Legacies of British Slavery in Australia: John Ewen Davidson, slave-produced wealth, and the Queensland sugar industry

Abstract

The £20 million pounds paid out by the British taxpayer to slave owners at the time of emancipation in 1834 has been the subject of considerable recent research, publicity and controversy in Britain and its former Caribbean colonies. Identifying the recipients of this money is an important part of the much bigger project of 'reinscribing' the story of slavery into the history of a nation that has deliberately sought to forget. This article contributes to a shared effort to address how some of this money — both from compensation and larger slave-made fortunes — and the privileges it bestowed, made its way to the Australian colonies.