting sounds horrific but slavery was what the Scots have survived for a thousand years. The early ancestors of the Scots, Alba and Pics were enslaved as early as the first century BC. Varro, a Roman philosopher stated in his agricultural manuscripts that white slaves were only things with a voice or instrumenti vocali. Julius Caesar enslaves as many as one million whites from Gaul.
I was totally unaware of the Criccieth link, next time we visit I'll be sure to mention it to my children - I suspect we have already been in the graveyard pictured as it looked very familiar. Diolch yn fawr.
Thank you.
Hope it’s of use :)
@@TheWelshViking It absolutely is - being an American, I only now the "whitewashed" version of English history, so this is inspiring a dive down the rabbit hole of research!
Why don't you cover the British enslaved by the Romans, Normans, Vikings etc? Now that would be interesting.
I plan to do some videos on classical and early medieval slavery at some point, but we'll be discussing Britons, Angles, Saxons, Irish, and Jutes (and the slavery they also practised) rather than British, of course ;)
Thank you!
The judges of Edinburgh Scotland during the years 1662-1665 ordered the enslavement and shipment to the colonies a large number of rogues and others who made life unpleasant for the British upper class. (Register for the Privy Council of Scotland, third series, vol. 1, p 181, vol. 2, p 101).
Scottish colonies between the years of 1662 and 1665 ... where? There were earlier Scottish colonies, and later ones, but none at that time.
You see, I've done a search and found that your wording is copied directly from a certain web page's comment section; so unless you can give the wording of the actual reference (you have read it haven't you?) or any actual evidence at all, I'm not succumbing to the myth of "white slaves" being shipped out to the Caribbean.
Well said, lovely boy, well said!
It was illegal to murder people in England too, but it did not mean it did not happen. People trafficking still happens, even in the UK so there are probably some people still enslaved today but fundamentally, England was a nation without slaves.
Except for the thousands of slaves that were imported from the West Indies in the 18th century to work as household "servants." This is documented, if you bother to look it up and not make assumptions.
@@andrewwigglesworth3030 Servants were not slaves. Here is an example. "In the neighbouring village of Bramdean, John Rippon, a black servant to the Earl of Powis, left the large sum of £63 to his fellow servants and others as well as £71 17s 9d to the poor of his parish on his death in 1800. In his will he described himself as a ‘gentleman’ - a term that couldn’t be applied to the overwhelming majority of black people living in Britain at the time." Servants were not necessarily rich but they could be black or white, the majority being white.
@@jdudb Oh Lord, please continue to send me opponents that argue with such stupidity.
Paul Cuffee was a black man born in 1759 Massachusetts, he wasn't a slave and died in 1817 leaving an estate of $20,000 (yes, a lot of money in 1817).
Using your logic, I have disproved the existence of slavery in the US.
If you can't see how stupid this argument is, then I fear for you. Instead of doing this, what do you call it? "Independent research", perhaps you could have followed the links Mr Johnson provided and started to educate yourself.
PS. It's even more insulting to use people like Paul Cuffee in these kinds of arguments since he was an avid opponent of slavery.
Excellent video. I offer one caution about gravestones: The information placed on them may not always be completely accurate. My father-in-law had four brothers. All of them served in the US military in World War II. But my father-in-law was over a year too young to enlist. So he lied about his age. The birthdate he gave went into official government records, and was eventually inscribed on his gravestone, the one issued by the US Government. But his mother told me his real birthdate, and showed the entry in her family Bible which she had made when he was born.
I'm sure that the status of being enslaved, entered on a gravestone, has a much better chance of being accurate than my father-in-law's birthdate. Seems highly unlikely that a free person's relatives or friends would describe them as enslaved on a grave marker.
William outlaws slavery in the 1200s ,. But it still goes on today.
1200's? 1066 is a pretty memorable date, and it was not in the 1200's
@@adriansmith3427 ok if you want to get pedantic get it right 1086 not 1066.
@@shaunrogers2256 you was well out m8 and I love being pedantic
@@adriansmith3427 being wrong isn't being pedantic 😂😂 I suggest you look up the meaning of the word 😂
Powerful. Thank you.
Thank you too. I’m glad it’s of use.
What does it matter even if UK people managed to keep the slaves out of their borders to not have them offend their sensitive eyes and not stir their consciences? All that suddenly oh so affordable imported goods that were previously so ridiculously expensive when imported from faraway lands populated by NOT YET ENSLAVED people, became affordable and widely accessible because SLAVES MADE THEM.
I saw some really smart, more or less triangular graph illustrating how:
1. UK imported exotic colonial goods while exporting the local products to Africa where
2. The exported wares were sold in order to pay for slaves who
3. were shipped to the colonies to produce the exotic colonial goods imported by UK
So yeah, there they have it.
BTW. A plantation slave or any other one that had to do hard physical labor did not work until retirement in his or her 60's. They usually survived not more than a couple of years ("Call a doctor to a slave? Pffft! Just hack off the smashed limb and send him back to work!"), also not that awfully many survived the sea passage even if they were young, healthy and strong men, so they had to be replaced quite often and the slave hunters did always have their hands full of work.
And no, pulling down monuments to villains is not erasing history. It's erasing undeserved praise for the people they depict.
Yes, we even had slaves here in Australia in Queensland to cut the sugar cane. They were 'black birded' from New Caledonia and other islands and collectively called Kanackas, which I was taught in school but is now a racially charged word so not to be used out of context. I would imagine there were slaves anywhere there were English colonies that required back breaking work.
You literally contradicted yourself several times. The first one died before he could gain his freedom in the law. That doesnt mean it was legal to own a slave in britian it proves the exact opposite of what youre saying. Dying in prison was very common in those days so there are plenty of people who were innocent that the same thing happened to them. The other man you mentioned in wales you out right say he was a freeman? This only proves that it was illegal to own a slave in Britain but obviously there are going to be those who break the law. Its illegal to own slaves now and you still see modern day slavery and human trafficking. The claim your trying to make is disingenuous.
Not to mention the extent Britain went to ensure slavery is today a rarity when back then it was acceptable throughout the world. Infact if you paid any tax before 2014 to the british government you were helping pay off the debt we took on to compensate slave owners so they would peacefully free the slaves. Rule Britannia
You think it was okay that they compensated the slave owners, and not the enslaved people?
Also, the very fact that Britain did compensate slavers shows that slavery was indeed a thing that existed in Britain. Google the role of Bristol on the slave trade.
Though I don’t hold much hope of you doing the work, given that you seem to take pride in imperialism and colonialism. Fuck Britannia.
@@katherinemorelle7115 Would you of rather the slaves died? Because many were willing to kill them rather than free them peacefully. I personally am happy that it was resolved peacefully. Rather than a river of blood as the slavers saw them as lovestock and so did much of the world.
I mean all you need to do is google William the conqueror and it will tell you that he outlawed slavery in 1100's. Then google the west africa squadren but I doubt you will because I assume youre one of the vandals that baught down a public statue for the sake of your feelings or atleast agree with the criminals that did it.
Actually I know a hell of a lot about the slave trade and how Britain was the one to abolish it through out the known world despite it being against its own interests and it being accepted as something akin to animal husbandry. Im sure you read one article in the guardian about Bristol being "a centre for slavery" or some such nonsense rather than looking at credible sources rather than opinion pieces.
Rule britannia and God save the Queen!
@@Heartdrive don't use my grandfather William for your own weakness.
Scotland and Wales obeyed English law since 12th century thanks I never knew that. I always thought UK/Britain outlaw slavery in 1833.
It did, the people mentioned in the video were in enslavement before then :( Scotland had different laws, but the laws of England and Wales were combined in the 16th century :)
@@TheWelshViking Scotland and Wales did not "obey English law" since the 12th century. Were did you pick up that unhistorical nonsense?
btw. the actual practical end of slavery in the British Empire was legislated in 1838 ... and even that is arguable regarding indentured servitude.
Read "They we're white and they were slaves" then let me know how you feel about the hand full of Africans that went to England and the colonies
By the way Africans were not referred to as Slaves until the 20th century prior they were called negros or servants Slave comes from SLAV due to all the slavic people who were enslaved
Yeah no. They were referred to as slaves, see the runaway slave ads I mention, and that has nothing to do with the etymology of the word, which does come from Sclava. Nice try though!
I read it. And it doesn't negate the fact there were Afro-Caribbean slaves in Britain in the 18th century (if by handful you mean upwards of 1000. My, what big hands you have! lol). Again, thanks for the engagement! It really helps to grow the channel and its reach with every comment, and earns me more revenue :)
@@TheWelshViking From the mid to late 18th century there were between 10 to 20 thousand black people (ie. people of black African descent imported as slaves from the West Indies to be house "servants") living in London. That is 1.4% rising to 2% of the population of the capital. How many of these were still slaves doesn't seem to be clear, or maybe I just haven't found the estimates.
There was an outcry (yep, ignorant people) that Doctor Who portrayed black people in London at the last frost fair (1814?). Apart from the fact that black actors exist and are perfectly capable of playing these roles, black people in substantial numbers existed in London (and other places) at that time.
The British Empire effectively turned a blind eye to and even protected some forms of slavery for years after its official abolition as well. After the US Civil War, some former slavers relocated from the Atlantic to the Pacific, kidnapping islanders and indigenous Australians and forcing them to work as indentured labourers on ranches and plantations where they were subjected to inhuman abuses and a high proportion died. The practice was called 'Blackbirding' and lasted into the early years of the 20th century. The Royal Navy occasionally made moves to clamp down on 'Blackbirders', but in reality was just as likely to act in support of them, even engaging in retributive massacres of people whose only 'crime' had been to try to defend themselves from the slavers.
Slaves came to Britain..fixed it.
Should have taught me this is School, instead of Dr Barnardo bullshit
He ws a good dude, but yeah. Imagine if we'd known all this at GCSE.
@@TheWelshViking And as for Barnado being a dude, I wonder where his funds came from, it certainly was not from selling fish and chips
If people think slavery was illegal what do they think William Wilberforce was fighting against?
William Wilberforce and other English abolitionists were trying to abolish the transatlantic slave trade and enforce England's abolition laws onto other nations around the world inc. the British Empire. It was already outlawed in the UK and already banned in England.
Im really shocked bro..i really am as a african American..they dont even teach this in school.this is great knowledge..it really opened up my eyes..eepecially the British an other European countries..i love you.
Aw thanks :) Yeah, there's a fascinating project I linked to in the description that's putting together all the newspaper material from then. Very sobering reading.
g r a v e s t o n e s
l o v e t h e m s o m u c h
Taphophile...(a lover of graveyards/ cemeteries etc).
Woke, stunning, and brave.
Nothing to do with the video but you have a beautiful bedframe o.o
Scottish justice, eh?
No doubt there are STILL people today in Britain who are living as 'slaves' - brought here by relocating foreign families. BUT thankfully instances of such must be very rare, as they were all those years ago.
James should have gone to England. He would have been instantly granted freedom in those times.
Absolutely incorrect. There were upwards of a thousand enslaved people in London alone. The ads for their sale and runaway ads (see description) make for sobering reading. The legality of it meant tragically little.
Sad this is European civilizations
Are you forgetting about all the Islamic countries who kept slaves a 1000 years before Europeans or maybe the slaves in Africa kept by Africans or the slaves in china and India.I think you're being quite selective there
@@kevinwoods4724 100% agree mate. Its hilarious how people have a huge capacity to "forget" facts that don't suit their narrative. Virtually every race and nationality has, at some time in history been enslaved by someone. Up until the 19th century slavery of one kind or another was normal. Nobody alive today should be blamed or appologise for things that happened before they were even born it's!! It's crazy to judge people in the past by today's standards! I sometimes think that (in the west at least) we have so few REAL problems to deal with (I mean we know we've got access to food/water/medicine etc.) that we have to make things up! 🤣🤣
💐
Edinbruh ;D
Lies,you had my ancestors as slaves cutting mahogany under the queen of England, Belize aka British Honduras
The point of this video is that there were also thousands of enslaved people in the UK, who are widely ignored by historians, so it's not lies, thank you. Here's a great project on it www.runaways.gla.ac.uk/
Slavery was a very widespread and evil practice, and its terrible widespread use must always be remembered and stamped out.
Everyone talks about the American slave trade, when in reality it was the British slave trade.
... and French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish and others. The French slave trade, as just one example, often exceeded that of the British.
Many European countries engaged in the slave trade and of course there was a British slave trade, absolutely ... and no buts or excuses.
Thank You.