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How enslavement became state-backed operation supported by Conservative and Lib Dem forerunners
UK NewsPoliticsBusinessSeptember 15, 2026 at 6:00 AMNational

How enslavement became state-backed operation supported by Conservative and Lib Dem forerunners

By David Conn Investigations correspondent; Illustration by Palesa MonarengThe Guardian - UK News

Tory and Whig MPs were central to funding trafficking of enslaved people and many opposed abolition of the slave tradeThere is a British culture of celebrating the abolition of slavery without acknowledging that the country enslaved and trafficked millions of African people for centuries.The newly published Register of British Slave Traders, which documents the thousands of investors in Britain’s near 250-year trafficking of more than 3 million enslaved African people, shows that it was a state-backed operation, fully supported by both major political parties at the time, the Tories and Whigs – the forerunners of today’s Conservatives and Liberal Democrats respectively. Continue reading...

Tory and Whig MPs were central to funding trafficking of enslaved people and many opposed abolition of the slave trade

There is a British culture of celebrating the abolition of slavery without acknowledging that the country enslaved and trafficked millions of African people for centuries.

The newly published Register of British Slave Traders, which documents the thousands of investors in Britain’s near 250-year trafficking of more than 3 million enslaved African people, shows that it was a state-backed operation, fully supported by both major political parties at the time, the Tories and Whigs – the forerunners of today’s Conservatives and Liberal Democrats respectively.

Continue reading...

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