Britain's Slave Trade

All Episodes 1999
TV-Y

  • Ended
  • #<Network:0x00007fce90237588>
  • 1999-08-31T23:00:00Z
  • 55m
  • 2h 45m (3 episodes)
  • United Kingdom
  • English
  • Pepper Productions + 1 more, Brook Lapping Productions
  • Documentary
Between the 16th and 19th centuries, European traders transported 10 million enslaved Africans to the New World. Britain's part in this trade is rarely acknowledged. Through interviews with Britons who have discovered their slave ancestry, this volume explores the implications on British identity.

3 episodes

Series Premiere

1999-08-31T23:00:00Z

1x01 Gold, Silver and Slaves

Series Premiere

1x01 Gold, Silver and Slaves

  • 1999-08-31T23:00:00Z55m

Gold, Silver & Slaves looks at how the business of slavery was a case of slave-trading by complicit Africans, fuelled by the greed of African kings. This is the untold story of the greatest slaving nation in history. Up till now, Britain’s place in the history of slavery has been as the country that abolished the international slave trade. Britain’s Slave Trade reveals the shameful truth behind this liberal facade, showing how the economic, social and cultural life of Britain would have been unrecognisable without slavery. Britain’s Slave Trade explains how a middling European power transformed itself into the ruler of the waves, tracing the impact this had on the British way of life and taking in the Industrial Revolution, the beginnings of Empire and the birth of modern racism along the way. It also unearths startling evidence showing how many families that think of themselves as ‘pure’ English stock are in fact descended from slave ancestors.

1999-09-07T23:00:00Z

1x02 The Old Corruption

1x02 The Old Corruption

  • 1999-09-07T23:00:00Z55m

The Old Corruption challenges the accepted version of the history of abolition, that the passive, suffering slaves were freed by benevolent white crusaders, revealing the corruption of the plantations owners, and how the inhuman treatment of African people was finally acknowledged. This is the untold story of the greatest slaving nation in history. Up till now, Britain’s place in the history of slavery has been as the country that abolished the international slave trade. Britain’s Slave Trade reveals the shameful truth behind this liberal facade, showing how the economic, social and cultural life of Britain would have been unrecognisable without slavery. Britain’s Slave Trade explains how a middling European power transformed itself into the ruler of the waves, tracing the impact this had on the British way of life and taking in the Industrial Revolution, the beginnings of Empire and the birth of modern racism along the way. It also unearths startling evidence showing how many families that think of themselves as ‘pure’ English stock are in fact descended from slave ancestors.

1999-09-14T23:00:00Z

1x03 Unfinished Business

1x03 Unfinished Business

  • 1999-09-14T23:00:00Z55m

Unfinished Business looks at how Liverpool became the greatest slaving port in human history. This is the untold story of the greatest slaving nation in history. Up till now, Britain’s place in the history of slavery has been as the country that abolished the international slave trade. Britain’s Slave Trade reveals the shameful truth behind this liberal facade, showing how the economic, social and cultural life of Britain would have been unrecognisable without slavery. Britain’s Slave Trade explains how a middling European power transformed itself into the ruler of the waves, tracing the impact this had on the British way of life and taking in the Industrial Revolution, the beginnings of Empire and the birth of modern racism along the way. It also unearths startling evidence showing how many families that think of themselves as ‘pure’ English stock are in fact descended from slave ancestors.

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