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Story behind British slavery
• IT is quite true, as AG of NW3 says (Thanks for your replies, Feb 1) that slavery was never lawful in England. This was the landmark ruling given by Lord Mansfield – then owner of Kenwood House – in the Court of Appeal in 1773.
Lord Mansfield’s decision sparked the American Revolution. The Boston Tea Party took place within a couple of months, as soon as ships reached America with the news.
Though the rebels were concerned about taxation, and greater democracy, their main object was to preserve slavery. Visitors to Kenwood today are mostly unaware of the world-changing event that happened there, quietly one evening, as Lord Mansfield sat considering his court papers.
The bicentenary of ‘abolition’ marks Britain’s abolition of the international trade in slaves. The Royal Navy fought a long war against American slavers on the Atlantic route.
Ownership of slaves in the British colonies was not finally banned until the 1830s, mainly because the owners were holding out for compensation. The US followed suit 30 years later.
According to a recent report by the United Nations, there are now more slaves than there were in the 18th century. They mostly work on cocoa plantations in West Africa.
But as the British cannot be blamed for it, nobody seems very interested.
HUGO BARNACLE
Croftdown Road, NW5
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