Hall of Fame: Capitalism and Slavery

The thing about Williams is that he's a really fun historian.

He's witty, he's naughty, he picks a fight, he likes a gag, and he's entertaining.

And I'm just going through my notes to try and find one of his gags.

And he was very wry and dry.

And he wrote more history books after Capitalism and Slavery, which has just been republished by Penguin, first time in 30 years.

And it's a great short read.

And he wrote, the British historians write almost as if Britain had introduced African slavery solely for the satisfaction of abolishing it.

which I think is kind of true.

Spot on.

And it's that smug self-righteousness of generations of – Britons who just don't want to face up to the fact that we did.

We committed a crime against humanity.

And I think he became a really brilliant...

As the first Prime Minister of Trinidad, he did an amazing job.

And he's really early in the reparations debate because he rejects...

Britain offered the nations it gave freedom to a little gift of several million pounds, so long as they spent it on British goods.

And William said, Trinidad's not going to accept this.

You owe us for enslaving our people.

Hundreds and thousands of our people whose descendants are still suffering from that in poverty.

You don't give us a few coins

to buy your goods with.