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00:02Cinco anos atrás, um grupo de historias começaram a trabalhar em um dos mais ambiciosos estudios
00:07que já foram fechados em um papel do Atlântico do Atlântico.
00:11A sua pesquisa é agora publicamente disponível na nova data base,
00:17o Registro de Slave Traders do Slave Traders.
00:19Nós começamos a fazer o projeto com a grande ambição
00:22de fazer a mais compreensão de todos os investidores do Atlântico do Atlântico do Atlântico.
00:28A lista agora é cerca de 13,000.
00:33Os 13,000 pessoas investiram em um trade que, por tantos anos,
00:38traficou mais de 3 milhões de africãs
00:40para as plantas das Américas e do Caribe.
00:44A pessoas que foram os escravos não são nem números, mas foram men,
00:48mulheres e filhos que foram escravados de casa,
00:51foram enviados em uma das worstas migratas da história,
00:55e então os escravos, 1000s de quilômetros de quilômetros,
00:57nunca para voltar de novo.
01:00Na década das primeiras décadas,
01:02o trade foi operado como um monopólio
01:04pela Comunidade Royal African Company,
01:06estabilizado pelo monarco
01:08e dominado pela elite em torno da regula.
01:12E aí, que é um grande artista,
01:14é um investidor do Atlântico do Atlântico do Atlântico.
01:20Este episódio contém a história de como a Royal African Company
01:24se perdeu a sua monopolia,
01:26e como a privatização da classe de classe
01:28de englandia, e depois a Britain,
01:31se tornou uma das legais do seu país
01:32de uma das populações da classe.
01:35O Royal African Company
01:36foi apoiado para a West Africa na classe de classe,
01:39e o age do independente
01:42revolucionou a scale da classe.
01:44E Edward Chaffers investiu em 32 Atlantic crossings,
01:48Ele também estava investindo em colerias.
01:51Ele estava investindo em o Liverpool e Leeds Canal.
01:54Essa fase inicial é em Londres,
01:56e essa fase segunda é principalmente em província.
01:59Então, o fim da Monopoli foi a grande momento para o Slave Três.
02:21Música
02:25Em os vaults do National Maritime Museum, em Londres,
02:29está uma grande coleção de arte.
02:34E muitos dos pintores presenciados aqui
02:37recordam a longa história da Royal Navy.
02:41Entre eles são relicos de uma grande parte de um capítulo muito esquecido
02:45daquela história.
02:48Música
02:51Estes dois pintores
02:52parecem muitos dos pintores de pintores e pintores
02:57aqui em esta coleção que representam épocas batalas na terra.
03:03Este é de 1830.
03:06Este é o lado esquerdo,
03:08o lado esquerdo, é o Espanhol Slave Ship, o El Almirante.
03:13E a pequena ship,
03:15chasing it,
03:16firing its guns.
03:47For mais de dois décadas.
03:49Porque, em 1807,
03:51britânia, não tinha acabado de terminar sua própria Slave Três.
03:55E, por mais de dois décadas,
04:08com o uso da Royal Navy
04:27O Black Joke foi famosa em 1820s e 1830s,
04:32e a campanha contra a slave trade foi celebrada na Brita.
04:37A militação e diplomata foi a durar até o século 20.
04:45Generations de britânicos saíram se partiam nessa campanha épica,
04:49na América do Atlântico e, depois, na América do Oceano.
04:52E militações de militares, e militares morados de tropica e em batalas na terra.
04:58E ainda, hoje, a história é quase lembrada.
05:02A única relicação que se deixou são oldes, como esses, e documentos em os arquivos.
05:15Mas na África, em todo, no coastline que os navios da Royal Navy patrola,
05:21Essa história é imprimida sobre a terra.
05:26À frente do Gambia River,
05:29no pequeno norte-africano da Gambia,
05:32está Fort Bullen.
05:42A costa do norte-africano é estudado
05:46com fortes fortes fortes
05:47construídas por Europa.
05:49Mas Fort Bullen foi construído
05:51depois que a britânia aboliu o trade.
05:55Este lugar não foi designado
05:56para capturar africanos.
05:58Foi designado para impedir
06:00os outros países europeus
06:01e os locais africanos
06:03de luta-african-slave-traders
06:04de usar este rio para continuar com o trade.
06:08A guns em este fortes
06:09tinha um campo de fogo sobre o rio.
06:13Isto é uma das últimas
06:14de infraestrutura-se
06:17de luta-african-frican-frican-frican-frican-frican.
06:57Isto é Fort James.
07:01Isto é Fort James.
07:03Isto é Fort James.
07:05Um negócio-frican-frican-frican-frican-frican-frican-frican,
07:08e programam os negócios
07:14que era muito mais importante.
07:17em Londres.
07:21Outside the walls stood
07:23the slave yards and the slave houses
07:25in which, over the years,
07:28thousands of enslaved people
07:30were held before being
07:31shipped to the islands of the Caribbean.
07:35What happened here, and
07:37in places like it, allowed England
07:39to establish itself within
07:41the Atlantic slave trade.
07:46But as reports written on this island reveal,
07:49the company's ships were not
07:51the only vessels on this river.
07:55In 1678,
07:57the Royal Africa Company's agent
07:59here at Fort James was
08:01a man called Mr Thomas Thurlow.
08:03And in March of that year,
08:05he wrote this report describing
08:07the company's trading activities
08:09here on the Gambia River.
08:11and he lists the commodities
08:13the company was trading in.
08:15First on that list are
08:17slaves.
08:18He then lists teeth,
08:21by which he means elephant's teeth,
08:23which is what people in the 17th century
08:25used to call ivory tusks.
08:27The company was also, he says,
08:29trading in wax and in hides,
08:31so animal skins.
08:33And he explains that they are buying
08:35these commodities, human and otherwise,
08:37from the Portuguese,
08:39but also from natives,
08:41so local African slave traders.
08:44And he explains that this river
08:46will yield yearly
08:48between five and six hundred slaves.
08:52But he then goes on to warn
08:54that while the Portuguese
08:56bring their goods to the island,
08:58they bring them here to Fort James,
09:00if they begin to grow rich,
09:03they will carry their goods
09:04to any interlopers' strange ship.
09:08And what he's talking about here
09:10is one of the great challenges facing
09:12the Royal African Company,
09:13the challenge of the interlopers,
09:15private, independent traders
09:17who are ignoring the royal monopoly
09:20and coming here to Africa
09:21to break in to the trade
09:23and enslave people.
09:35William Pettigrew,
09:36who has led the new research project,
09:39has studied the astonishing powers
09:41that were granted to the Royal African Company
09:43against the interlopers.
09:46With the charters granted to the company,
09:49came the possibility of enforcing the monopoly
09:52through what were called
09:53Vice Admiralty Courts.
09:55These were courts
09:56that enabled the company
09:57to intercept merchants
09:59who infringed on the monopoly,
10:00to imprison them
10:01without legal due process.
10:03So this is outside the common law,
10:05without juries, I presume?
10:07There was no role for a jury trial
10:09in this process
10:10and it was therefore deemed to be,
10:12you know,
10:12a fundamental infringement
10:14of the English constitution.
10:16I mean, to have the power of justice
10:17is to have a power
10:19that's normally associated with the state
10:21rather than with a company.
10:22That's right,
10:23but you've got the monarchy
10:24front and centre as investors,
10:26but you've also got the King of England
10:28in the 1680s
10:29as the chairman of the company.
10:31You've got the Royal Navy
10:32at the disposal of the company.
10:34So this business,
10:35this traffic,
10:36is part and parcel
10:37of the activity of the state
10:38by the time we get to the 1680s.
10:40Were there any other companies
10:42who had these sorts of powers?
10:44No.
10:45Not even the East India Company
10:46enjoys the same privileges.
10:48But there are people
10:49who do attempt interlopers,
10:51who do try to break into the trade.
10:53There are a number of well-known attempts
10:56that ended imprisonment
10:57for those merchants,
10:59imprisoned in forts in West Africa.
11:01There's a famous example
11:02of the Wilkinson brothers
11:03who had mounted
11:05an illegal slave trading voyage,
11:08intercepted by a Royal Navy frigate,
11:11and Henry Wilkinson
11:13was then imprisoned
11:14at Cape Coast Castle.
11:15And William, his brother,
11:18describes how oppressive
11:20the experience of being incarcerated
11:22by the African company is for his brother,
11:24that his brother commits suicide.
11:28Now, these fortresses,
11:30they are used to hold enslaved people.
11:32That's right.
11:33There were also English slave traders
11:35being imprisoned in those forts?
11:37Alongside enslaved African people.
11:40But the really shocking, astonishing thing
11:42from our perspective
11:43is to imagine that those people,
11:46English independent slave trading merchants
11:50who were imprisoned,
11:52they saw themselves as being enslaved
11:54by the African company.
11:56with no sense of irony?
11:57Not as far as we can tell.
12:08By the 1680s,
12:10the Royal African Company
12:11was transporting 5,000 Africans
12:14into slavery every year,
12:16and generating large profits
12:18for its investors.
12:20But at that moment,
12:22the Stuart dynasty,
12:23who had pioneered the English slave trade,
12:26were themselves consumed by crisis.
12:30In 1688, King James II,
12:34who had personally invested
12:35in the Royal African Company,
12:37who was the company's governor
12:39and who attended so many company meetings,
12:42was deposed
12:43in what later became known
12:44as the Glorious Revolution.
12:47James fled to France
12:48and the throne passed
12:50to his daughter Mary
12:51and her Dutch husband,
12:53Prince William of Orange.
12:55Now,
12:55the Glorious Revolution
12:56was the catalyst
12:57for the formation
12:58of a new type
12:59of English state.
13:01And one of the many issues
13:03that was debated
13:04and contested
13:05after the fall of James
13:07and the arrival of William
13:08was the future
13:10of the English slave trade
13:11and the royal monopoly.
13:19The slave trade
13:21left behind millions of records.
13:23They are today
13:24scattered in archives
13:26and libraries
13:26across the country.
13:28Accounts of individual expeditions,
13:31insurance documents
13:32and endless lists
13:33of the people
13:34who made
13:35and who lost money
13:36in the trade.
13:40In the National Archives
13:41are the share transfer books
13:43of the Royal African Company.
13:46They list the buying
13:48and the selling
13:49of company shares.
13:50And the ledger
13:51from early 1689
13:53records transactions
13:55that took place
13:56during the Glorious Revolution.
14:01Inside this transfer book
14:04is this letter
14:05which has been pasted
14:07into the book.
14:08And that's because
14:08it had arrived in London
14:10from Paris
14:11which you can see
14:12from this letterhead here.
14:15It contains instructions
14:17from an investor
14:18in the company
14:19for his shares
14:21to be sold off,
14:22to be liquidated.
14:24And at the top
14:26of the letter
14:26it gives us
14:27the name of that investor
14:29which is James II.
14:32By the grace of God,
14:34King of England,
14:35Scotland,
14:35France and Ireland,
14:36defender of the faith,
14:38now resident
14:39in the Kingdom of France.
14:42This is James,
14:43now in exile in France
14:45but still technically king,
14:47instructing his agent
14:49to transfer his stock
14:51of £3,000 capital
14:53or principal money
14:55in the Royal African Company
14:57of England.
14:59And at the bottom
15:00is James' signature
15:02and the royal seal.
15:05But in this same transfer book
15:08just a few pages back
15:10it records another transfer
15:12of company stock
15:14that took place
15:15just two days earlier.
15:16and this is the opposite transaction.
15:19This is a new investor
15:21acquiring company shares.
15:23It reads,
15:24I do transfer
15:26£1,000 of my stock
15:29in the Royal African Company
15:30of England
15:31unto His Highness
15:33William Henry,
15:35Prince of Orange.
15:38This is the future
15:40William III
15:42who is soon
15:43to be proclaimed king.
15:44And underneath this transaction
15:46it gives us the name
15:48of the company investor
15:49who facilitated
15:51this transaction.
15:52And his name
15:53was Edward Colston.
15:59The thousands of people
16:00whose names appear
16:02in the transfer books
16:03of the Royal African Company
16:05had invested
16:06in the slave trade
16:07knowing that behind
16:08the monopoly
16:08was the power
16:09of the state
16:10and the monarch.
16:11but the enforcement
16:13of the monopoly
16:14had created enemies.
16:16The families
16:17of interlopers
16:18imprisoned
16:19on the coast
16:19of Africa
16:20and the English merchants
16:21excluded
16:22from the trade.
16:25With James II
16:27gone
16:27the company
16:28desperately
16:29needed the support
16:30of the new regime.
16:33It's an act
16:35of knee-jerk desperation.
16:37Once James II
16:39had departed the country
16:40this is a person
16:41who essentially
16:41established the company
16:42and led it.
16:43The company
16:44sort of naturally
16:45is looking for
16:45an alternative source
16:47of support.
16:47So it's hoping that
16:48William will be
16:49as generous
16:50and as invested
16:51in the company
16:52as James was.
16:53Yeah, absolutely.
16:54William's not really
16:54interested in the company.
16:56The African Company
16:56is left isolated.
16:58So those
16:59it had alienated.
17:00those
17:01who had been imprisoned
17:02by the African Company
17:03are now
17:04seeking vengeance.
17:06One of the
17:07key
17:08mechanisms
17:09for
17:10opposing
17:11the African Company's
17:12monopoly
17:12is through pamphlets.
17:14And we know of
17:15over 200 of these.
17:17One of the earliest pamphlets
17:19was written by
17:20William Wilkinson
17:21and this is the brother
17:22of Henry Wilkinson.
17:23Who had died
17:24in Cape Coast Castle
17:25a prisoner
17:26of the Royal Africa.
17:27That's right.
17:28And one of the things
17:28that William seeks to do
17:30is to summarise
17:31that tyrannical behaviour.
17:33So the title is
17:35The Intrigues
17:35and Arbitrary Proceedings
17:37of the Guinea Company.
17:38He means the
17:38Royal African Company.
17:39Yeah.
17:40And it starts
17:41with a summary
17:41of that mistreatment.
17:43By virtue of this charter
17:46oppress their fellow subjects
17:47by taking their ships,
17:49imprisoning and starving
17:51their seamen,
17:52illegally condemning
17:53the said ships
17:54and goods
17:54without any jewellery.
17:55This is so important.
17:56What's most offensive
17:58about the African Company
17:59is the fact
18:00that it proposes
18:01to imprison people
18:02without the right
18:03to a jury trial.
18:05And here's Wilkinson
18:05laying that out.
18:06This is what happens
18:07to my brother.
18:08Who committed suicide.
18:09That's right.
18:10How were these pamphlets used?
18:13These were given to MPs.
18:14In fact, in lots of cases
18:15you can see a fold
18:16down the centre of the page
18:18which shows you
18:18that it was being folded up
18:19and waived
18:20during a parliamentary debate.
18:22Does he make an argument
18:23in favour
18:24of how privatised,
18:27deregulated slave trade
18:28would benefit the country?
18:30You can see this paragraph here.
18:32Whereas,
18:33if a free trade
18:33were granted to the subject,
18:35it would raise a desire
18:36in great undertakers
18:38and moneyed men
18:38to prepare considerable
18:39quantities of goods
18:40and build many ships.
18:41We're talking here
18:42about a kind of
18:43economic free-for-all
18:44where the entrepreneurial energies
18:46of the English people
18:47would be channelled into this.
18:49developing not just
18:50a greater financial involvement
18:52but also expanding manufacturing.
18:54And many thousands of poor
18:56would be employed
18:57which at present
18:58want bread.
19:00This is an opportunity
19:01to expand our engagement
19:03with the trafficking
19:04of enslaved African people
19:05that would actually
19:06put the poor to work.
19:08It would solve social problems.
19:10So the rich would invest
19:11in making commodities
19:12for the trade
19:13and building ships
19:14but then that wealth
19:14would trickle down
19:15to the poor.
19:16If only we could push
19:18this company aside.
19:19Exactly.
19:19One of the great liabilities
19:21of the African company
19:22is that it had focused
19:24its energies in London.
19:26Parliament is a national organisation.
19:28So you can see
19:29all of these boroughs
19:30around the country
19:31and counties
19:32protesting about that.
19:34This is a very good example.
19:36There aren't that many
19:37in British history
19:38where the economic power
19:41and dominance of London
19:42is actually successfully contested.
19:44And economic opportunity
19:45is spread more evenly
19:46around the country.
19:52The end of the royal monopoly
19:54in the late 1690s
19:56created a new economic opportunity
19:59for the levelling up
20:00of the economy.
20:01No longer would one company
20:03and one city
20:04control such a lucrative trade.
20:08and merchants from towns and cities
20:11across the country
20:13now rushed to establish themselves
20:15as slave traders.
20:17During the 17th century,
20:19around 130,000 Africans
20:21had been carried into slavery
20:23by the royal monopoly companies.
20:25across the 107 years
20:28between the start
20:29of the 18th century
20:31and the abolition
20:32of the trade
20:32in 1807
20:34around 2.8 million Africans
20:37were trafficked
20:38across the Atlantic
20:39by British traders.
20:41an increase in capacity
20:43of around 300%.
20:52The city that made the most
20:54of the end of the royal monopoly
20:56was Bristol.
21:00Bristol was literally
21:01in the perfect position
21:03on the west coast
21:04of the country
21:05which means
21:06that this river
21:07the Avon flows
21:08out into the Bristol Channel
21:10and then straight
21:11to the Atlantic.
21:12Bristol was then
21:13the third biggest city
21:15in England
21:15and this port
21:16was the second largest
21:18in the country
21:18after London.
21:20Bristol was full
21:21of merchants
21:22and manufacturers
21:23who had already
21:24broken into the trade
21:25in the goods
21:26produced
21:26by enslaved people.
21:28Sugar
21:29and tobacco.
21:31And what all of that
21:33meant was that
21:34for a moment
21:35between the 1720s
21:37and the 1740s
21:38Bristol actually
21:40overtook London
21:41and became
21:42the number one
21:43slave trading port
21:44in the whole country.
21:47Over 2,000 ships
21:49set sail
21:50from this port
21:51for the coast
21:51of Africa.
21:53And those 2,000
21:54Bristol ships
21:55between them
21:56shipped around
21:57half a million
21:58men,
21:59women and children
22:00to the plantations.
22:08Profits from the trade
22:09and the trade
22:10in the goods
22:11the slaves produced
22:12flowed into the city
22:14and helped fund
22:15an urban renaissance.
22:17The first half
22:18of the 18th century
22:19when Bristol
22:20dominated the slave trade
22:22was a golden age
22:23for the city.
22:30The slave traders
22:32built themselves
22:33grand new homes
22:34in places like
22:35Queen Square.
22:36but they also set out
22:38to make Bristol
22:39a more cultured city.
22:41One group
22:42that included
22:43some of Bristol's
22:44wealthiest slave traders
22:45clubbed together
22:46to fund the building
22:47of a new theatre.
22:50Known today
22:50as the Bristol Old Vic,
22:52it is the oldest
22:53continuously operating theatre
22:55in the English-speaking world.
22:58Nicholas Radburn,
23:00one of the researchers
23:01behind the register
23:02of British slave traders,
23:03has been digging
23:04into the backgrounds
23:05of the men
23:06who funded this theatre.
23:09What we have here
23:10is an agreement
23:11to establish a theatre
23:12which will become
23:13the Theatre Royal
23:14in Bristol,
23:15or now the Old Vic.
23:16So this place?
23:17This place, exactly.
23:18With the name
23:19of the 40 original subscribers.
23:21And this is from 1764.
23:23So each of these men
23:24is investing £50.
23:27For that,
23:27they get one share
23:28in this theatre.
23:29Yes.
23:30And £50 in the 1760s
23:32today,
23:32that's worth about
23:33£8,000, £9,000.
23:34Yes, so a substantial
23:35sum of money.
23:36And what do we know
23:37about these men?
23:38Well, we know
23:39by cross-referencing
23:40their names
23:41with our database
23:43that many of them
23:44were deeply engaged
23:45in the transatlantic
23:45slave trade.
23:46So to give an example,
23:48we have here
23:48Thomas Farr.
23:49And he participates
23:50in partnership
23:51with his brother
23:51in the slave trade.
23:52They're one of the largest
23:53slave-trading families
23:54in 18th century Bristol.
23:56Wow.
23:57Who else?
23:57We have here as well
23:59Henry Bright.
24:00Now Bright's
24:01a really good example
24:02of why a focus solely
24:03on investment
24:04in slave ships
24:05out of Bristol
24:06tends to obscure
24:07to a degree
24:08the overall engagement
24:09of these men
24:10in Atlantic trade.
24:11Because Bright
24:12apprentices
24:13as a barrel maker.
24:14Then he goes to Jamaica
24:15as an agent for a Bristol
24:16company.
24:17And what he'll do
24:18in Jamaica is sell
24:19enslaved Africans
24:20who are arriving
24:21on Bristol slave ships.
24:22So he's a representative
24:23of Bristol slave traders
24:25but in the island
24:26of Jamaica.
24:26Exactly.
24:27And when he returns
24:28to Bristol with the wealth
24:29he's made in Jamaica,
24:30he's able to establish
24:31himself here as a merchant
24:32engaging not only
24:34in the slave trade
24:34but also in the trade
24:36in slave-grown produce.
24:37And these men
24:38are choosing to spend
24:39the wealth
24:40that they've generated
24:41here in Bristol.
24:43Yes.
24:44And there's a good reason
24:45for that.
24:45They come from this place.
24:47They tend to be marginal men
24:48who are looking
24:49to raise themselves
24:50up socially.
24:51Who are looking to
24:52get to the pinnacle
24:52of society through
24:53trading in people.
24:55And they want to put
24:55their imprinture
24:56on the city
24:57to say I've made it.
24:58And they do that
24:59by investing in institutions
25:01that they know
25:02will outlive them
25:02but will still bear
25:04their name.
25:04So there's a certain
25:05immortality that comes
25:06through the investment
25:07in these institutions.
25:09What did these men
25:10get for their £50?
25:12They get one of these tokens
25:14which was given
25:15to each of these subscribers.
25:17This is a silver token.
25:19It says King Street
25:21Bristol Theatre
25:22and on the back
25:24the proprietor
25:26of this ticket
25:27is entitled
25:27to the site
25:29of every performance
25:30to be exhibited
25:31in this house.
25:32And it's number
25:3423.
25:35Yes.
25:35So number 23 we presume
25:36of these original
25:3740 subscribers.
25:39Mm-hmm.
25:39So if you're a holder
25:40of that token
25:41you can arrive here
25:42at the box office
25:43and gain access
25:44to the show for free.
25:46And these are still valid?
25:47They're still valid today,
25:49yes.
25:49Two and a half centuries later.
25:50Two and a half centuries later,
25:51yes.
25:52God, that's astonishing.
25:57This theatre is just one of many institutions here in Bristol
26:02that have origin stories
26:03that link them back to the slave trade.
26:07The merchants who made fortunes in Bristol
26:10also built the grand assembly rooms
26:13on the same street as the Old Vic.
26:16They funded the building of new schools,
26:19new hospitals,
26:20and many of these institutions
26:22can be found in the register
26:24of British slave traders.
26:27And this same pattern
26:28of money from the trade,
26:30funding charities,
26:31and the building of new institutions
26:33was repeated in cities across the country.
26:39Because although Bristol was the city
26:41that made the most of the end
26:43of the royal monopoly,
26:44it was not alone.
26:46Other towns
26:47in some surprising parts of the country
26:49also rushed into the trade.
26:55And how the trade spread across the country
26:58has been a key part of the research
27:01that has built the new register
27:03of British slave traders.
27:06The research showed that Whitehaven
27:08was a significant slave trading port.
27:10This is only a small port
27:12in the very north of England.
27:13And it was here a guy called John Lowther
27:15established an enterprise
27:17that combined industrial investment
27:18on the mainland
27:19with the growing port
27:21to connect linen manufacture,
27:22coal mining,
27:23with the importation of tobacco
27:25from plantations,
27:26and also through the port
27:27the sending of slaving vessels
27:29to West Africa
27:30and then on to the Caribbean.
27:31Scottish boroughs
27:33begin to lobby Parliament
27:34after the Act of the Union
27:35claiming that they need to have full access
27:38to the traffic and enslaved African people.
27:40Glasgow really emerges
27:41as a Western-facing slave trading port.
27:44Another thing that the research shows
27:45is the growth of Lancaster
27:46as a slave trading port,
27:47which will eventually be
27:48Britain's fourth largest
27:49slave trading port.
27:50In 1700 it's a sleepy place
27:52with about 5,000 people,
27:54not much trade to speak of
27:56and a decaying castle.
27:57By the end of the 18th century
27:58a new quayside is laid out,
28:01new streets are laid out,
28:02and that has created
28:03an 18th century looking city
28:05that persists to this day.
28:07The Burridge family of Lime Regis
28:09had taken the opportunities
28:11they understood to be presented
28:13by the liberalisation of the trade
28:14back to their home ports.
28:16The Burridge family
28:16mount four crossings.
28:19The liberalisation of the slave trade
28:22spread wealth and commerce
28:24through towns and cities across Britain.
28:31But in the same years,
28:32the first decades of the 18th century,
28:35a new trading company
28:36was established here in London.
28:41A company that ensured
28:43that London's merchants,
28:45along with the British state
28:47and the monarch,
28:48were to remain involved
28:49in the trafficking of human cargoes.
28:56The South Sea Company
28:58is remembered today
29:00for having triggered
29:01the most famous
29:02financial disaster
29:03to ever befall
29:04the banks and investors
29:05of the city of London.
29:08That disaster is recalled today
29:10whenever markets crash.
29:12But at the time,
29:13in the 1720s,
29:15it was seen
29:16as a national scandal.
29:19The subject of this satirical print
29:22by the artist William Hogarth
29:24is the South Sea bubble.
29:26The vast inflation
29:27and then the sudden collapse
29:29in the value of shares
29:30in the South Sea Company.
29:32And one of the London landmarks
29:34in this image is this,
29:36the monument to the Great Fire.
29:38But in Hogarth's image,
29:40it is now a monument erected
29:42to the memory
29:43of the destruction of the city
29:45by the South Sea bubble in 1720.
29:49And all around the monument
29:51is a scene of absolute chaos.
29:53There are people arguing
29:55and fighting.
29:56There is a pickpocket
29:58stealing from a man
29:59who's in such despair
30:00that he doesn't even notice.
30:03This old woman
30:05right in the corner,
30:06starving and emaciated,
30:09she represents trade,
30:11legitimate trade,
30:12rather than the speculation
30:14in the value of shares.
30:16of the South Sea.
30:17But there is one detail
30:18that just isn't in this image.
30:21And it is almost never mentioned
30:23whenever the story
30:24of the South Sea bubble comes up.
30:26And that is that the South Sea Company
30:28was a slave trading company.
30:38The business model of the South Sea Company
30:41rested, in part,
30:42on a document drafted in 1713
30:45that was part of the peace negotiations
30:48at the end of a war.
30:51This is a copy of the Asiento,
30:54which, as you can see,
30:55is a contract
30:56for allowing the subjects of Great Britain
30:59the liberty of importing Negroes
31:02into Spanish America.
31:05Now, Spanish America
31:06is the vast empire Spain had built
31:08in the New World,
31:10an empire that relied heavily
31:12upon the labor of enslaved Africans.
31:14But Spain didn't become
31:16a major slave trading nation
31:18until much later,
31:20until the 19th century
31:21after Britain
31:22had ended its slave trade.
31:25What Spain did
31:26was it issued these contracts,
31:28these Asiento,
31:30to other nations,
31:31to the Dutch,
31:32to the Portuguese,
31:33and now to the British state,
31:36who, in effect,
31:37then subcontracted the Asiento
31:39to the South Sea Company.
31:46This is a company
31:48that is deeply enmeshed
31:49with the British state
31:51and engaged in the slave trade.
31:53Absolutely.
31:54That's exactly what it is.
31:55I think we automatically presume
31:57that the British slave trade
31:58supplied enslaved people
32:00to the British Empire,
32:01but this is the Spanish Empire.
32:03Exactly.
32:04The Spanish,
32:05with their sprawling empire,
32:06did not really want to get involved
32:08in the West African coastal trades.
32:10They didn't really know
32:11any of the local rulers.
32:13They didn't have forts there.
32:14there's a very complicated
32:16trading arrangements
32:17that you need to understand,
32:19and it helps to actually
32:20have a middleman.
32:21And that's what they do.
32:22They use the French,
32:23or the Dutch,
32:24or the British.
32:25Whoever's got
32:26the most efficient,
32:28if we can use that,
32:29the most efficient way
32:30of carrying out
32:31this horrific trade,
32:33the Spanish essentially
32:34get them to do it for them.
32:36So by the early 18th century,
32:38it's the British
32:39who are the most efficient
32:41slave traders,
32:42and therefore it is the British
32:43to whom the Spanish
32:44turn and give them
32:45the asiento.
32:46That is correct,
32:47but it does help
32:48that this is a country
32:50that's maybe coming
32:51later to the trade,
32:53but is now the most efficient.
32:56Yeah.
32:56So there were two
32:57British slave trades
32:58in this period.
32:59There's an independent one
33:00which is emerging
33:01in cities like Bristol,
33:03but there's also
33:04a London-based trade
33:05which is now
33:06with the South Seas Company.
33:07That's right,
33:08and people forget that London
33:09is the first slaving port,
33:10it's not Bristol.
33:11Because it's a really
33:12financially complicated trade.
33:14I mean, we're in the city
33:15of London.
33:16The banks that were here
33:17in the 18th century
33:18and the insurance firms,
33:19they're deeply involved
33:20in this as well.
33:21Absolutely,
33:22and you're not going to get
33:23very far without financing
33:24because it's a very
33:25capital-intensive entity
33:27that to send one ship
33:28anywhere is very expensive
33:29and you have to wait
33:30a long time before
33:31you get any money back.
33:34The people who buy those shares
33:36in the South Sea Company,
33:38do they know
33:39what the company's doing?
33:40Yes.
33:40Do they know they're investing
33:41in the slave trade?
33:42Oh, yes, they do.
33:43I mean, certainly,
33:43it would be well known
33:45because it was in the newspapers
33:46that a certain number
33:48of warships were going
33:49to these ports.
33:50They also have reports
33:52in the newspapers
33:53that said how many people
33:55had been trafficked
33:56on a particular ship.
33:58So it was very open
33:59and as well,
34:00you know,
34:00some of the people
34:01who were trafficked
34:02by the Royal African Company,
34:03we know one or two
34:05might be brought back
34:06as the captain's personal
34:07enslaved person
34:08that they then sell locally.
34:11So here in London?
34:12Here in London,
34:13often in something
34:13like a pub
34:14or a coffee house.
34:16So you're seeing
34:17enslaved people
34:18here in London
34:19and you're reading
34:20in the newspapers
34:20of the activities
34:21of this company,
34:22so it's not a secret?
34:23It's not a secret.
34:25And the South Sea Company
34:25is very famous,
34:27but it's not famous
34:28for being engaged
34:29in the slave trade.
34:30It's the South Sea bubble,
34:32a financial market crash
34:33in 1720
34:34that keeps coming up
34:35every time
34:35there's a financial scandal.
34:37But people aren't
34:38really aware
34:38of what the company did.
34:40The slave trading side
34:41of it has been erased
34:42out of the history.
34:43The idea of ruin
34:44is always about
34:45the investor
34:46who's lost some money.
34:48But the ruination,
34:49the damage,
34:50is being done
34:51to the enslaved people
34:52and they are not
34:53in any of the pamphlets
34:55or prints.
34:59among the investors
35:01who lost money
35:02when the South Sea bubble burst
35:04was Sir Isaac Newton.
35:06The great scientist
35:07lost £20,000,
35:10a large chunk
35:10of his life's savings,
35:12worth around £4 million
35:14in today's money.
35:19But there were some investors
35:20who made
35:21rather than lost fortunes.
35:25One London merchant
35:26who sold his shares
35:28at the right time,
35:29getting out
35:30before the bubble burst,
35:31was Thomas Guy.
35:33He made a profit
35:34of £175,000,
35:37some of which he used
35:39to found the hospital
35:40that still carries his name,
35:44Guy's Hospital.
35:47But the crash of 1720
35:49was not the end
35:50of the South Sea Company.
35:52It survived
35:53and it retained
35:55the Asiento.
35:56And each year
35:57it bought thousands
35:58of enslaved people
35:59from local African traders
36:01and shipped them
36:02across the Atlantic.
36:04And to manage the trade,
36:06the company established bases
36:08across the Spanish Empire
36:10in ports like Buenos Aires,
36:12Havana and Portobello.
36:23The new research
36:25for the Register
36:26of British Slave Treaders
36:27examined ledgers
36:28held here
36:29at the British Library
36:30that record
36:31the business dealings
36:32of the South Sea Company.
36:37These ledgers
36:38have revealed
36:39some new
36:40and some shocking details
36:41about how the company
36:43conducted
36:44the slave trade.
36:47Nicholas Radburn,
36:48as well as researching
36:49the traders of Bristol,
36:51has read
36:51those ledgers.
36:54One of the things
36:55we did
36:56was work our way
36:57systematically through
36:58the records
36:59of the South Sea Company
37:00which are held here
37:00in the British Library.
37:01And this is one of the ledgers
37:03that you looked at?
37:03Yes.
37:04And it says here
37:05this is the mark
37:07that henceforward
37:08is to be put
37:09onto the bodies
37:11of the Negroes
37:12to be sold.
37:13So this is
37:14a brand
37:15in both senses
37:17of the word.
37:18I mean, this is the company's
37:19logo,
37:19but it is literally
37:20that logo
37:21is to be burnt
37:23onto the flesh...
37:24That's right.
37:25...of human beings.
37:26Exactly.
37:27To mark the ownership
37:28of those human beings
37:30by the South Sea Company.
37:32And it's the company's
37:34logos,
37:35SSC,
37:36interlaced,
37:37South Sea Company.
37:38And over
37:39above those letters
37:40is the crown
37:41of Queen Anne.
37:42This is a letter
37:43that's going out
37:44to the factors,
37:46the slave trading agents
37:47of the company
37:48in Jamaica,
37:49ordering them
37:49to brand
37:50the bodies
37:51of the enslaved.
37:52Men, women,
37:53and children.
37:54And there's no
37:55dispensation
37:55for children?
37:56No.
37:57No.
37:59Wow.
38:02And so tens
38:02of thousands
38:03of Africans
38:04lived the rest
38:05of their
38:06enslaved lives
38:07with the British
38:08crown burnt
38:09into their skin?
38:10Yes.
38:14This is
38:15another document
38:16that you looked at
38:17as part of the research.
38:18And this is
38:19accounts of
38:20the company's
38:21managing body
38:22at the court.
38:23That's right.
38:24And this is from
38:251725?
38:26Yes.
38:27And five years
38:28after the famous
38:29South Sea bubble
38:30had burst.
38:31What this letter
38:32reveals,
38:33not only
38:34is the South Sea Company
38:35continue to be
38:36heavily involved
38:37in the slave trade
38:37after the bubble
38:38has burst,
38:39but also the people
38:40who are running
38:40the company,
38:41the directors,
38:42are intimately engaged
38:43in the business
38:44of slave trading.
38:45they're writing
38:46to the factors
38:47in Buenos Aires
38:48and they've received
38:49word from the factors.
38:50It now comes out
38:52that you never mark
38:53the Negroes,
38:54giving for reason
38:55that the French never did it
38:56and that Dr Dover
38:57said your mark
38:58being so large
39:00might endanger
39:00the Negroes.
39:01So the company
39:02court of directors
39:03have heard
39:04that their agents
39:06in Buenos Aires
39:07are not branding
39:08the enslaved people.
39:09Yes, that's right.
39:11And Dr Dover
39:12is their surgeon
39:13and he gives a medical
39:14reason why they haven't
39:15been doing it.
39:16Yes, he says the mark
39:17being so large
39:18it might endanger
39:19the Negroes.
39:20And what he means by that
39:20is endanger their health.
39:22Not only would it be
39:23incredibly painful,
39:24but they might get an infection
39:25and then die.
39:26And it's in the company's interest
39:27and the court of directors
39:28know that
39:29to not have these people die,
39:31to not have them get infections.
39:33Yes.
39:33So this is an appeal
39:35for a bit of mercy,
39:37but it's also about profits.
39:39It is.
39:40Their response
39:41is unequivocal and direct.
39:43They say that
39:44we think it therefore
39:46high time
39:47to put this method in practice
39:49and positively direct
39:50that for the future
39:51you mark all the Negroes
39:53you sell.
39:54mark the Negroes
39:55on the left shoulder
39:56heating the mark
39:57red hot
39:58and rubbing the part
39:59first with a little palm
40:01or other oil
40:01and taking off the mark
40:03pretty quick
40:03and rubbing the place
40:05again with the oil.
40:07It is so detailed.
40:08Mm-hmm.
40:09Yeah.
40:10They're not just instructing
40:11for this branding
40:13to take place
40:13they're explaining
40:15how they want it done.
40:16Yes.
40:20And does it tell us
40:21who the court of directors
40:22were in this meeting
40:23in 1725?
40:25It does.
40:25Their names are all provided
40:26at the end of this letter.
40:28Who they are?
40:28Your affectionate friends
40:30the court of directors.
40:32Your affectionate friends?
40:33Yes.
40:34And what do we know
40:35about the men
40:36whose names appear
40:36as members of the court
40:37of directors?
40:38They tend to be
40:39members of the London elite
40:41who are intimately connected
40:43not only with each other
40:44but also with other
40:45trading companies
40:46some of which
40:47were engaged
40:47in this transatlantic slave trade.
40:49So to give you two examples
40:51John Isles and John Rudge
40:52both of them were
40:53either directors
40:54or governors
40:54of the Bank of England.
40:56Both were heavily involved
40:57with the East India Company.
40:59Both were MPs.
41:01Both were major landholders.
41:03Isles will be
41:03a year after this
41:05elected as
41:05the Lord Mayor of London
41:06as well.
41:07These aren't people
41:08who are marginal members
41:10of society
41:10but rather the pinnacle.
41:12And they make this decision
41:13irrespective of the fact
41:15that their own doctor
41:16on site
41:17in Buenos Aires
41:18is saying
41:19this is too painful
41:20this is too brutal.
41:21Absolutely.
41:22They reject his advice.
41:23They overrule him
41:24yes.
41:24Absolutely.
41:29What did you think
41:30when you first came across this?
41:33I'm familiar with
41:34reading material
41:35that's
41:36you know
41:37captures the brutalities
41:38of the slave trade.
41:39It's inherent to the business.
41:40right?
41:41But this letter
41:42in particular
41:44stopped me in my tracks.
41:45Yeah.
41:45Because it's
41:46so chilling
41:47and so clear
41:49the violence
41:50that's being done
41:51directly
41:52from people
41:53that we
41:54in our popular imagination
41:55think are divorced
41:56from the day-to-day realities
41:58of slave trading
41:59on the ground.
41:59That's what's so shocking
42:00is that this will have been
42:01a very polite
42:02and civilized meeting.
42:04That's right.
42:04By people who would then
42:05go on to their families.
42:07Exactly.
42:07This was
42:07a decision made
42:09in the course of a day's work.
42:11Yes, absolutely.
42:20The South Sea Company
42:21shipped around 34,000 people
42:24across the Atlantic
42:25and into slavery.
42:26The company
42:27and its agents
42:28in the Spanish Empire
42:29repeatedly struggled
42:31to maintain relations
42:32with Spain
42:33and often struggled
42:34to generate a profit.
42:37In 1750
42:39the company
42:39abandoned the Asiento.
42:42But by then
42:43far more profitable
42:45and far more effective
42:47slave trading companies
42:48had emerged.
42:53In the second half
42:54of the 18th century
42:55the trade moved north.
42:57it became dominated
42:59by one river
43:00and one city.
43:02Liverpool.
43:10Back at the start
43:11of the 18th century
43:12Liverpool
43:13had barely existed.
43:15It was just
43:15a small fishing town
43:17of around 5,000 people.
43:19The trades
43:20in enslaved people,
43:22the commodities
43:22used to buy them
43:24and the products
43:24they produced
43:25transformed this city.
43:28Because here
43:29those trades
43:30reached a new level
43:32of sophistication
43:33and created
43:34previously
43:35unimaginable profits.
43:43Malik al-Nasir,
43:45a Liverpool historian
43:46descended
43:47from enslaved people,
43:48has studied
43:49the decades
43:50in which Liverpool
43:51dominated the trade.
43:54What was it about
43:55this city
43:56that meant
43:57that it became
43:58the dominant
43:58slave trading port?
44:00I think there are
44:01a couple of factors.
44:02Geography is one of them.
44:03Of course,
44:03we have the river.
44:04And it is a very
44:05big river.
44:06It's a big river.
44:07It's like an inland estuary.
44:08Exactly.
44:09And it's got
44:09a natural harbour.
44:10That gives Liverpool
44:12a geographical edge,
44:13if you like.
44:14Because there's a lot
44:15of space here
44:15to build docks.
44:17And that's what we see
44:18in Liverpool.
44:19Over the 18th century
44:19is the building
44:20of more and more docks.
44:21And that's been
44:22primarily driven
44:23by the merchant classes
44:24who developed
44:26the infrastructure
44:26of the city
44:27to accommodate
44:28their business ventures.
44:30Liverpool begins
44:31around the middle
44:32of the 18th century
44:33to emerge
44:34as a very significant
44:36seaport.
44:37You then start
44:38to see the expansion
44:39of shipbuilding,
44:41sail making,
44:42rope making.
44:43And the big merchants
44:44who come to dominate
44:45the trade in this city,
44:47they're very connected
44:48on there.
44:49Liverpool in the 1750s
44:51is a very small town
44:53so they all knew
44:54each other.
44:55So although these
44:55are independent merchants
44:57and they are,
44:58in theory,
44:59in competition
44:59with one another,
45:00they are really cooperating.
45:02The reason you find
45:04a high degree
45:05of cooperation
45:05between the merchants
45:06of Liverpool,
45:08more so than perhaps
45:09you would see
45:09in somewhere like London,
45:11was the fact
45:11that they all intermarried.
45:13A lot of people
45:13made a lot of money
45:14from enslavement
45:15and they really wanted
45:16to preserve that wealth.
45:18One merchant's house,
45:19if you like,
45:20that was perhaps
45:21in competition
45:21with another merchant's house,
45:23the children
45:24of both merchant's houses
45:25would marry.
45:26They would use
45:27each other's services
45:28so if one of them
45:29owned a bank
45:29and the other one
45:30owned an insurance company,
45:31they would both use
45:32one's banking services
45:34and they would both use
45:35the other's insurance companies.
45:36Instead of eating
45:37up the competition,
45:38you married the competition
45:40and as a consequence
45:41of that,
45:42you consolidated wealth
45:43and power.
45:44The Liverpool slave traders
45:46don't just come
45:47to dominate the trade,
45:48they come to perfect
45:49the slave trade,
45:51find ways of making
45:51it more profitable.
45:53They're working
45:53on how to increase
45:55their profits
45:56by making the trade
45:58more efficient
45:59and by expanding
46:00into new markets.
46:02Traditionally,
46:03there's always been
46:04British influence
46:05in the northern part
46:07of West Africa
46:08around Ghana,
46:10Sierra Leone,
46:11Gambia.
46:12Liverpool merchants
46:14expanded south
46:15and they went
46:16into Benin,
46:17what we would call
46:18today Nigeria
46:19and then further south
46:20into Angola.
46:22They were able
46:23to increase
46:24the amount
46:25of enslaved people
46:26that they were trafficking
46:26exponentially.
46:28For that,
46:28they needed more ships.
46:30So there's a feedback loop.
46:31It was necessary then
46:32just to feed the monster
46:33as it were.
46:34You know,
46:34they created this demand.
46:36and the demands
46:37in the Caribbean
46:38and the Americas
46:38were increasing.
46:40So the more you could get,
46:41the more you could sell.
46:43They upscaled
46:44the whole operation
46:45to make it
46:47decidedly more profitable
46:48and that is what
46:49differentiated them
46:50from the likes
46:51of Bristol.
46:52So the slave trade
46:53is like the spark
46:54that kind of fires
46:55an engine that then
46:56just kind of keeps running.
46:56The slave trade
46:58was really the catalyst,
46:59the reason,
47:00if you like,
47:01that the whole
47:02economic boom happened.
47:04Without the slave trade,
47:05that economic boom
47:06would not have
47:07taken place here.
47:08I mean,
47:09you're talking about
47:0980% of the enslaved people
47:12that Britain was enslaving
47:14were being enslaved
47:15by people from Liverpool.
47:16From this one city?
47:17From this one city.
47:22Liverpool's slave traders
47:23used their vast wealth
47:25not just to expand
47:26their operations,
47:28but also to secure
47:29political power.
47:35This is Liverpool Town Hall.
47:39Built in the early 1750s
47:42and partly funded
47:43by the city's slave traders.
47:46On the outer walls
47:48of the town hall
47:49are images of Africa
47:51and Africans.
47:53On the inner walls
47:54are portraits
47:55of the Liverpool
47:56slave traders
47:57who rose to become
47:58Liverpool mayors.
48:01That portrait
48:02up there
48:03is of a man
48:04called Peter
48:04Whitfield Branca.
48:06And what the database
48:07tells us
48:08is that Branca
48:09was involved
48:10in 45
48:12slave trading expeditions.
48:14He began
48:15in the 1770s
48:16as a slave ship captain.
48:19So working directly
48:20in the trade
48:22off the coast
48:22of West Africa
48:23and in the Caribbean.
48:25But by the 1780s
48:27he starts
48:27to be listed
48:28as a captain
48:29and also
48:30an owner.
48:31That means
48:32he's a part owner,
48:33an investor
48:34in these expeditions.
48:36And Peter Branca
48:37is one of those
48:38Liverpool traders
48:39who's able
48:40to translate
48:40his wealth
48:41into political influence.
48:43He becomes
48:43a bailiff
48:44of the city,
48:45but also ultimately
48:46a Liverpool mayor.
48:48Just over here
48:50is a portrait
48:51of another
48:52Liverpool
48:52slave trader
48:54who again
48:55appears
48:55in the database.
48:56This is
48:57John Bridge Aspinall.
49:00And the database
49:00tells us
49:01that he was involved
49:03in one way
49:04or another
49:04in 116
49:07slave trading expeditions.
49:09Again,
49:10Aspinall
49:11was able
49:11to translate wealth
49:12into power.
49:13He was another
49:15Liverpool mayor.
49:16He's actually painted
49:17in this rather
49:18grand portrait
49:19wearing
49:20the robes
49:21of office.
49:21And the Aspinalls
49:22carefully
49:23intermarried
49:25into other
49:25Liverpool
49:26slave trading families,
49:27which means
49:28that John Aspinall
49:29was actually
49:30the brother-in-law
49:31of Peter
49:32Whitfield Branca.
49:36In another part
49:38of the town hall
49:38is yet another
49:40portrait
49:40of a Liverpool
49:41slave trader
49:42who again
49:43became mayor.
49:46Now this
49:47is John Earl.
49:49What his entry
49:50in the database
49:51tells us
49:51is that he was
49:52an investor
49:53in what is
49:54believed to be
49:55the very first ship
49:57to have left
49:58Liverpool
49:58for the coast
49:59of Africa
50:00to legally engage
50:01in the slave trade
50:03after the collapse
50:04of the royal monopoly.
50:05It is
50:06the Liverpool
50:07merchant.
50:08Here is John Earl
50:10as one of the
50:11two investors
50:12and it tells us
50:13that the ship
50:14left Liverpool
50:15in the year 1699.
50:18The database
50:19also tells us
50:20that over the
50:21next two decades
50:22John Earl
50:23invested in another
50:24twelve
50:25slave trading expeditions.
50:27But John Earl
50:28was able
50:29through these expeditions
50:31to establish
50:32his family
50:33as one of
50:34Liverpool's
50:34slave trading
50:35dynasties.
50:38The Earl family name
50:40can still be seen
50:42across modern Liverpool
50:43and in this
50:44they are not
50:45unusual.
50:48Many of the streets
50:49of Liverpool
50:49carry the names
50:50of slave trading
50:52families.
50:55What is unusual
50:57about the Earl family
50:58is the number
50:59of documents
51:00they left behind.
51:01Through their
51:02account books,
51:03business ledgers
51:04and contracts,
51:05Edmund Smith,
51:06one of the historians
51:07on the register
51:08of British slave
51:09traders,
51:09has been able
51:10to follow how
51:11the profits
51:12generated
51:13by this family
51:14were reinvested
51:15in new industries
51:17in Liverpool
51:18and beyond.
51:21So John Earl,
51:22whose portrait
51:23is up at the
51:24town hall,
51:24he's the first
51:25generation of the
51:26Earl family to invest
51:27in the slave trade,
51:28but he isn't the last,
51:29is he?
51:29Absolutely.
51:30And his son,
51:31William Earl,
51:32you can see here,
51:35on a scale
51:35that his father,
51:36John Earl,
51:36probably couldn't
51:37have imagined.
51:38William grows up
51:39with the slave trade.
51:40He starts his work
51:41onboard ship
51:42and becomes a captain.
51:43So he's involved
51:44in the slave trade
51:45directly?
51:45Absolutely.
51:46There are documents
51:47telling him how to
51:48purchase enslaved people,
51:49how to carry them,
51:50how to control them.
51:51And that same expertise,
51:52when he returns
51:53to Liverpool,
51:54feeds into his own
51:55investment
51:55in more slave trading
51:56voyages.
51:57We know from
51:58your database
51:59that John Earl invests
52:00in 13 slave trading
52:02expeditions.
52:03William,
52:04his son,
52:04is it many more?
52:05It's vastly more.
52:06It's more than a hundred
52:07slave trading voyages
52:09that are transporting
52:10over tens of thousands
52:12of people from Africa
52:13to the Caribbean
52:13and to North America.
52:15What does William do
52:17with all of this money
52:18that he's making
52:19from the slave trade?
52:20Like many slave traders,
52:21the profits from slavery
52:22are passed on
52:23into industry.
52:25And what we see here
52:26is a co-partnership
52:27to establish
52:28a sugar house
52:29in Liverpool
52:30where they take
52:31raw sugar from the
52:32Caribbean
52:32and transform it
52:33into refined sugar
52:34that can be sold on.
52:35We have William Earl
52:36listed among the signatories
52:37alongside other slave traders
52:39like Blundell
52:40and Hodgson.
52:42On this next document,
52:44he's setting up a business
52:45in ironmongering
52:47alongside his two children,
52:49Thomas Earl
52:49and William Earl.
52:52We're now
52:52two generations away
52:54from John Earl
52:55who first got in
52:56the slave trade
52:57and now this is
52:58investment in industry.
53:00Yes.
53:01At the same time,
53:01we also see their investment
53:03into the Leeds
53:04and Liverpool Canal.
53:05And here we can see
53:06a list of proprietors
53:07of that canal.
53:08So this is from 1789.
53:10the Leeds
53:11and Liverpool Canal.
53:12This is the biggest
53:13canal in the country.
53:15This is a major piece
53:16of industrial infrastructure.
53:18It runs through
53:18Lancashire
53:19which is growing
53:20because it's a source
53:21of coal.
53:22We see at the same time
53:23another co-partnership
53:25to establish
53:25collieries in Lancashire.
53:27And this ball
53:27comes together
53:28to create
53:29what we know
53:30as the Industrial Revolution.
53:32This idea
53:33that the slave trade
53:34was a kind of
53:34separate business
53:36and therefore
53:36we think of it
53:37as a separate history
53:38that completely
53:40breaks down
53:40because all of these documents
53:42show how integrated
53:43the slave trade
53:44and money from the slave trade
53:45was in all these
53:46other industries.
53:48It's such a clear trajectory
53:49from William Earl
53:50the slave trader
53:51the captain of slave ships
53:53to just his sons
53:54and then his grandsons
53:55having a huge amount
53:57of wealth
53:58that has its roots
53:59in the transatlantic world
54:01but has now diversified
54:03across all manner
54:03of different things.
54:04It's now in canals,
54:06it's in factories,
54:06it's in making
54:07of iron goods,
54:09things that we don't
54:09think of as being
54:10connected to the slave trade.
54:12Yep.
54:13And the most successful
54:14slave traders
54:14are always looking
54:16for ways to invest
54:16that capital
54:17in places
54:19where it can be profitable
54:21but also where
54:22it can give them
54:23a chance to establish
54:24themselves
54:24in that new British
54:25elite of industrialists.
54:27So how significant
54:28in the development
54:30of the Industrial Revolution
54:31and all the transformations
54:33that came with it,
54:34how significant
54:34was money that came
54:35from the slave trade.
54:37Understanding how
54:38the whole system worked,
54:39how this whole national
54:40story worked,
54:41requires us recognising
54:43that slavery
54:43was an endemic feature
54:44within that.
54:45It doesn't make
54:47the inventiveness
54:48or the industrialising
54:50entrepreneurship
54:50any less relevant
54:52but it does mean
54:53that we have to understand
54:54that they were connected.
54:58As well as the Leeds
55:00and Liverpool Canal,
55:01later generations
55:02of the Earle family
55:03invested in the railways.
55:05And like other
55:06slave trading dynasties,
55:08they put their wealth
55:09into mills
55:10and into factories.
55:11And all around
55:12Liverpool
55:13and the North West
55:14of England,
55:14money from the slave trade
55:16as well as from slavery
55:17became one of the sources
55:19of the capital
55:20that funded
55:21the Industrial Revolution.
55:27The research that has built
55:29the new register
55:30of British slave traders
55:32gives us,
55:33for the first time,
55:34a comprehensive picture
55:35of who Britain's
55:37slave traders were,
55:38the wealth they invested
55:39and what those
55:40who profited did
55:41with that money.
55:43And all of that information
55:44now contained
55:45within the database
55:47is to be made public.
55:50The information is there
55:51for anyone
55:52who has a computer to use.
55:54The hope is that
55:54others take it
55:55for their own interests,
55:57for their own research
55:58and within their own communities.
56:00So this is really
56:00a starting point.
56:01What do you think
56:02we might gain
56:03as a nation
56:04from being able
56:05to sort of
56:06come to terms
56:07of this history?
56:08This history can be
56:09really difficult to face.
56:10It's important
56:11to recognise
56:11that we are not
56:13responsible
56:14for this trade.
56:15but this is our shared past
56:17and we are beneficiaries
56:20of that system.
56:22We live with many
56:23of the ways of thinking
56:24and the systems
56:25that were put in place
56:26during this period.
56:28The idea
56:28that some people
56:29are justifiably harmed
56:31for the profit of others
56:32is inaugurated at scale
56:34in this moment
56:34and we're still grappling
56:35with that.
56:36But there are those people
56:37who just find
56:39any mention
56:40of this history
56:41as something
56:41that they take
56:42as a sort of
56:43an attack on British history
56:44rather than British history.
56:46To dismiss
56:47this aspect
56:48of British history
56:50is to dismiss
56:50British history itself.
56:52I think one
56:52of the principal aims
56:53of what we've been trying
56:54to do is to place
56:54the slave trade,
56:55I think rightly,
56:56as one of the
56:57central features
56:58of British history.
57:00Whether that be
57:00the English Civil War
57:02or the Glorious Revolution
57:03or the establishment
57:05of learned societies
57:06in science,
57:07to claim that
57:07this is somehow
57:09being imposed
57:09on the British history
57:10narrative is,
57:11I think,
57:12now perhaps
57:13not sustainable.
57:28The new database
57:30is just
57:31the latest stage
57:32in a long process
57:34that has dragged
57:35the story
57:36of the slave trade
57:37out of the shadows.
57:38We now know
57:39more than ever
57:40about how
57:41the trade
57:42expanded.
57:43How in the 17th century
57:45it started
57:46as the preserve
57:47of a tiny elite
57:49around the Stuart kings.
57:51And then,
57:53how in the 18th century
57:54it created
57:55a new
57:56merchant elite
57:57in cities
57:57like Bristol
57:58and Liverpool.
58:01and how wealth
58:03generated
58:04from the slave trade
58:05spread
58:06into institutions
58:07and into industries
58:08across the country.
58:11And what all of this
58:12demonstrates
58:13is that although
58:14this is
58:15an uncomfortable history
58:17at times
58:17it is a shocking history.
58:19It is part
58:20of our national story.
58:23is a
58:23very
58:23one of the
58:23the
58:23the
58:23the
58:23the
58:23the
58:24the
58:35the
58:36the
58:47the
58:47the
58:48the
58:48the
58:48the
58:56the
58:59the
58:59the