Since the mid-nineteenth-century abolition of slavery, the call for
reparations for the crime of African enslavement and native
genocide has been growing. In the Caribbean, grassroots and
official voices now constitute a regional reparations movement.
While it remains a fractured, contentious and divisive call, it
generates considerable public interest, especially within sections
of the community that are concerned with issues of social justice,
equity, civil and human rights, education, and cultural identity.
The reparations discourse has been shaped by the voices from these
fields as they seek to build a future upon the settlement of
historical crimes. This is the first scholarly work that looks
comprehensively at the reparations discussion in the Caribbean.
Written by a leading economic historian of the region, a seasoned
activist in the wider movement for social justice and advocacy of
historical truth, Britain's Black Debt looks at the origins and
development of reparations as a regional and international process.
Weaving together detailed historical data on Caribbean slavery and
the transatlantic slave trade with legal principles and the
politics of postcolonialism, the author sets out a solid academic
analysis of the evidence. He concludes that Britain has a case of
reparations to answer which the Caribbean should litigate. The
presentation of rich empirical historical data on Britain's
transatlantic slave economy and society supports the legal claim
that chattel slavery as established by the British state and
sustained by citizens and governments was understood then as a
crime, but political and moral outrage were silenced by the
argument that the enslavement of black people was in Britain's
national interest. International law provides that chattel slavery
as practised by Britain was a crime against humanity. Slavery was
invested in by the royal family, the government, the established
church, most elite families, and large public institutions in the
private and public sector. Citing the legal principles of unjust
and criminal enrichment, the author presents a compelling argument
for Britain's payment of its black debt, a debt that it continues
to deny in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Britain's Black Debt brings together the evidence and arguments
that the general public and expert policymakers have long called
for. It is at once an exciting narration of Britain's dominance of
the slave markets that enriched the economy and a seminal
conceptual journey into the hidden politics and public posturing of
leaders on both sides of the Atlantic. No work of this kind has
ever been attempted. No author has had the diversity of historical
research skills, national and international political involvement,
and personal engagement as an activist to present such a complex
yet accessible work of scholarship for both activists and
academics.
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