The truth is that we LED the fight against slavery

THE skit lambasts Britain’s role in the slave trade but fails to mention that it was abolished in 1833, four years before Queen Victoria came to the throne.

The sketch depicts Victoria in the mourning clothes she wore after Prince Albert’s death in 1861 – which suggests she was still consuming slave-produced sugar at least 28 years after the practice was abolished.

Of course, British merchants had grown rich on the profits from cruelly shipping African slaves to the Americas, but almost all European colonial nations took part too.

In fact, this country was the first nation to abolish slavery, with evangelical campaigners led by William Wilberforce turning public opinion against the trade.

‘Let us put an end at once to this inhuman traffic,’ Wilberforce begged Parliament. ‘Let us stop this effusion of human blood.’

Spain and Portugal followed — albeit after being bribed — but France resisted, holding out until 1848.

As part of their anti- British propaganda, the Horrible Histories also condemn Britain’s colonial rule in India.

It is accepted that the partition of the Raj last century was a colossal human tragedy stained with blood, but the early colonialists were considered by some as humane men.

The respected historian Lawrence James has said: ‘On balance, the British Empire was a force for good and should be a source of national pride. It provided an interlude of stability in which countries divided by race and religion could develop and, in the case of India, discover a national identity.’

The Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron seized roughly 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans. Britain also used its influence to force other countries to agree to end their slave trades and allow the Navy to seize their slave ships.

Victoria herself forged a close r el at i onship with an I ndian attendant called Mohammed Abdul Karim for the final 14 years of her reign.

The friendship between Karim and the Queen led to friction within the Royal Household, whose members thought the relationship was inappropriate.

But the Queen insisted on taking Karim with her on her travels and described him as ‘a real comfort to me’.

‘On balance, the empire was a force for good’