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I then came upon the conservative historian Robert Tombs claiming that shoddy historical research had led notable British institutions into error regarding their past involvement wit slavery:

>>Does the term "South Sea Annuity" ring a bell? There is no reason why it should. It is a recondite feature of eighteenth-century government finances, when Britain, engaged in the "Second Hundred Years War" with France, was borrowing unprecedented sums to sustain global conflict. Yet misconstruing this term has turned out to be probably the most expensive historical error in modern British history. It is set to cost the Church Commission at least 100 million [pounds sterling] and severe reputational damage. The University of Cambridge has also certainly spent a considerable sum and has damaged its own international reputation in part by making the same error. How could this have come about?<<

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A839229777/AONE?u=txshrpub100020&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=6e3faa82

Tombs is challenged about the "misconstruction" of "South Sea Annuity" in a waspish letter from Richard Drayton in a subsequent issue of the TLS:

>>It is so nice to see my old Cambridge colleague Robert Tombs turning his hand in retirement to British history and culture war. I appreciate that, not being familiar with eighteenth-century sources, nor with economic history, some things might not be immediately clear to him.<<

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A841611049/AONE?u=txshrpub100020&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=18a1e0ee

The next week sees the Tombs riposte, with assistance from financial historian Richard Dale:

>>Richard Drayton kindly offers to guide me through the arcana of eighteenth-century finance (Letters, May 23). His letter is, however, a better guide to the confused thinking of the Church Commissioners and their historical advisers, among whom he is prominent... Nothing he writes alters the embarrassing reality: certain historians have given leading institutions wrong information on the nature of their historic investments, and contentious and expensive decisions have been based on historical error.<<

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A842180062/AONE?u=txshrpub100020&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=cbe67bcd

Entertaining as this British historiographical bitchery might be, the argument over the significance of the term "South Sea Annuity" should not obscure two important points.

In the first place, Tombs and other conservatives are making these criticisms of the Church Commissioners, Cambridge, and their associated historians less out of a concern for historical accuracy than from a deeply held desire to shelve the entire debate about Britain, slavery, and what is or is not owed to the descendants of those enslaved.

This debate goes astray if the right of former British colonies in the West Indies to reparations for slavery is made to depend either on the discovery of financial benefits accruing to particular British institutions or on the strength or weakness of the Williams thesis, that the Atlantic slave trade and slavery were crucial for the development of British capitalism and the Industrial Revolution. These arguments in financial and economic history should not obscure the larger truth that Britain inflicted a serious injury on people inhabiting and imported to the Caribbean by enslaving them. Regardless of any benefits that might or might not have flowed to Britain, and regardless of the motives and actions of British abolitionists, that injury to those enslaved and their descendants and the moral injury to Britain itself have not been made good. Reparations are therefore a legitimate demand; what form these should take must be a matter of discussion between the British and Caribbean governments. Attempting to dismiss the question by calling attention to errors in detail is an attempt to whitewash an ugly history.

To those who would point out all sorts of societies, including those of Africa, have engaged in slavery, I would argue that Atlantic slavery is distinctive on account of its racialised nature, its connection with the depersonalizing economies of the plantation and of industrial capitalism, its sheer scale, and the depth of its cruelty.

#History #Histodons #AtlanticSlavery #Slavery #RobertTombs #Conservatives #Reparations #WilliamsThesis #CaribbeanHistory