Upon abolition in Britain’s own colonies, it was the slave owners who were given compensation to the tune of £20 million, roughly £17 billion in today’s money,12 the largest public bailout until the aftermath of the 2008 banking crisis. The formerly enslaved were given nothing; in fact, they were expected to remain slaves for five more years under a system euphemistically entitled ‘apprenticeship’ and of course East Indian ‘coolies’ continued to be scattered across the Caribbean to labour as ‘indentured servants’ well after the abolition of slavery.
