The scandal of the £20bn bailout to slave-owning Brits
(The Guardian Culture News)

In 1833, Britain took out a loan to compensate slave owners - only recently paid off. Juliet Gilkes Romero reveals the shameful history that inspired her play The Whip`This gives me goosebumps,` says playwright Juliet Gilkes Romero. We´re looking at a sign offering a two-guinea reward for Peter, a runaway `negro manservant`. Gilkes Romero marvels at this lost figure from the 19th century, whose plight is chronicled in the Museum of London Docklands. `Who was Peter?` she says. `Where did he go?`Gilkes Romero´s work pursues the history that falls through the cracks. After exploring the first world war´s Caribbean soldiers (At the Gates of Gaza) and Mexican disappearances (Day of the Living), her new play for the Royal Shakespeare Company excavates the messy alliances that produced Britain´s slavery abolition legislation in the early 19th century, in particular a bill compensating slave owners for their loss of human property. Continue reading...