Report: Most Britons ignorant about scale of UK involvement in slavery

The vast majority of Britons are unaware of how many people were enslaved, how long the slave trade lasted, or how long UK taxpayers were paying off a government loan to “compensate” enslavers after abolition, a survey has found. 

A sample of over 2,000 people, representative of the UK population, indicated that 85% did not know that more than 3 million people had been forcibly shipped from Africa to the Caribbean by British enslavers, the poll commissioned by the Repair Campaign showed.

The Repair Campaign is working with Caricom to secure reparatory justice for member states through health, education and infrastructure projects. 

The poll was released to coincide with Tuesday’s UN International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. 

The results reveal that 89% were unaware that British merchants had enslaved people in the Caribbean for more than 300 years.

It found that 75% did not know that it was only after 2000 that British taxpayers finished paying off the money borrowed by the UK government in 1833—equivalent to 40% of the government’s total annual expenditure at the time—to compensate enslavers for their “loss of property.”

The survey also indicates that support for some form of reparations is growing, with 63% now agreeing that Caribbean nations and descendants of enslaved people should receive a formal apology, up 4% from last year’s poll.

Moreover, 40% are now in favor of financial reparations. Of those in favor of financial reparations, 90% said they should be directed toward long-term education, health, and infrastructure projects.

African, Caribbean nations call for reparations for colonial slavery

Representatives from African and Caribbean organizations have gathered in the capital of Barbados, Bridgetown, to demand reparations for slavery.

British Labour MP and chair of the all-party parliamentary group for Afrikan reparations, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, said she was “not surprised” by the scale of ignorance about slavery and emphasized that reparative justice also requires education.

“People point to reparations and think merely in financial terms, but one of the most important things is correcting the record—because until people learn what happened, there will not be widespread public will to make reparation possible,” she said.

The Labour government admitted that the UK will not pay cash reparations but is working with Caribbean partners on issues such as security, growth, and climate change.

The MP said there has to be a “willingness to listen” from the UK government, which has yet to issue a formal apology for slavery, despite a “large chunk of the world” being unified in the need for reparative justice.

“For us not to listen is disgraceful and could have consequences of its own,” she said. 

African, Caribbean nations agree to push for slavery reparations

African and Caribbean nations have agreed to seek reparations for slavery, urging their former colonialists to pay for their “historical mass crimes.”

Walker Syachalinga, an associate solicitor assisting on cases related to reparations for historic wrongs at the law firm Leigh Day, said the survey’s findings "speak to what has been a feature of English law and commerce—this idea of offshoring the more unpalatable aspects of our history while retaining the benefits”.

The Repair Campaign’s founder, Denis O’Brien, expressed satisfaction with the survey, saying it showed “heartening” growth in public support for an apology and reparations but also highlighted “how little people in Britain really know about the country’s past.”

Dr. Hilary Brown of the Caricom Secretariat also demanded justice for the horrific crimes committed.

“Addressing the knowledge gap in the UK regarding the country’s history of trading and enslaving Africans is urgent,” she said.

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