Abstract
This study uses descriptive statistics to provide an overview of the compensation received by former slave-owners who were compensated for the loss of their property in the Bahamas colony, that is, their slaves, after Emancipation. The data used for this study is from the University College London’s Legacies of British Slave-ownership Centre. This paper answers four questions: What was the amount of the compensation received by former slave-owners in the Bahamas colony in 1834? What was the distribution of the compensation? What is the 2017 price equivalent of the compensation paid? What would be the investment value of the compensation in 2017 using prevailing interest rates? It is shown that 1,057 awardees received £126,848.70 for 10,087 slaves in 1834. There were six different types of awardees based on the type of ownership. The 2017 equivalent of the total compensation using prices, equates to £11,588,494.36 and in terms of investment value, equates to £342,031,365.63.
Highlights
As is the case for the West Indies/Caribbean region, the modern Bahamas originated as a slave society
The slaves were Africans extracted from Africa to the New World to advance the imperial undertakings of Europeans and their North American relatives
What was the amount of the compensation received by former slaveowners in the Bahamas colony in1834?
Summary
As is the case for the West Indies/Caribbean region, the modern Bahamas originated as a slave society. The slaves were Africans extracted from Africa to the New World to advance the imperial undertakings of Europeans and their North American relatives. Slavery was an economic enterprise as much as it was a political and social instrument of power and conquest. The trade in slaves was itself a commercial enterprise, and the slaves were crucial for production, wealth, and power. In the West Indies, the leading business enterprise was sugar. Its agricultural limitations meant that for the Bahamas colony, the slavocracy was not as economically significant as, for example, Jamaica and Barbados that held huge agricultural plantations
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
