Britain was the second-largest transporter of enslaved Africans in the Atlantic trade, after Portugal. Understanding the comparative scale matters for any honest assessment of relative responsibility.
Portugal transported approximately 5.8 million enslaved Africans over roughly 400 years of active trading, representing around 46 percent of the total Atlantic trade. Britain transported approximately 3.1 million over roughly 150 years of serious participation, representing around 26 percent of the total. France transported approximately 1.4 million, around 11 percent. The Netherlands, Spain, the United States, and Denmark made up most of the remainder.
Britain’s period of most intense involvement ran from roughly 1700 to 1807. During this period, British ships were among the most numerous on the trade routes, and Britain was arguably the dominant slave-trading nation in that specific century. This is the period against which British responsibility is primarily measured, and it is a serious period of serious wrongdoing.
Britain also abolished the trade earlier than any other major slave-trading nation. The 1807 Slave Trade Act preceded France’s final abolition by decades, preceded Portugal’s by sixty years, and preceded the end of the American trade by over fifty years. Britain then spent sixty years and considerable resources actively enforcing abolition against other nations through the Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron.
None of this cancels what Britain did during its period of participation. But it does mean that Britain’s record, taken as a whole, is considerably more complex than the reparations narrative presents.
