Slave Compensation Act, 1837

[peterwarr]

     Following recent publicity about the Slave Compensation Act of 1837, I’ve wondered whether any people in Sheffield received funds in that way.  More than 40,000 awards for loss of slave “property” were made, mostly outside this country, and all claims have now been made available online at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/.  In many cases, recipients had inherited slaves from an ancestor.

      It turns out that only one person in Sheffield was involved – Robert Haynes junior (1795-1873).  He had been born in Barbados (son of Lt General Robert Haynes) but now gave his address as Haymarket, Sheffield.  The 1841 census places him, his (second) wife and two grown-up daughters in the Tontine Inn, and he was awarded more than £20,000 – a very large sum.

    He was presumably only a temporary Sheffielder, and later evidence locates him and his family in Thimbleby Lodge near Thirsk.  So why would he choose to be in smoky and dirty Sheffield?  It would be great to know.

    Incidentally, no compensation claims were made by anyone in Barnsley, Chesterfield, Dronfield, Ecclesfield, Norton or Rotherham.

[duckweed]

This would back the  assertion that there was always strong anti-slavery feeling within Sheffield.  

[Fiddlestick]

All cultures have practiced slavery, some still do, but only Britain legally banned it and had the Royal Navy patrolling the Atlantic slave routes for 200 years. Working people in Britain were often treated like slaves in the Industrial Revolution, especially children. Check this out...'Barbarian Cruelty, an eye witness account of white slavery under the Moors' by Francis Brooks. Also Google 'Barbary Coast Slavery'  for a comprehensive understanding. 

[lysander]

I once read that a few enlightened slave owners treated their "assets", which had cost them money, far better than many working people were treat by their employers. We always seem to forget the convicts who were sent to the colonies and , in many cases, treated worse than slaves. The British "Devil's Island...of Norfolk Island... has records of convicts begging to be hung...so bad were their conditions.

[Fiddlestick]

Just looked on the internet and found this :-

' Listed in the US Census for 1830 are 3,775 free black slaves who owned 12,740 black slaves.'

'Carter G.Woodson, whose grandparents had been slaves, was one of the first to write a book about black slave owners called "Free ***** Owners of Slaves in the USA."  '

'Black author Edward P.Jones' Pulitzer Prize winning work 'The Known World' , tackles the issue of black slave owners.'

[Fiddlestick]

That  (unoffensive ) starred-out word was  'n e g r o'  by the way, not the other.