British investors in slave trade to be named

The Duke of Chandos invested in a slave company.

The largest ever database of investors in the slave trade will be created by British academics in a project highlighting ties to modern firms and backed by £1 million of government funding. The Dictionary of British Slave Traders will provide detailed biographies of investors across its 250-year history, including shareholders in slave-trading companies and those investing through syndicates in independent slave-trading voyages. It will also illustrate the “entanglement” of slave wealth across the economy and its financial legacy on balance sheets down to the present, adding to pressure for institutions to take action to redress historic wrongs. The team, from the universities of Lancaster and Manchester and University College London (UCL), said that it would identify more than 6,500 Britons. Source: The Times