Many decades after slavery was abolished in Britain, U.K. taxpayers have paid compensation for slave traders up to 2015.

In 1833, the government pledged £20 million to compensate the owners of slaves after slavery was abolished in Britain.

The City, once known as Britain’s slave capital, has become the center of protests after demonstrators toppled a statue of Edward Colston.

While there’s no compensation for the victims of the slave trade, taxpayers have been paying wealthy slave owners for centuries.

According to Bristol historian Kirsten Elliott, not only were the freed slaves denied compensation, but their descendants were also forced to pay their owners’ ancestors.