Slavery in British America

According to The National Archives (United Kingdom),[2] slavery was conducted as unfree labour in the British Caribbean and North American colonies from the 16th to 19th century.

However for many decades the top producing domestic item was sugar[5] with Jamaica as Britain's largest sugar-producing colony according to the University of Glasgow.

[6] According to the United Nations, chattel slavery saw its most "extreme form" with the passage of the Black Code which was initially introduced in Barbados and quickly spread to other colonies within the Americas.

[1] The University College London Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery provides maps of where plantations were built on the colonies of Grenada, Jamaica, and Barbados.

[15] As noted by the BBC, Britain's about-face from being involved with the slave trade and having colonies that engaged in the practice of slavery to campaigning aggressively to end it presents a glorious humanitarian crusade for the ages.

Map of the extent of slavery in colonial British America
Coat of arms of the Royal African Company, which traded slaves to colonies throughout the Americas. Jamaican plantations were a prime destination for slaves brought from Africa [ 1 ]