How Britain’s middle class made a mint out of abolishing slavery

The end of slavery in 1834 resulted in one of the biggest government compensation packages in British history. More than £20 million was paid out — £17 billion in today’s money.

Quite right, you may think. But the compensation wasn’t paid to the enslaved people, it was for their owners . . . for loss of their ‘property’.

In Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners (BBC2) historian David Olusoga took a grimly fascinating look at files held in the National Archive detailing the 46,000 people who received money from The Slave Compensation Commission.

Astonishingly, while there were the wealthy plantation owners you would expect, many were middleclass people who’d never set foot in the Caribbean yet saw slavery as a safe investment — in the same way someone might buy shares in Apple or Microsoft today.

People such as the Rev James hamilton, who received £40,000 compensation for the 216 slaves he was forced to set free.

There were also a surprising number of women who profited from slavery, such as the Duchess of Chandos, who owned 300 in Jamaica in the late 1700s and netted herself a very tidy income of £6,000 a year — £5 million by today’s standards.

In one letter to her plantation manager, she detailed her irritation that one of her more skilled slaves had died.

Life expectancy of a slave working on a sugar plantation was around seven years due to the back-breaking work and harsh treatment.

Barbados was the world’s first fully slave society. During the 17th century, it was built and sustained entirely by slave labour with no other economy on the island.

Olusoga tracked down the 1661 Slave Code document stating how to deal with disobedience.

For a first offence; a slave was to be whipped; for a second offence he was to be severely whipped, his nose slit and face burnt with a branding iron. Presumably, no one ever offended a third time.

The huge sums of money to be made from sugar plantations tempted wannabes such as Thomas Thistlewood, 29, a failed farmer from Lincolnshire. he travelled to Jamaica in 1750, where he became a rich plantation owner, and a horribly sadistic one to boot.

In his diaries he bragged about the inventive methods of torture he dreamed up for the slaves. he even boasted about a salt, pickle and lime juice cocktail he had concocted to rub into flogging wounds.

Last night’s documentary was truly jaw-dropping in its revelations. David Olusoga and his team deserve huge credit for their research and this film, which was as important and informative as it was disturbing. More uplifting was Secret Life Of Twins (ITV1), a documentary that looked at the amazing similarities — and surprising differences — between identical twins.

Anais, 26, was born in South Korea, but brought up in Paris after being adopted by a French couple. It was only when studying in London that a fellow student pointed out how similar she looked to an American actress who had appeared in Memoirs Of A Geisha.

When Anais saw pictures of Samantha, based in LA, she realised she was looking at her own double. Further research revealed Samantha was also born in South Korea and adopted.

Tests proved the pair were identical twins who, despite years of living apart, had similarities that went beyond the physical.

They liked and hated the same food, had identical mannerisms and bit their nails and twirled their hair in the same way.

Meanwhile, it took the onset of puberty for Brenda and Bonnie to notice their differences. While Brenda liked boys, Bonnie realised she was gay. Further down the line, Bonnie made the decision to change her gender and, following surgery, became Aidan.

Brenda, who once had an identical twin sister, suddenly had a brother with a full beard, deep voice and bulky muscles.

Now closer than ever, the twins could only puzzle over how they could possess exactly the same DNA yet end up so differently.