Commenting on the recent renewed debate about reparations for colonisation and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade that came out of Prime Minster Sir Keir Starmer's attendance at the Commonwealth summit, Conservative Party leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick claimed the former colonies owed the UK a "debt of gratitude for the inheritance we left them".

His remarks have been widely criticised. Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Afrikan Reparations said: “These comments are deeply offensive and an obnoxious distortion of history. Enslavement and colonialism were not ‘gifts’ but imposed systems that brutally exploited people, extracted wealth, and dismantled societies, all for the benefit of Britain. To suggest that former colonies should be ‘grateful’ for such unimaginable harm disregards the legacy of these injustices and the long-term impact they still have on many nations today.”
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Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, a lawyer and activist, described Mr Jenrick as a “political illiterate”, adding: “Britain would be nothing without colonised African and Asian nations.”

Read more here.

Reviewing the actual history, commentator Sean O'Grady, said: "In most of the empire... the British did not spend much time on building democratic institutions, and economic development was for the benefit of the mother country; a cheap source of food, raw materials and indeed troops in two world wars. Many colonies had been “independent” in the sense of not being dominated by anyone, and even if they were it doesn’t make it OK for the Europeans to take over. Their borders were defined by the people who lived there, and not by arbitrary lines on maps drawn by statesmen at international conferences in Europe. The scramble for Africa, in particular, left many future independent states politically unstable and economically unviable as a result of decisions made in London, Berlin, Paris, Lisbon and Madrid. By the time the British were forced out of their imperial possessions, many of these nations were poorly prepared for self-rule and some, notably British India, Ireland and Palestine, were partitioned with long-lasting consequences."

King Charles has given his support for research into the monarchy's links with the slave trade for the first time as an American historian unearthed a a ledger which reveals his predecessor King William III was given shares in the Royal African Company - transatlantic slaving firm - by Bristolian slave trader Edward Colston in 1689. Buckingham Palace said “This is an issue that His Majesty takes profoundly seriously. As His Majesty told the Commonwealth heads of government reception in Rwanda last year: ‘I cannot describe the depths of my personal sorrow at the suffering of so many, as I continue to deepen my own understanding of slavery’s enduring impact.’" The document, published by The Guardian was found in a royal archive by Virginia-based historian Dr Brooke Newman. Dr Newman's research is being supported through access to the royal collection and the royal archives

MJR welcomes this bringing of another piece of hidden shameful history into the light and looks forward to the results of the research. Read more in this Guardian article, and in this Daily Mail article (which states King Charles was "forced to support probe into royal family's slavery links".)

A new exhibition in the library at Lambeth Palace includes artefacts such as a “slave bible” with passages relating to freedom and escape removed and documents revealing the Church of England’s involvement in a fund linked to transatlantic chattel slavery It is the latest step in a wide-ranging programme of work launched in 2019 that aims to “address past wrongs” by researching the church’s historical links to the slave trade.

The Queen Anne’s Bounty fund, set up on 1704 to tackle poverty among clergymen, made significant investments in the South Sea Company, which the church knew was involved in purchasing and transporting enslaved people as its main commercial activity between 1714 and 1739. This fund has grown into the £9bn managed by the Church Commissioners out of which a new fund of £100m was set up last month to support projects “focused on improving opportunities for communities adversely impacted by historic slavery”.

This article by Nadine White, race correspondent for The Independent is headlined: 'The Commonwealth Games are rooted in slavery – let’s consign the event to history'. Despite being a fan of sport, White says this particular event "sticks in my throat because the Commonwealth, as an institution, is rooted in chattel slavery and the brutalisation of African people."

She continues: "After the abolition of slavery in 1833, financially prosperous Britain skipped off into the sunset without investing in the economies of its former sources of slaves in any meaningful way – and those left behind in the former colonies have grappled with poverty and destitution ever since. Britain paid nothing to the freed slaves in an attempt to redress the injustices they suffered."

Most of the 56 member states of the Commonwealth are former British colonies. But "the wealth is not common. ... The Commonwealth purports to be about 'promoting justice and human rights', yet reparatory justice for chattel slavery, a heinous crime perpetrated against African people by colonialists, has not been paid." The Commonwealth Games should be: "scrapped and replaced with a sporting event that isn’t bonded by racial trauma against a backdrop of Eurocentric denialism".

Read the full article here.

Research by the Church Commissioners into a Church of England investment fund has revealed that for over a century it invested large sums of money in a company responsible for transporting slaves. 'Queen Anne's Bounty' was formed in 1704 to help support poor clergy. In 1739 its accounts showed £204,000 (estimated to be worth £443m today) had been invested in the South Sea Company which had an exclusive contract to transport slaves from Africa to Spanish colonies in South America for more than 30 years from the 1710s. Church investments in the South Sea Company continued well into the 19th century and the fund today is worth £10.1bn.

Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby has said he was "deeply sorry for the links". "This abominable trade took men, women and children created in God's image and stripped them of their dignity and freedom. The fact that some within the Church actively supported and profited from it is a source of shame. It is only by facing this painful reality that we can take steps towards genuine healing and reconciliation - the path that Jesus Christ calls us to walk."

Read more here and here. Read the Church Commissioners report here.

MJR's documentary ‘After the Flood: the church, slavery and reconciliation' reveals more of this history of complicity with colonial slavery on the part of the Church of England and other churches, and also talks about the reconciliation Justin Welby speaks of. Find out more here.

During the ceremony marking Barbados’s historic transition to a republic, Prince Charles referred to the “appalling atrocity of slavery”, describing the period as the “darkest days of our past” and adding that, moving forward, the “creation of this republic offers a new beginning”. Though this was welcomed by some as a bold statement, it stopped short of an apology and was felt to be  a missed opportunity to make amends, on behalf of all that he represents, for the impact of slavery, a system in which Britain played a leading role. Britain’s entire infrastructure, and that of all its institutions, was built off the backs of enslaved black people.

As the legacy of slavery continue to violently reverberate across generations of black people, any form of apology or reparations from the crown or the British government have yet to be received. Writing in the Independent, Nadine White says: "There’s more work to be done in truly escaping the grips of colonialism and reclaiming a sense of black identity, above and beyond the brutal corridors of our past, even if that aspect of the journey will forever be included in the story. Those who benefit from the plight of black people, whether inadvertently or otherwise, ought to take responsibility because simply stating facts isn’t going to cut it. That cannot buy bread."
Read the full article here.

Recently on BBC's Antiques Roadshow, this gentleman, getting some silver sugar containers and tools valued, told the viewing public about how Wilberforce’s campaign to abolish slavery “immediately” in 1791 was delayed by Henry Dundas’s decision to do it “gradually”, so setting back abolition for 15 years.

“We’ve calculated that about 630,000 Africans were transported into slavery on the basis of one word: gradual. While slaves were working and dying, people in Britain were consuming the sugar – in those bowls and with those tongs. And to me, those silver bowls tell us the sort of things we do in order to make money and to have a lifestyle that we think we deserve.”

The valuer’s response: “Hugely poignant. I have to say I’ve never really stopped to consider that link with the slave trade and it is deeply moving. I don’t think I can look at silver sugar basins in the same way again.”

​Well done sir!

A 157-page audit by Historic England, the public body responsible for preserving buildings and monuments, has identified hundreds of sites around Britain with links to the slave trade, including schools, farms, pubs and gravestones. The list includes halls, churches and entire villages have been linked to the “transatlantic slavery economy”. 

The research “identified the tangible presence of England’s slavery past in buildings, houses, streets, industrial heritage, urban fabrics and rural landscapes”. The report states: "The transatlantic slavery economy was invested in the built environment of the local area in housing, civic society organisations, churches, village halls, farms, shooting lodges, hotels." As an example, Nunnington in North Yorkshire has been included because a slaver built a school and houses there.

Completed last summer, just after the toppling of statue of Edward Colston, the report is more comprehensive than the National Trust review limited to stately homes, but still does not address all "tombs, monuments and memorials of individuals and families made wealthy from associations with the Atlantic slave economy"

Historic England said the audit would “identify significant gaps in knowledge that can be targeted ... to produce a more complete picture of the impact of Atlantic slavery on the built environment in England”

Conservative MP Nigel Mills has accused the report of being a "Waste of time", claiming: “What happened hundreds of years ago was wrong. But we don’t need to constantly berate ourselves for it.”

Read more here and here.  Download the report here.

The Interest: How the British Establishment Resisted the Abolition of Slavery is a new book by Michael Taylor. After the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, 800,000 enslaved people continued to work in the British colonies producing sugar and other commodities for the home market. Slavery remained central to Britain’s economic and strategic interests, and resistance to further reform meant a 26 year delay to the abolition of slavery in the colonies. This was led by “The West India Interest”, a pro-slavery elite involving wealthy planters, hundreds of MPs, civil servants, financiers, landowners, clergymen, judges and military chiefs, including publisher John Murray, The Spectator magazine, William Gladstone, the Duke of Wellington, Robert Peel and George Canning. Taylor explains that racism went hand-in-hand with the business, because people needed a way to rationalise slavery to themselves. They were helped by clergy who associated white and lighter skins with Christian concepts of “goodness” and purity and black skin with darkness and evil.

This review says: "Taylor’s magnificent book opens a window onto a most shameful commerce." Another reviewer comments: "In an era when black history is at last being given its rightful due, Taylor’s potent book shows why slavery took root as an essential part of British national life and why to remember it otherwise is 'misleading and self-serving'”.

Read more here.

With the help of advisor and founding trustee, Dr Clifford Hill, MJR has written a response to the recent publication by the National Trust of a report showing connections between 93 of its historic places and colonialism and historic slavery.

The report is welcomed, particularly the statement: “We believe that only by honestly and openly acknowledging and sharing those stories can we do justice to the true complexity of past, present and future, and the sometimes uncomfortable role that Britain, and Britons, have played in global history since the 16th century or even earlier.” 
The National Trust say that 29 of the properties now in their care have direct links with colonial slavery and the slave trade, and about one third of all their properties have some kind of connection to colonialism. The hope is expressed that the National Trust research will lead to the establishment of a positive programme of dealing with the vast number of buildings, statues and plaques that have links with British colonial history and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

Read the full response here. Read the National Trust report here.