Legacies Of British Slavery 1833

Each record contains an index to the collection and a link to the full details at the Legacies of British Slavery (LBS) website at University College London. The index can include, depending on the details recorded:

• Name of beneficiary
• Date of birth
• Date of death
• Occupation
• Spouse’s name
• Children’s names
• Other relations names
• Addresses
• Link to the LBS website

The LBS website will then have other details including:

• Biography of the beneficiary
• Details of the claims for compensation and the payments made
• Estate details, including location, ownership, output of goods, numbers of enslaved people, etc.

Unfortunately, there is rarely any personal information about the enslaved people on these estates.

In 1833 the British parliament abolished slavery and granted £20 million in compensation to the enslavers and those financially involved in the slave trade. While the abolition of slavery resulted from a widespread campaign, including a rebellion by enslaved people in Jamaica on Christmas 1831, it marked only the beginning of the end. The enslaved were then often forced to accept the replacement apprenticeship system, which fixed them to a term of unfree labour. Consequently, it was many years after 1833 before the end of bondage.

These records are about the beneficiaries of the slave trade, and the compensation they were paid for their loss of forced labour. The amount of compensation depended entirely on the “value” that was ascribed to the people who were enslaved. This information was checked in detail recording skill levels, ages, and so on. Payments were made to slave owners with estates in the British Caribbean, Mauritius and the Cape, many of whom were absentee and residing in Great Britain and Ireland. In fact, more than half the compensation money stayed in the UK. Enslavers were a diverse group of people, and while they include plantation owners, bankers, and financiers as we would expect, they also include many others who had a share of an estate using slave labour, which they may have received through inheritance. A number were clergymen and widows who had been left ownership of the enslaved in trust.

While the UK congratulated itself that it had abolished slavery a generation before the USA, in hindsight it is clear how indebted the British economy was to the slave system, especially financing the Industrial Revolution. This collection was brought together by the Legacies of British Slavery project at the University College London to provide the evidence to help us understand the role it has played in shaping our history. In the same spirit we at Findmypast have chosen to incorporate the information here, so that as you investigate your family history you may better understand how slavery touched on the lives of so many, often indirectly.

For those tracking the enslavers and other beneficiaries, search by name and address. For those looking at the distribution of compensation or searching by place, try using the Optional Keywords option.

For those tracing the enslaved, there are virtually no records in this collection that provide personal names, only statistical information. But the information can on occasion help uncover more about the circumstances of their enslavement. In some cases the surnames adopted or imposed on the enslaved were the same as the surname of their enslaver or the estate or place they worked in, so search for that in the Surname and/or Optional keywords options. Of course, this was just as likely to not be the case, but it is worth checking.