Monday 17th November 5.30pm Room 301 Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, Malet St, London WC1.
This is an in person seminar only and it is currently fully booked. However it is often the case that not everyone who has booked attends on the day. If you are in the area you are welcome to stop by and see if there is space available
Title: The Legacies of African Enslavement and the Case for Reparations
Abstract:
Britain’s Industrial Revolution was, in large part, made possible by the capital accumulation generated by the “business of slavery,” and the genesis of Britain’s banking and insurance industries can be traced to this same “business”.
The enclosure of common land in England was often financed by the profits made by enslaving Africans.
The effects of slavery are still with us. Sugar, the foremost product of the Caribbean colonies, has left a world-wide legacy of ill-health. And the fossil-fuel based industry, which the profits from enslavement helped create, has caused the current climate crisis which threatens us all.
The colonial economy based on African enslavement caused deforestation and soil exhaustion, which has deprived the former Caribbean colonies of reasonable possibilities of development, and for this, along with the unpaid wages of millions of enslaved workers over centuries, reparations are both necessary and justified.
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