topics: |  history | british-empire | india | austraila

Written with the usual panache of the Horrible histories. Focusing on the horrible bits of the British Empire, that tend to get papered over in school history books.

A good bit of focus on the belief of inherent superiority of the British over other races.

Timeline

Every day, somewhere in the British Empire, someone suffered...

1562: England begins its slave trade thanks to her
       Terrible Tudor superior sailors.  They buy 
	 people in Africa and sell them to S America.
	    [pic: ship with long row of slaves entering. 
           balloon: "Sail to slaves then slaves for sale"]
1607: British startto settle in America.  They push the Indians out of the
      way and start to grow tobacco and cotton and sugar (in the W Indies).
      This is hard work and the Brits don't like it.  So they need more
      slaves.
	 [pic: man sitting on easy chair while man w pipe says: "We need more
     	  workers".  Man in easy chair: "Don't look at me"]
1619: The first slaves arrive in N America and the W Indies from Africa.
1620: Pilgrim fathers land on NE America and set up a colony.  They will
      cause trouble later.
1652: The Dutch set up a colony of "Boers" (farmers) in South Africa.  They
      will cause trouble later too!
1756-1773: Seven years war against France and Spain. The Brits win and become
      the main rulers of India through East India Co, a powerful trading
      company, backed by the British Army.
1770: Captain Cook comes across Australia.
1776: Brits lose their big rich American colony so it's time to set off to
      take over the rest of the world! Look out world!
	  [pic: brit man in period dress says "I've lost America".  wife who
	  is knitting: "That was careless of you!"]
1789 Freed slave Olaudah Equiano publishes his life story.  This helps the
      growinng 'Abolitionist' struggle in Britain and the US.
1792: slave rebellion in Haiti led by Toussaint L'Ouverture (1743-1803).  His
      army of 55,000 blacks fight against the French and makes them think
      slavery is not such a good idea.
1795: Brits take over S Africa from the Dutch (Boers), who move inland.
1818: Shaka, the Zulu chief, launches the Mfecane (Wars of crushing and
      wandering) against his black African neighbours and the white Europeans
      in S Africa.
1834: Slavery abolished throughout the British Empire... Four years before
      all slaves to be set free.
1838: 768,000 slaves freed.  But many native lords in Empire countries keep
      slaves still.
1839: First opium war - Brits fight for the right to sell opium to the
      Chinese.  British drug dealers get very rich from opium... and the
      Chinese very dead.
1851: Gold discovered in Australia.  Hope those convicts don't pinch it!
1855: Scottish missionary David Livingstone explores the Zambezi and names
      the Victoria falls after his queen.  (What a creep!)
1857: The Indian mutiny.  The Brits are shocked to find that the Indians do
      NOT like the Brits! Vicious fighting and cruelty on both sides.
1860: The Maori wars in NZ.  As usual the war ends in gore.
1876: Q Victoria crowned empress of India.  No one has asked the Indians, of
      course.
1879: THe Zulu war.  William gladstone says: "Ten thousand Zulus died and
      their only crime was to try and defend their families against the
      British guns."
1899: Second Boer war.  The mighty Brit empire struggles to beat a few
      farmers.  It's the beginning of the end for the empire.  p. 7-10

1622 book of rules for Brit tobacco planters in Virginia:
	It is easier to conquer the Indians than to teach them.  For they are
	simple, naked people, scattered in small villages and this makes them
	easy to defeat.  In future it will be our job to make them obey by
	destroying their villages and crops.  They can then be chased on our
	horses, tracked by bloodhounds, and torn to pieces with our mastiff
	dogs for these people are no better than wild beasts. 13

Sadly, some Brits even in the 21st c. still believe they are better than
others. 14

Slave Trade

In 1700 Bristol and Liverpool were small fishing ports.  Thanks to the slave
trade they grew over the next 100 years and many slave-traders became
enormously rich.  Many of Bristol and Liverpool's fine buildings were built
with the profits of slavery.
A Bristol historian wrote:
	Every brick in the city of Bristol is cemented with the blood of a
	slave.  [p.27]

After abolition in 1834,
Boswell:  Slaves are owned by people, so taking the slaves away from them is
	  robbery. ... There have always been slaves because God wanted it
	  that way.  Banning slavery is cruel to the slaves, especially the
	  Africans.  Being a slave  has given many of them a much happier
	  life! 		[p.31-2]

Punishments to slaves:
	1. Being nailed to a post by the year
	2. Having ear cut off
	3. Having teeth pulled out.
	4. Having hands cut off
	5. Being fastened in tight steel neck collars
	6. Having eyes gouged out p.32-33

Horrible Histories Health Warning

 	The brits abolished slavery and ever since school history books have
	been patting the brits on the back for it!  The books sometimes
	'forget' to mention the millions of miserable slaves that made
	millions of pounds for brutal Brits for the 200 years before they
	banned it.

Rebellion in Jamaica

In 1865, the freed slaves rebelled in Jamaica.  A mob of 500, armed with a
sticks, cutlasses, and a few guns, marched to the town of Stony Gut.  Women
started throwing stones.  Mobs killed a soldier and some others.  Buildings
set on fire.  Friends of the Brits killed.

Governor Edward Eyre exacted a terrible revenge - at Fonthill village, nine men shot
down and then hung up in the local church.  (Henry VIII had done this 300
years ago).  Over 600 were flogged severely with wire in the lashes.  Many
were hunted down and hanged, often without any trial.  A thousand homes
burned.  439 Jamaicans killed.

Eyre wrote: I came up with a plan which struck terror into those wretched men
   FAR more than death.  I made them hang each other!  They begged to be shot
   rather than do this.... The effect on the living was terrifying.

A Jamaican priest Rev G.W. Gordon was hung this way.   Most of the hanged men
were probably innocent.

Men lined up next to a trench and shot so their bodies would fall into the
trench - same method used by Nazis.
    The Nazis were murderers... and so was Governor Eyre.
Eyre was sacked, but he escaped real punishment.  Many Brits thought he was a
hero. p. 37

In 1760:  W. Indies slave rebellion known as 'Tacky's revolt'.  One rebel was
caught and killed by 'slow burning' (burnt alive).
  - he was chained to an iron post
  - a fire was lit under his feet
  - he watched as his legs turned to ashes.
It is said that the rebel suffered this bravely and did not cry out or even
groan.