[blair’s apology] ten things about british slavery
7 more things about British slavery here …
4. The campaign to end slavery was dominated by women. With no vote, the anti-slavery crusade was one of the ways that women were able to get involved in politics.
5. Thousands of black slaves were brought to Britain by slave ships. In the 18th Century it was the height of fashion for rich ladies to have a black child servant.
6. Slave-produced sugar transformed our national cuisine. Much of what we today think of as the most traditional British food, is in fact only a couple of centuries old. Biscuits, cakes, sweets, toffee, rum and the resulting British sweet tooth - all products of that revolution in the kitchen brought about by sugar. Slave sugar was the missing ingredient that transformed tea from a strange novelty from India into an enduring national obsession.
7. Slavery was the world's first global industry but before globalism and corporations it was actually run by a few hundred families. Today many of the great aristocratic families of Britain have a hidden past in the slave trade.
8. Slavery in the British Empire came to an end after a rebellion led by the Jamaican slave Sam Sharpe. He was the Martin Luther King of the 19th Century.
9. The abolitionists' were pioneers who helped invent the methods of political campaigning that we have today. They collected mass petitions, organised hundreds of local societies , created a campaign logo and even organised consumer boycotts.
10. Not all black people in the Caribbean were slaves. Not only were there free blacks, there was also an army of escaped slaves called the Maroons who fought against the British Army for years.
BBC, Wednesday, August 3, 2005
4. The campaign to end slavery was dominated by women. With no vote, the anti-slavery crusade was one of the ways that women were able to get involved in politics.
5. Thousands of black slaves were brought to Britain by slave ships. In the 18th Century it was the height of fashion for rich ladies to have a black child servant.
6. Slave-produced sugar transformed our national cuisine. Much of what we today think of as the most traditional British food, is in fact only a couple of centuries old. Biscuits, cakes, sweets, toffee, rum and the resulting British sweet tooth - all products of that revolution in the kitchen brought about by sugar. Slave sugar was the missing ingredient that transformed tea from a strange novelty from India into an enduring national obsession.
7. Slavery was the world's first global industry but before globalism and corporations it was actually run by a few hundred families. Today many of the great aristocratic families of Britain have a hidden past in the slave trade.
8. Slavery in the British Empire came to an end after a rebellion led by the Jamaican slave Sam Sharpe. He was the Martin Luther King of the 19th Century.
9. The abolitionists' were pioneers who helped invent the methods of political campaigning that we have today. They collected mass petitions, organised hundreds of local societies , created a campaign logo and even organised consumer boycotts.
10. Not all black people in the Caribbean were slaves. Not only were there free blacks, there was also an army of escaped slaves called the Maroons who fought against the British Army for years.
BBC, Wednesday, August 3, 2005
posted by James Higham @ 06:56
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