A database revealing the identities of 13,000 Brits who profited from the transatlantic slave trade has launched online.
The Register of British Slave-traders is the result of a five-year project by nine historians to identify slave traders in the historic records, led by Professor William Pettigrew of King’s College London.
It follows on from the launch in 2013 of Legacies of British Slavery, a database tracking Britons who owned enslaved people in plantations on the Caribbean. The Register of British Slave-traders focuses on those who transported them from Africa and sold them in the first place.
The launch of the database is accompanied by a new two-part BBC documentary, Finding Britain’s Slave Traders, presented by Professor David Olusoga.
The database and documentary reveal how Britain’s slave trade began in 1564 as a venture financed by many of the leading men of Elizabethan Britain, including Queen Elizabeth I’s chief adviser William Cecil, and supported by the queen herself. They trace Britain’s role in the slave trade, first under the control of the crown and then as a private venture, until its abolition in 1807.
Professor Pettigrew said that “ironically”, the slave trade’s 18th-century transition from a royal monopoly to private enterprise “contributed to Britain’s reputation as a progressive, freedom-loving nation”.
“For the British themselves,” he said, “the slave trade often had a healing effect, resolving tension in the Civil War, binding England and Scotland together after the Act of Union, and offering common cause between rival political factions.”
The database includes any known details of the slave traders, including their dates of birth and death, place of residence, professional involvement in the slave trade, and details of legacies they left.
Many were ordinary people, including women, who sought economic advancement by investing in the slave trade, for example by buying shares in the Royal African Company, a slave-trading company established in 1660 under the auspices of the then Duke of York and future King James II.
"They were a tiny minority but their wealth, power and appetite for risk influenced not just Britain’s economy but its politics, science, arts and institutions – from the development of the Royal Navy and the restoration of the Stuart monarchy to the emergence of two-party politics, the free press and Parliament itself,” Professor Pettigrew said. “They financed wars, shaped modern industry, and built ports, canals and thriving cities, helping make Britain a global and imperial force."
Ben Shaw from Kenilworth discovered that his 8x great grandfather Bryan Blundell was a slave trader who was twice mayor of Liverpool. Bryan Blundell appears in the Register of British Slave-traders. Ben tells his story in his new book, The Slave Trader.
"Whilst I don’t feel personally responsible for what he did, I do feel a responsibility, as his descendant and as the person who has written about him, to confront the uncomfortable parts of his history rather than sanitise them," he said. "In fact, that has probably been one of the most important parts of researching the book. Through his story, I have tried to understand why people of his time made the choices they did and, perhaps most importantly, what we can learn from those choices when we face questions of conscience, opportunity and financial gain in our own lives."
Ben also said there appears to be an error in Bryan Blundell's entry in the database: "It refers to voyages in 1771, but Bryan Blundell senior died in 1756. Those voyages relate to his son, who was also called Bryan Blundell. I think that distinction is important, so while I can see the value of a database such as this, this example does suggest that some of the individual entries may need further checking."
Finding Britain’s Slave Traders with David Olusoga will air on BBC Two at 9pm on Monday 21 and Monday 28 September.
Professor Pettigrew has detailed his findings in a new book, Britain’s Slave Traders: A Forgotten History, which will be published on 24 September.
