Britain, its idealists claimed, was launching an Empire of Freedom. The reality, sadly, was rather different.

Europeans, with Brits in the forefront, had developed a love of tobacco, and above all a sweet tooth. They wanted sugar for their cakes and pastries, but above all for their coffee, chocolate and, that new British institution, tea. But sugar production requires backbreaking work under terrible conditions. This was work, and in conditions of heat, humidity and disease, few Europeans felt they could handle.

And so Africans were brought in to do it instead.

Not voluntarily.

The British Empire of Freedom was built, and from early in its existence, on a foundation of slavery.  

Illustration: William Clark, Slaves cutting sugar cane. Held and digitised by the British Library, and uploaded to Flickr Commons.

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License