why would slave abolitionist have collected compensation?

+3 votes
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George Fife Angas appears to have been a humanitarian and slavery abolitionist. He was a delegate at an anti-slavery conference and appears to have been credited with helping draft legislation to abolish slavery.

He is also listed at Legacies of British Slave-ownership as having collected the compensation for four claims relating to a total of 121 slaves in Honduras.

Can anyone explain why an abolitionist would collect the money for emancipated slaves? He was a banker in London at that time I think, so would it simply be that the money was deposited in his bank? His older brother was a ship captain (carrying freight not slaves) and father was a coachbuilder using Caribbean mahogany, so he would have had business contacts.

WikiTree profile: George Angas
in Genealogy Help by Scott Davis G2G6 Mach 3 (37.1k points)
retagged by Scott Davis
You can click on the details and see. In one case, he was a trustee and in another "one enslaved person was sold for manumission at a future period."
Slaves were no longer worth that much really, presumably because the freed blacks had bred a large supply of cheap labour.  One of the main drivers of the abolition movement was the desire of slave-owners to convert their slaves into cash compensation.  The trick was to stir up maximum public indignation, while opposing it just enough to get the best price.
Even if you had the best interests of the slave in mind and intended to free them, it would make sense to hold off on manumission until the emancipation. Maybe they even gave the freedmen some of the compensation. No point in leaving government money on the table.

1 Answer

+1 vote
The authors of the website would be well qualified to answer this question, if the answer is not already on there. At the bottom of the page there's a list of links for "Further Information" including "Context" and "Get in Touch". I'd give those a try.
by Living Turner G2G6 Mach 4 (41.5k points)

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