BBC Documentaries
David Olusoga Remembers... Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners
2024 • E111 Jul 15, 2024 14m
Historian, author and presenter David Olusoga looks back on how his 2015 documentary Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners helped shine a light on the extent of Britain's involvement in the slave trade and the repercussions that has had on our country right up to modern day.
David looks at how research undertaken by a team at University College London revealed the true extent of the number of people in Britain who owned enslaved people, and how it was actually far more widespread than anyone had previously realised. He also emphasises that many people were unaware that the compensation paid at the end of slavery was not to the slaves themselves, but to their owners.
David discusses how the documentary acted as a precursor to the toppling of statues of slave owners around the UK and how it helped facilitate a wider dialogue about how we should look more critically and openly as a nation at our past in order to move forward.
David looks at how research undertaken by a team at University College London revealed the true extent of the number of people in Britain who owned enslaved people, and how it was actually far more widespread than anyone had previously realised. He also emphasises that many people were unaware that the compensation paid at the end of slavery was not to the slaves themselves, but to their owners.
David discusses how the documentary acted as a precursor to the toppling of statues of slave owners around the UK and how it helped facilitate a wider dialogue about how we should look more critically and openly as a nation at our past in order to move forward.