How Britain Fought to End the Slave Trade | American Reaction

Comments · 521

• VA

  @ValkKriegman · 7 months ago

  I was once asked if I was proud of the slave trade. I responded no, I'm proud we stopped it.

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• BA

  @barrywood7322 · 5 months ago

  And the so called UN think we should pay African countries trillions of pounds in compensation due to slavery. They should be compensating the UK for the loss of life fighting slavery and for the taxes we paid until 2015.

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• KE

  @kevanwillis4571 · 8 months ago

  After The War of 1812, both sides went back to their pre-war borders, even though Americans are taught they won.<br>During the war, thousands of American slaves had made their way to Canada and freedom. <br>In negotiations the U.S.A. demanded their return, Britain refused.

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• JA

  @jacquelinecrosby7053 · 8 months ago

  We didn&apos;t finish paying for the freedom of slaves until 2015,

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• IC

  @IcarusDrowning-gz8se · 4 months ago

  One of my heroes is William Wilberforce. I used to live in Hull, where he was from, and often visited his old house, which has been turned into a museum about the slave trade and the fight to abolish slavery. William Wilburforce was one of the leaders of the anti-slavery movement. He spent his entire adult working life fighting for the abolition of slavery and died 3 days after hearing that the final bill had been passed and the slaves in the whole of the british empire would be freed. <br>I&apos;ve often wondered how he felt at the end of his life. He must have had a tremendous sense of accomplishment and personal pride, but also gratitude to the people who finally voted the right way, and a sense of relief that something he cared about enough to dedicate his entire adult life to had finally come right. His death must have been one of the most peaceful in history.<br>Sadly, we did not learn this history of our nation&apos;s involvement in fighting slavery when I went to school. The schoolchildren in Hull learned about William Wilburforce because he was a local hero and there was a handy museum for field trips but most of the rest of country couldn&apos;t tell you who he was. <br>When I went to school we learned about the bad things our country had done in the past. It was not very English to mention your triumphs. Bragging about something gives the impression it was done for the accolades or some personal profit. Anything done for principles should be played down. That was the attitude when I was a schoolchild in England. <br>Of course, we learned about our involvement in the World Wars but they were taught as examples of how many nations came together to fight a common enemy, not as a solely British triumph. I&apos;m not sure how they teach it today but kids seem to think England defeated the entire world on her own and use that &quot;knowledge&quot; to explain why Britain is Great and why we don&apos;t need anyone else. At my school we learned that standing shoulder to shoulder with our friends made Britain Great. I don&apos;t know if either is actually true but I know which I prefer. <br>History is being twisted to drive the cattle even today.

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• CO

  @colinwilson4658 · 8 months ago

  Its not suprising you had not heard of this.<br>I am sorry to tell you this but the history taught in the USA is notorious<br>Its not facts that are taught &nbsp;by en large its propaganda to promote <br>american exceptionalism this is not accidental its government policy

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• FA

  @Fanackapan101-hh5el · 8 months ago

  Hollywood of old made many films based on Middle Eastern history where black slaves were featured ….Americans HAVE heard about castrated black slaves ….they were called Eunuchs .!!!!

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• SE

  @seanmc1351 · 8 months ago

  we just finished paying for it on our taxes in 2015

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• AN

  @anthonystorey2953 · 3 months ago

  History only counts if it fits the current narrative!

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• CA

  @carl76UK · 4 months ago

  It’s crazy that modern day slavery is still going on in America where the people who have been incarcerated &nbsp;which is well over 2 million people and they use them to work, many British people or even people around the world would be shocked that there is a thing called Convict Rodeo in the states where they pit convicts in a ring with a angry ball, many are seriously injured and some are killed, but the crowds it draws is crazy, it’s like going back to the Roman times in the colosseum’s, America is definitely a strange place and far more different to us mire than I ever thought.

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• LE

  @lesley585 · 8 months ago

  This infuriates me. The british have been villified for decades by other countries for having taken part in the slave trade, as though we were the only ones. I&apos;ve rarely heard Portugal or other European nations spoken of in the same way. And the way we ended it is conveniently forgotten. <br>We were the only ones to see it was immoral and actually do something about it, regardless of the cost to our own country. And that cost was immense. <br>We are not a nation that brags about itself or what it has done, and many people have taken advantage of that. <br>Since WW2, the &nbsp;loud USA has controlled the narrative on many things and taken credit for far more than they should. Your own history has also been warped and manipulated so much that the facts rarely match the truth. Abraham did not actually free the slaves and he was a slave owner himself.

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• AE

  @Aengus42 · 7 months ago

  I come from Brixham in Devon. People were taken from their beds in coastal towns in the the SW, S. Wales &amp; Southern Ireland by North African Barbary slavers. <br>They&apos;d weigh anchor in Torbay and if the British customs rowed out to check their ship they&apos;d throw the captured people, still chained together, over the seaward gunwale si they could pose as normal traders. <br>The Barbary white slave trade is barely known nowadays, except in these coastal towns. <br>If the Africans are paid reparations then wouldn&apos;t we be entitled to reparations from N. Africa too?

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