New report outlines historic City Corporation Members’ links to enslaved African People

The City of London Corporation has published new research which outlines links between its historic Members and the transatlantic traffic in enslaved African people. The information in the research is drawn from a new publicly accessible national dataset – the Register of British Slave Traders . The City Corporation commissioned Professor William Pettigrew, the UK's leading expert on the traffic in enslaved African people, who has led the creation of the national register, to carry out the research. Professor Pettigrew’s report focuses on the role played by members in the period 1640 to 1807, when the UK was actively involved in human trafficking. His research found 42 of 176 Lord Mayors of London in that period were involved in the traffic in enslaved African people, along with 130 of 830 Aldermen, or senior councillors, and 181 of 3,975 members of the Court of Common Council – the City Corporation’s primary decision-making body. The report links the Members identified to over 950 voyages that violently transported around 240,000 enslaved African people across the Atlantic, around 36,000 of whom died during the crossings. However, the research found no evidence the City Corporatio