# Eric Williams Topic: [[Topics/Slavery, Colonialism and Teaching History/Slavery, Colonialism and Teaching History|Slavery, Colonialism and Teaching History]] · People in this topic are listed on the hub. - **Who:** (1911–1981) Trinidadian historian and Trinidad and Tobago's first prime minister; *Capitalism and Slavery* (1944) argued that profits from slavery and the slave trade helped finance British industrialization and that abolition followed economics more than humanitarianism ◻. Economic historians (Engerman, Eltis; later Olmstead and Rhode against Baptist and Beckert) dispute how big that contribution was. ## Role in this topic - Background for @SankaraDispatch's "how their wealth was built on our suffering" ([[Users/@AlBuffalo2nite/Post Analyses/Post Analysis - AlBuffalo2nite on Teaching Black Children All of History (2026-10-23)|analysis]]).