Christopher Brown

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1,098 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jan 2026 last heard 20 Jan

Christopher Brown’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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80,000 Hours Podcast · #145 Classic episode – Christopher Brown on why slavery abolition wasn't inevitable · 20 Jan 2026 podcast

50 years is a long time.

I mean, think about 50 years from now.

That's more than a lifetime for most of the folks who were involved.

Yeah, the pro-slavery interest was very powerful in Parliament, particularly after slave trade abolition in 1807.

In the 1810s, 1820s, they did a very good job of making sure they had the right friends, especially in the Tory governments that dominated in the 1820s.

When there was reform regulation that was proposed...

They drew up the regulations to the extent that they could.

It's a kind of the 19th century version of industries writing the rules that will govern their operations.

There are some things that they had to give in on.

But yeah, as political actors, they were exceptionally, exceptionally skillful.

But they also benefited from a more general value among the British elite, which is the sanctity of private property.

it's very easy to underestimate the importance of the problem of ownership.

You know, so we, you know, slaveholding is abhorrent, you know, you don't have to kind of go into the sort of ways that the whole idea of owning another person, um, you know, at any time period, just, it's, it's, it's, it's hard to sit with, but from a legal point of view, um,

You know, from the standpoint of the slaveholders, that's real money that was walking around.

It's been a lot of, you know, it's a lot of capital tied up in the people that they owned.

And I've said this sometimes in class, not only to often to sort of grimaces from students, but, you know, emancipation to slaveholders is confiscation.

It's taking other people's stuff.

And so there's a more general question about, if we're talking about freeing the slaves, what does that mean to other forms of property?

Not only in the colonies, but at home.

So there's a kind of a sympathy among certain quarters of the elite of, well...

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