Ironically, the investors' drive to liberate their trade in enslaved people from monarchical monopoly contributed to Britain’s reputation as a progressive, freedom-loving nation. In fact, for the British themselves, the slave trade often had a healing effect, resolving tension in the Civil War, binding England and Scotland together after the Act of Union, and offering common cause between rival political factions. It also promoted social mobility and fuelled philanthropy, improving the lives and health of the neediest Britons and leaving a legacy of benefit for generations. Abolitionists realised that ending the trade would require the quiet erasure of the traders’ identities. By restoring them to view and rewriting our national story in light of what that tells us, Britain’s Slave Traders corrects a profound distortion of our past, revealing a previously obscured but vital thread through Britain’s history.
Professor William Pettigrew, Professor of Global British History
14 September 2026
Register of British Slave Traders reveals English investors and their influence on the nation
New research by Professor William Pettigrew’s team offers the most comprehensive examination of a national community of slave traders ever attempted.
Since 2021, Professor William Pettigrew has led a team of nine historians in a project to unearth every known investor in Britain’s transatlantic slave trade. The Register of British Slave-traders launched today, presents biographical data related to each of the known investors in the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved African people from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Drawing on what is now known of these 13,000 individuals, Professor Pettigrew has written a new version of Britain’s history which tells us who these traffickers were and reveals – for the first time – the impact they had on the nation’s development during this formative era.
The Register of British Slave-traders includes anyone who contributed financially to the outfitting of a slaving crossing or to a company outfitting such crossings for the duration of said company’s active participation in the slave trade, in expectation of a profit share. These individuals financed the English (then British) contribution to the transatlantic traffic in enslaved African people, which totalled c. 3 million enslaved African men, women, and children (of whom roughly half a million died during forced transportation).
Pettigrew shows the investors came from a wide range of backgrounds: plumbers as well as politicians, instrument-makers as well as monarchs, women and immigrants alongside aristocrats and merchants; playwrights, artists and clergymen. "They were a tiny minority but their wealth, power and appetite for risk influenced not just Britain’s economy but its politics, science, arts and institutions – from the development of the Royal Navy and the restoration of the Stuart monarchy to the emergence of two-party politics, the free press and Parliament itself. They financed wars, shaped modern industry, and built ports, canals and thriving cities, helping make Britain a global and imperial force."
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Register of British Slave Traders was led by Principal Investigator and Editor, Professor William Pettigrew, King's College London and Co-Investigators, Dr Nicholas Radburn (Lancaster University), Professor Edmond Smith (Manchester University), and Dr Nicholas Draper. The research team for the project has included: Dr Michael Bennett, Dr Lila O’ Leary Chambers, Dr James Dawkins, Dr Charmian Mansell, and Dr Kimberley Thomas.
The BBC is showing a two-part documentary about the register, presented by the historian David Olusoga.
Professor Pettigrew's research is featured in The Guardian. David Conn writes; "The publication of the register will provide further evidence for the growing global movement calling on European governments to acknowledge their perpetration of enslavement, issue a full, formal apology and engage positively with discussions for reparatory justice."
Project: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the Development of Europe
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