Babzuptown

Very good example of the lies anti-Western activists love to tell: The claim that Britain only paid off slavery compensation in 2015 is false — and the person who spread it has admitted it. The claim that "British taxpayers were paying off slavery compensation until 2015" went viral in 2018 when the UK National Debt Management Office tweeted it. It was retracted almost immediately because it was wrong. The 1835 government loan used to pay slave owner compensation was fully redeemed in 1938. What continued beyond that were small residual government consolidated bonds — routine Victorian-era debt instruments bundled together with hundreds of other government expenditures from the same period, including the Napoleonic Wars and Irish Famine relief. This lie spread because it was emotionally compelling. It was not true. Yes, slavery compensation was paid to the owners because that was the only way to achieve abolition. And yes, abolition was the result of campaigning and technological changes but it nonetheless represents a unique achievement of the West: everywhere else, including the Far East, the Middle East and Africa slavery continued for decades, if not centuries, and into the present time. Note how, as usual, anti-Western narratives deliberately fail to engage in a fair comparison with OTHER empires and civilisations in the world and their conduct during the same time period. I refuse to hold our civilisation to a fake, utopian standard of perfection while letting everyone else off the hook.