Cover of Britain's Slave Traders

Britain's Slave Traders

A groundbreaking history from the lead investigator behind The Register of British Slave Traders

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Britain's Slave Traders

By: William A. Pettigrew
Narrated by: William A. Pettigrew
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Based on a comprehensive, landmark investigation, this ground-breaking history reveals the true significance of the trade in enslaved Africans in Britain’s development as a modern nation.

*ACCOMPANIED BY A MAJOR BBC DOCUMENTARY*

They 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, poets and artists, too. They were a tiny minority but their wealth, their power and their 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 helped win wars, shaped modern industry, and built ports, canals and thriving cities, helping make Britain the global and imperial force it eventually became. Disturbingly, the drive to liberate the trade in enslaved people from monarchical monopoly also contributed to Britain’s reputation as a progressive, freedom-loving nation. Within Britain, slavery’s profits fuelled philanthropy and helped promote social mobility, improving the lives of the neediest through hospitals, alms-houses and schools.

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 within Britain’s history.

‘Essential, forensic analysis from a global authority’ SATHNAM SANGHERA

‘Vital and necessary’ SUZANNAH LIPSCOMB, author of The King is Dead

‘Ambitious, original and extensively researched’ AMANDA FOREMAN, author of A World on Fire

‘No place to hide. William Pettigrew’s compelling narrative reveals how slave-trading shaped British society, economy and government, through and through’ CLARE JACKSON, author of Devil-Land

© William A. Pettigrew 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

 Colonialism & Post-Colonialism Europe Great Britain Politics & Government
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Reviews

Essentially, a new history of Britain . . . The strength of this book lies in its detachment. It’s not an angry diatribe against the slave traders and their cruel institution, but rather a calm, forensic investigation of how the slave trade evolved and embedded itself in everyday life. The traders emerge as entirely normal human beings who made positive contributions to society, but also freely engaged in an evil enterprise. That’s what makes this book so disturbing (Gerard DeGroot)
The slave trade , as William Pettigrew argues in this grimly important book, can be found “in the depths of Britain's grain" . . . Pettigrew tells the story straight, with little reference to today's culture wars . . . But Pettigrew's careful tone is ultimately more effective than stridency. In this argument, slave traders cannot be conveniently demonised . . . As this deeply researched and revelatory book demonstrates, the conversation has barely begun
Essential, forensic analysis from a global authority. I wish I had been given this book at school (Sathnam Sanghera, author of Empireland)
In this vital and necessary book, William Pettigrew challenges the cultural amnesia and omissive history around Brtain's involvement in the trafficking of enslaved Africans. His astute analysis reveals how the wealth, technologies and rationalisations generated by the slave trade created the very institutions, structures and identities that still define Britishness today (Suzannah Lipscomb, author of The King Is Dead)
Ambitious, original, and extensively researched, William Pettigrew’s Britain’s Slave Traders is an important book and a timely addition to the current debate on national identity and cultural memory (Amanda Foreman, author of World on Fire)
No place to hide. William Pettigrew's compelling narrative reveals how slave trading shaped British society, economy, and government, through and through. Look behind the merchant traders at those who invested in slave trading, and you find that every section of British society was involved (Clare Jackson, author of Devil-Land)
An important and illuminating book, based on remarkable research, but also one written with great clarity and pace (Jonathan Healey, author of The Blood in Winter)
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