You mean, avoid war, abolish slavery, and pay off the slave owners, just like how most other countries did it? Yeah, how crazy is that!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_Abolition_Act_1833
Quote:
Under the terms of the Act the British government raised £20 million to pay out in compensation for the loss of the slaves as business assets to the registered owners of the freed slaves. The names listed in the returns for slave compensation show that ownership was spread over many hundreds of British families,[12] many of them of high social standing. For example, Henry Phillpotts (then the Bishop of Exeter), in a partnership with three business colleagues, received £12,700 for 665 slaves in the West Indies.[13] The majority of men and women who were awarded compensation under the 1833 Abolition Act are listed in a Parliamentary Return, entitled Slavery Abolition Act, which is an account of all moneys awarded by the Commissioners of Slave Compensation in the Parliamentary Papers 1837-8 Vol. 48.
In all, the government paid out over 40,000 separate awards. The £20 million fund was 40% of the government's total annual expenditure.
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