Description:

HB Political sketches, volume 3. Sketch number 269, New West India Dance, to the tune of 20 Millions .
The sketch shows freed Africans dancing around Mr Buxton. Whilst in Parliament, Buxton advocated, or spoke in favour of, the abolition of slavery. He backed compensation proposals to be made to slave-owners.Parliament agreed to pay slave owners 20 million pounds in compensation after Abolition.The sketch shows John Bull, a pro-slavery activist, paying the piper to please..Mr Buxton .

The slave owners and their supporters accepted the loss of their property (slaves) in return for compensation (money) from the government. Slave owners in Bristol received over £500,000 (worth about £25 million today); a vast sum at that time.

Date: 1833

Copyright: Copyright Bristol University