"Robert Jenrick says Britain's former colonies should be THANKING us for the legacy of Empire - and not demanding slavery reparations" Of the 3.1 million enslaved Africans Britain transported through the transatlantic slave trade, approximately 450,000 of them died en route The other 2.6 million slavesworked in sugar, tobacco and cotton, creating immense fortunes for Britain Since slavery was abolished in 1833 over 46,000 British slave owners were compensated by the British government, the last payment being in 2015 That means Britain spent 182 years paying slave owners for the loss of their slaves, in today's figures, that's over £3 billion Profits from slavery helped fund the industrial revolution, and around 10% of Britain's GDP in the 19th century was because of slavery