THE key word used in the indictments against Dundas is “gradual”. But he had to try to steer the bill through a parliament overloaded with vested financial interests rooted in the status quo. And the watered-down act of 1807 only prohibited the future TRADE in slaves within the empire, not the existing practice. The entire business was not ABOLISHED until 1833 (20 years after Dundas had left politics). In the interval the law was widely flouted and thousands more slaves were transported. Gradualism indeed!

So beware as ever the dangers of scapegoating. There were many, many, others far more culpable.

Take an example close to home: for we Scots were up to our oxters in this outrage.

In King Street in Leith there is a wee plaque registering the site as the birthplace of John Gladstone(s) and noting that his son, William Ewart, became prime minister four times. John’s family were successful ship chandlers but with his father’s blessing in 1787 John moved to Liverpool, the then foremost port dealing in sugar and slavery. He was enormously successful. At the time of abolition he was the biggest individual slave owner in the Caribbean but particularly Jamaica (hence the preponderance of Scottish surnames there).

The 1833 legislation was only enabled by the passing of the Slave Compensation Act, which accepted that slaves were assets. It put a price on every head according to their labouring capacities. John Gladstone was the biggest single beneficiary but there were hundreds of claimants.

So huge was the total outlay (exceeding that of the recent banking crisis) that the government had to raise the money by loans from private banks such as the Rothschilds. It was only expunged from the national debt in 2015.

So while the principle of emancipation eventually prevailed, it entailed bribery on a grand scale. Leading up to 1833, William Ewart had become an MP and is on record as a foremost proponent of the case for compensation.

But the slave owners were not sated. They then began to recruit “indentured servants” from India and the East Indies (hence many of the surnames in Trinidad and Guyana). They were hardly better treated and still in effect forced labour. This continued for several decades. Now there’s gradual for you! Should that plaque be removed?

Leslie Smith
Leith