Owners complained that their compensation was small compared with their loss; they were paid less, often much less, than what the slaveowner could have sold the enslaved person for (the market value).
Historian Eric Foner wrote, "Even Haiti, where slavery died amid a violent revolution, agreed in 1824 to pay a large indemnity to former slaveholders in exchange for French recognition of its independence.... No one proposed to compensate slaves for their years of unrequited toil.
It frequently was accompanied or preceded by laws which approached gradual emancipation by granting freedom to those born to slaves after a given date.
The British Empire enacted a policy of compensated emancipation (about 40%[4]) for its colonies in 1833, followed by France in 1848, Denmark in 1849, and the Netherlands in 1863.
[5] The Qatari government reimbursed formers slave owners financially and Sheikh Ali bin Abdullah Al Thani personally contributed with 25 percent of the compensation money.
This law prohibited slavery in the District, forcing its 900-odd slaveholders to free their slaves, with the federal government paying owners an average of about $300 (equivalent to $9,000 in 2023) for each.