A landmark investigation has unveiled the most extensive account of Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, identifying thousands of individuals who profited from the trafficking of African people. The Register of British Slave Traders, a three-year project spearheaded by Professor William Pettigrew of King’s College London, reveals that the abhorrent trade was not a rogue enterprise but a state-supported institution backed by the monarchy, parliament, and financial elites. From the 1560s until abolition in 1807, over three million African men, women, and children were violently transported to the Americas and Caribbean, with the resulting wealth deeply embedded in modern Britain’s infrastructure and institutions.
The Crown and the City: The Elite Enablers
The register meticulously documents the involvement of the highest echelons of British society. It is a stark revelation that successive monarchs were not merely bystanders but active leaders and investors in the trafficking of human