BBC Teach - Abolitionism and why it was opposed - Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners

BBC Teach - Abolitionism and why it was opposed - Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners

Written to support the BBC Teach David Olusoga clip

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Historian David Olusoga investigates the resistance to abolishing slavery among British slave owners, including the threat they perceived to the profitable overseas sugarcane industry. He deliberately contrasts William Wilberforce, leader of the abolitionists, with George Hibbert, a slave owner, who worshipped in the same church in Clapham. Olusoga also refers to the family of the Victorian Prime Minister William Gladstone, whose fortunes were based on sugar plantations in Guyana. Like other slave owners he points out that they were determined to protect their sole supply of labour- slaves. Olusoga also uses slave ledgers updated every three years from 1817 to 1834 to point out the high mortality rates among slaves - evidence of their poor treatment.

Written in Publisher and formatted to A3 the resource can be saved as a PDF for A4 printing