When France extorted Haiti – the greatest heist in history
Reading time: 7 minutes
Much of the reparations debate has revolved around whether the United States and the United Kingdom should finally compensate some of their citizens for the economic and social costs of slavery that still linger today.
But to me, there’s never been a more clear-cut case for reparations than that of Haiti.
Reckoning with slavery: What a revolt’s archives tell us about who owns the past
Reading time: 6 minutes
During the revolt, former slaves organized a government and controlled most of the colony for almost a year. The Dutch either fled altogether or holed up on a well-fortified sugar plantation near the coast. A regiment of European soldiers sent from neighboring Suriname mutinied and joined the rebels they had come to defeat. But obligated by treaties, indigenous peoples such as Carib and Arawak fought on the side of the Dutch. The revolt ended when the rebels, out of food and arms, were overpowered by enemies who had received an infusion of men and supplies from the Dutch Republic.
Slave revolt film revisits history often omitted from textbooks
Armed with machetes and pitchforks and uttering chants of “Freedom or Death,” hundreds of men and women made their way along a 26-mile route along the River Parishes of Louisiana.
The spectacle – which I witnessed in November 2019 in St. John the Baptist Parish, in the heartland of Louisiana’s sugar cane and oil industries – was a reenactment of what historians believe was the largest slave rebellion in United States history, the 1811 German Coast Uprising.
How one woman pulled off the first consumer boycott – and helped inspire the British to abolish slavery
HOW ONE WOMAN PULLED OFF THE FIRST CONSUMER BOYCOTT – AND HELPED INSPIRE THE BRITISH TO ABOLISH SLAVERY While many companies have trumpeted their support for the Black Lives Matter movement, […]
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom – Audiobook
RUNNING A THOUSAND MILES FOR FREEDOM – AUDIOBOOK By Ellen Craft (1826 – 1891) and William Craft (1824 – 1900) Ellen and William Craft were a married couple who escaped from slavery in 1848 […]
The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America, Volume 1 – Audiobook
THE SUPPRESSION OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, VOLUME 1 – AUDIOBOOK By W. E. B. Du Bois (1868 – 1963) The question of the suppression […]
Red Rubber: The Story of the Rubber Slave Trade on the Congo – Audiobook
RED RUBBER: THE STORY OF THE RUBBER SLAVE TRADE ON THE CONGO – AUDIOBOOK By Edmund Dene Morel (1873 – 1924) Morel explains the history and formation of the Congo Free […]
From the Caribbean to Queensland: re-examining Australia’s ‘blackbirding’ past and its roots in the global slave trade
There are moves afoot to scrub colonial businessman Benjamin Boyd’s name from the map. The owners of historic Boydtown on the NSW south coast are planning to change its name, while […]
The Two Countries That ‘Escaped’ The Scramble for Africa
The Scramble for Africa is often recognized as the beginning of colonialism and European Imperialism. Beginning in 1884, the scramble brought most of the African continent under European control, barring […]
How the shadow of slavery still hangs over global finance
When the infamous Zong trial began in 1783, it laid bare the toxic relationship between finance and slavery. It was an unusual and distressing insurance claim – concerning a massacre of 133 […]
After Caribbean Slavery – Indentured Labour
By Richard Shrubb. The abolition of slavery by the British Empire would cause an economic crisis among Caribbean plantation owners thanks to the lack of cheap labour. Their answer […]
How the Establishment Resisted the Abolition of Slavery – New Podcast
Historian Michael Taylor discusses the resistance of the British establishment to the ending of the slave trade. A fascinating perspective on how the abolition of slavery was viewed in Britain […]
New Podcast – How Slavery Built Modern Britain
Padraic Scanlan talks about how Britain rose to global power on the backs of enslaved workers. Modern Britain has inherited the legacies and contradictions of a liberal empire built on […]
What Hamilton Got Wrong
It’s important to take historically-based art, whether a painting that condenses a battle or the acclaimed Broadway smash Hamilton: An American Musical, with a grain of salt. Rather than expecting these works to look at history through the factual lens of a primary source, they should be taken as an altered view of history designed to generate the interest of the masses.
Slavery Compensation: Who Got Paid?
With the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1837 the British Government presided over the largest transfer of wealth to individuals in history. No portion of this was paid to the people who were enslaved. Instead it went to thousands of slave owners across the globe as compensation for their loss of ‘assets’.