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The Black Lives Matter movement, reinforced by the killing of George Floyd, led to waves of protest in the USA and UK in 2020 – and a re-evaluation of historic links to slavery. The toppling of the Victorian statue of Bristol slaver and city benefactor, Edward Colston, sharply highlighted the contradictions of Britain’s slaving past. Notably, it drew attention to how the wealth amassed from slavery financed aspects of the Industrial Revolution. Similar debates took place during the British abolition campaigns of the late-18th and early-19th centuries. Historians questioned why their ancestors – freeborn Anglo-Saxons – partook in such practices. In both cases, we are forced to confront our shameful past.