Irony: Britain to put slave profiteer on 20 pound note

Published April 22, 2016 6:39pm ET



Just as America is about to put abolitionist heroine Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, Britain will put painter J.M.W. Turner, who invested in a slave plantation, on its new 20 pound note.

Though a public and vocal abolitionist, Turner, whose artistic genius and popularity made him a wealthy man, invested some of his money in an Jamaican sugar plantation where the profits were based on slave labor.

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