Volume Thirteen - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - even more aspects - Slavery - echoes of the past . . . .

According to the Treasury, UK taxpayers completed paying off a massive debt during 2015 which the British government incurred in order to compensate British slave owners for the loss of their assets nearly two centuries earlier due to introduction of The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. The pay-out was a mere £20,000,000 [equivalent to c.£1,490,000,000 + interest in 2015]

In 2020, the Welsh Government advised that following its audit and review of street and building names within the principality which had possible links to slavery throughout the British Empire, there would not be any need to rename any! Further, they declared that whilst some names are associated with the colonialist, Lord Robert Clive (otherwise Clive of India), they do not commemorate him. Therefore, Clive Place, Clive Crescent and the Clive Arms Hotel of Penarth were deemed to be a 'Green' category, meaning that the persons of interest are not commemorated.

Similarly, during June 2020, the leader of the Vale of Glamorgan Council made a statement that the council will not review statues and commemorations, including street names, public buildings and plaques in the local area for links to slavery.

In my research for this Penarth Dock website, I recall that many local personalities actually spoke out against the abuses of slavery. This included one of the Directors of the original Penarth company, Mr. John Batchelor applauded by Mr. Joseph Denman (the Penarth lifeboat was named after him!), Mr. John Hawkshaw, our esteemed engineer, I feel sure that many others in Penarth and the locality were also appalled by the thought of the in-humanity of slavery.

The truth is, however, that whilst I have not found direct personal links during my research to-date, there are some unconfirmed and/or rather uncomfortable truths to consider. The monies that were generated from the slave trade, in terms of goods and the wealth generated when brought to Bristol, Merthyr and Swansea, etc., should not be under estimated.

The wealth of the British slave owners around the Empire was further enhanced by The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, which compensated, not the slave, but the slave owner whom had to forfeit their assets. It it was estimated that there were more than 800,000 slaves at this time which the Act directly affected ; around c.3,000 slave owners, compared to the c.46,000 who won claims under the 1833 Act, received almost half of the £20m allocated.