The Day Britain Declared Itself Righteous - March 25, 1807

On March 25, 1807, Britain signed the Slave Trade Act, one of the most celebrated acts of conscience in parliamentary history. But the 800,000 people enslaved in British colonies woke up the next morning in exactly the same condition as the day before. This episode follows the real story behind the victory: the twenty-year campaign, the Haitian Revolution that Parliament feared as much as the activists inspired it, and the 1833 "abolition" that paid £20 million in compensation, every pound to the slaveholders, none to the enslaved. A debt that wasn't paid off until 2015.