Portland Public Library

Britain's black debt, Reparations for Caribbean slavery and native genocide, Hilary McD. Beckles

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-277) and index

index present

non fiction

Britain's black debt

bibliography

811410943

Hilary McD. Beckles

Reparations for Caribbean slavery and native genocide

"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. Beckles weaves detailed historical data on Caribbean slavery and the transatlantic slave trade together with legal principles and the politics of postcolonialism, and 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. 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, Beckles 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 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."--Taken from back cover

List of tables -- Foreword -- Acknowledgements -- Note on currency -- Introduction. My journey with slavery and reparations -- Part 1. Chapter 1. The principles and politics of reparations -- Chapter 2. Exterminate the savages : Genocide in the Windwards -- Chapter 3. King James's version : Royal Caribbean slave voyages -- Chapter 4. Not human : Britain's black property -- Chapter 5. The Zong massacre : Jamaica-bound Africans murdered -- Chapter 6. Prostituting enslaved Caribbean women -- Chapter 7. Criminal enrichment : Building Britain with slavery -- Chapter 8. Dividends from the Devil : Church of England chattels in Barbados -- Chapter 9. Earls of Harewood : Slave route to Buckingham Palace -- Chapter 10. Slave owners in Parliament and the private sector -- Chapter 11. Twenty million pounds : Slave owners' reparations -- Part 2. Chapter 12. The case for reparations -- Chapter 13. "Sold in Africa" : The United Nations and reparations in Durban -- Chapter 14. British policy : No apology, no reparations -- Chapter 15. The Caribbean reparations movement -- Notes -- Select bibliography -- Index