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Samuel Pepys censored his links to slavery, new study reveals
- March 26, 2026 at 12:00 AM
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The fact that Samuel Pepys owned at least two enslaved people in 17th-century London is no secret. In some of his personal letters he was unashamedly open about this. In September 1688, he told a ship's captain that neither "whipping or fetters" had reformed a "mischievous" slave in his household. He asked the captain to feed the man on "hard meat, till you can dispose of him in some plantation as a rogue."
Originally published at Phys.org