Slave Compensation Act 1837

Background. The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 contained provisions for payments to slave owners in specific colonies to persuade them to allow legislation to pass. The Slave Compensation Act 1837 widened these compensation provisions to cover the owner of any African slave in any colony. The 1837 Act paid substantial amounts, constituting 40% of the Treasury’s tax receipts at the time, to former slave owners, but nothing to the liberated people.

Financing Arrangements. To finance the payments, the British government took on a £15 million loan finalized on 3 August 1835 with bankers Nathan Mayer Rothschild and Moses Montefiore. An additional £5 million was paid out directly in government stock. According to the Treasury, the 1837 slave debts were subsumed into a consolidated 4% loan issued in 1927, maturing in 1957 or after.

Implementation and Awards. Based on a government census of 1 August 1834, more than 40,000 awards to slave owners were issued. The largest total amount paid was to Sir John Gladstone, who received £106,769 for 2,508 enslaved people across nine plantations. The majority of men and women paid under the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 are listed in a Parliamentary Return from 1837–8.