SirChenjin
Reading this book has opened my eyes to the whitewashing of British history. Apart from the diabolical treatment of the working classes in the U.K., thousands were sent abroad a slaves. We have been led to believe that all was at least reasonable here. This book testifies that things were far worse here.
A couple more short statements:
‘the remorseless Duchess of Sutherland. Most slaveholders in other countries feed, shelter, and protect their slaves, in compensation for work; but the Duchess and her barbarous class take work, shelter, food, and protection from their serfs all at one fell swoop, turning them upon the world to beg or starve. Scotland has reason—strong reason—to bewail the existence of the British aristocracy.’
‘The labourers are not attached to the soil, and bought and sold with it, as in Russia. The English aristocrat is too cunning to adopt such a regulation, because it would involve the necessity of supporting his slaves. They are called freemen, in order to enable their masters to detach them from the soil, and drive them forth to starve, when it suits their convenience, without incurring any legal penalty for their cruelty, such as the slaveholders of other countries would suffer. The Russian, the Spanish, the North American slaveholder must support his slaves in sickness and helpless old age, or suffer the penalties of the law’
However unless these statements are read in context, the barbarity is probably not fully understood.