5 Aug 2020

Freed slaves - NOT amateur radio

Until I saw this photo I did not know the back story. As a child, I was brought up in Salcombe, Devon. Most people were white, but there was one black-skinned person, who was well respected in the town as a monumental mason. I remember him well.

What I did not know was that his family had settled in the area in the 1800s as freed slaves.  I wonder how many people today, perhaps unknowingly, owe their wealth to slavery centuries earlier?

Until recently I did not know that when slavery was abolished in the UK, slave owners received compensation for their losses! This debt has only recently been paid off. There must be some very rich people today who owe their wealth to this.

Personally I find slavery abhorrent.

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