England Taxed Black Brits for Their Freedom

The government gave reparations to slave owners, and modern citizens paid off the debt

Hundreds of people of African descent took part in the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March on August 1, 2017 in London, England. Photo: Barcroft Media/Getty Images

When Nadine Drummond pitched this story to me I was aghast: Black Brits were taxed — as recently as a few years ago — to pay off the costs of their ancestors’ freedom? What?!