On Tuesday 26th February 2013, my princess and I attended the lecture of ‘Britain’s Black Debt: Reparations for Caribbean Slavery and Native Genocide’, by Dr Hilary Beckles at the London Metropolitan Archives as part of the International Huntley Symposium. The event was organised by the Friends of the Huntley Archives. I was glad to people from the Black History Studies network at the event.
I have a number of the books by Dr Verene Shepherd and Dr Hilary Beckles in my library so I was excited to hear more about the subject and his new book which he stated took between 3-4 years to complete. Also, I had attended Emancipation, Slave Ownership and the Remaking of the British Imperial World’ Conference last year which was linked to this lecture.
Did you know that when colonial slavery was abolished in 1833, the British government paid £20 million to slave-owners as compensation? The enslaved Africans received nothing. They received nothing as they had no rights to life. Enslaved Africans did not own their bodies or labour and they were the property of others.
The lecture was informative and enlightening. However, the time allocated for the presentation was far too short as I would have loved Dr Beckles to have gone deeper into the arguements raised in his new book regarding reparations. I have ordered the book and can’t wait to read it. Buy your copy from the following link http://astore.amazon.co.uk/blachiststud-21?_encoding=UTF8&node=48
Another book on the list to get is ‘The Price of Emancipation: Slave-Ownership, Compensation and British Society at the End of Slavery (Cambridge Studies in Economic History – Second Series)’ by Nicholas Draper. Buy your copy from the following link http://astore.amazon.co.uk/blachiststud-21?_encoding=UTF8&node=48
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I heard about the book while listening to news talk 93FM. This book is very important to us and I will be getting my copy as soon as possible. Thanks to all.