Episode 1

David Olusoga meets the historians who have built the Register of British Slave Traders. For five years, they have searched through thousands of documents, piecing together a comprehensive picture of over 13,000 individuals who were investors in the slave trade. Anyone can now log on and discover who the slave traders were, where they lived, how much money they made and the links between modern British institutions and the trade in human beings.

David discovers how the monarchy drove the early British slave trade. He learns how Elizabeth I and the early Stuarts gave their support to early slavery ventures; how the restored monarchy in the 1660s, seeking new ways to strengthen its finances and authorities, chartered a joint-stock monopoly company dedicated to the trade in enslaved Africans; and how James II, the company's governor, becoming king led to the emergence of a new and rival set of companies and investors who would transform the slave trade.