Dozens of NFL players for the Baltimore Ravens and Jacksonville Jaguars showed a unified front on Sunday and kneeled as the national anthem played during the start of their game in London, defying President Trump’s attacks on the league’s athletes.

Those who were not kneeling, including the coaches on both teams and Jaguars owner Shahid Khan, locked arms during the national anthem at the game in London’s Wembley Stadium. Players taking a knee during the performance included Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs and C.J. Mosley, wide receiver Mike Wallace and safety Lardarius Webb as well as Jaguars running back Leonard Fournette, linebacker Dante Fowler, defensive tackle Calais Campbell, defensive end Yannick Ngakoue and cornerback Jalen Ramsey.

The players then stood up for “God Save the Queen,” the British anthem.

History of slave trade:

The establishment of the Royal African Company in 1672 formalised the Slave Trade under a royal charter and gave a monopoly to the port of London. The ports of Bristol and Liverpool, in particular, lobbied to have the charter changed and, in 1698, the monopoly was taken away.

British involvement expanded rapidly in response to the demand for labour to cultivate sugar in Barbados and other British West Indian islands. In the 1660s, the number of slaves taken from Africa in British ships averaged 6,700 per year. By the 1760s, Britain was the foremost European country engaged in the Slave Trade. Of the 80,000 Africans chained and shackled and transported across to the Americas each year, 42,000 were carried by British slave ships.