Index of Britain’s extensive slave trade being compiled by academics

The first ever index of investors in Britain's extensive slave trade is being compiled by academics, after the project received 1 million pounds in funding from the UK government.

The Dictionary of British Slave Traders will detail the 6,500 members of society who took part in the trade throughout a period stretching more than two centuries.

William Pettigrew, who is leading the project, told CNN that it will also name corporations that were involved.

It comes after a year of debate about Britain's celebration of its colonial past, with a number of statues and public memorials to slave owners being removed or renamed.

Britain enslaved 3.1 million Africans between 1640 and 1807, transporting them to colonies around the world.

Many of these people were taken to Jamaica and the Caribbean to work on sugar plantations, which made their owners very wealthy through the export of sugar, molasses and rum.

 When Britain was forced to end slavery it compensated owners to the tune of 20-million pounds sterling.