British ignorant over history of slave trade-poll

By Paul Majendie

LONDON (Reuters) - Only one in 10 Britons knows when the transatlantic slave trade was abolished and almost half the population has no idea who campaigned to end it, a poll showed on Tuesday.
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The findings prompted human rights groups to call for schoolchildren to learn more about the trade and Britain to mark next year's bicentenary of its abolition in a meaningful way.

"This is a clarion call for education," said Richard Reddie, project director for Set All Free, a church umbrella group coordinating bicentenary commemorations.

"For too long it has been written out of history as just a footnote," he told Reuters. "It needs to be as central to teaching as the Battle of Trafalgar or the Second World War."

Reflecting on how successful Britain had been as a multi-cultural society, he said of abolition: "I think there is a collective amnesia and embarrassment over Britain being one of the prime movers in the slave trade.

"The idea of one person owning another is a despicable one."

The Mori poll commissioned by his group showed that only one in 10 people questioned could name 1807 as the year the trade was abolished.

Forty-six percent said they had no idea who had campaigned -- like abolitionist William Wilberforce -- for an end to the trade.

The human rights group Anti-Slavery International said the findings showed that teaching pupils about the slave trade should be made compulsory in British schools.

"This research reveals the need for much greater awareness and education," it said in a statement. "At least 12 million people are in slavery today. No region is free from this abuse and slavery is found in most countries."

The pressure group has warned that most of those 12 million people are children, ensnared in pornography and prostitution, exploited as cheap labour and forced into being child soldiers.

In the run-up to the bicentenary, the government has said it is contemplating whether to issue "a statement of regret" but no decision has been made yet.

Liverpool, the northern port which transported about one million slaves from West Africa to the United States and the Caribbean, issued an apology in 1999.

In February, the Church of England apologised for profiting from the "dehumanising and shameful" slave trade two centuries after its members helped bring about its abolition in Britain.

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