Peter Edman
In one of our curricula, we use an 1833 quote from William Wilberforce, delivered from his deathbed on hearing news of the success of abolition.
“Thank God, that I should have lived to witness a day in which England is willing to give twenty millions sterling for the Abolition of Slavery.”
Our notes say that £20 million, the price to be paid to the slave owners of the British Empire, approximately half the value of their slaves, was an astronomical sum in those days. Not being British, I’ve always wondered how much it was worth in dollars. I recently ran across a comparison site, and now I know. Depending on the method of conversion, in 2000 US Dollars the value is between $1.3 billion (retail price index) to more than $42 billion (via a GDP comparison, which may be the more valid comparison). That’s a lot of money. The details are here.
Fodder, Faiths and Worldviews, Society, Tue 21 Feb 2006
If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.
C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
