Anglo vs French Roles in Transatlantic Slavery: Who Should Apologize?
African and Caribbean leaders have urged formal apologies and reparations at a high-level conference in Accra. This follows a UN resolution recognising the transatlantic slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity” and calling for contributions to a reparations fund. Historians estimate 12–15 million African men, women and children were trafficked to the Americas between the 15th and 19th centuries. Around 70% of them were taken by British colonisers, whose profits from cotton and sugar plantations helped fuel the Industrial Revolution and early US economic growth. This left West Africa impoverished and created a lasting wealth gap. French involvement was more indirect. French elites typically bought captives from British or Portuguese slavers rather than operating large fleets themselves, making France less wealthy from slavery than Britain. The author warns against oversimplified narratives and calls for honest accounting of all colonial roles, rather than blaming any one heritage unfairly.
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