Britons are widely ignorant of the scale and legacy of Britain’s involvement in slavery and colonialism, a survey has found, with the vast majority unaware how many people were enslaved, how long the trade went on for, or for how long UK taxpayers were paying off a government loan to “compensate” enslavers after abolition.
The poll, released to coincide with Tuesday’s UN International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, was commissioned by the Repair Campaign, which is working with Caricom to secure reparatory justice for member states through health, education and infrastructure projects.
The sample of more than 2,000 people representative of the UK population found 85% did not know that more than 3 million people had been forcibly shipped from Africa to the Caribbean by British enslavers.
The slave trade is a mandatory part of the curriculum at ks3. You’ve just forgotten. And it’s pretty worts and all as far as Britain’s involvement goes.
I agree with your sentiments though, everyone likes to mythologise their history.
That’s good! I wonder how long that’s been part of the curriculum (I’m getting on now lol) and if I could have forgotten. I remember a lot from when I was young.