British aristocrats push King Charles for reparations : NPR
On Feb., 27, Laura Trevelyan and members of her household traveled to Grenada to situation a proper apology.
courtesy of The College of the West Indies/Laura Trevelyan
cover caption
toggle caption
courtesy of The College of the West Indies/Laura Trevelyan
On Feb., 27, Laura Trevelyan and members of her household traveled to Grenada to situation a proper apology.
courtesy of The College of the West Indies/Laura Trevelyan
When Laura Trevelyan, a longtime anchor and correspondent with the BBC, started reckoning together with her circle of relatives historical past, she was shocked. “It appears fairly extraordinary that my ancestors enslaved Africans on the Caribbean island of Grenada,” she says, and that even after slavery was abolished by the British parliament, not one of the households of the enslaved acquired reparations. To Trevelyan, its “extraordinary” that nobody paid reparations to the households of greater than a thousand Africans who have been enslaved by her ancestors throughout six plantations on Grenada.
That’s why she felt compelled to assist discovered a brand new reparations effort. She linked up with like David Lascelles, who’s a second cousin of King Charles III and inheritor to an property constructed on earnings from the slave and sugar trades on the island of Barbados.
They co-founded a bunch referred to as Heirs of Slavery, which inspires rich British households who profited from previous enslavement to make formal apologies and search reparative justice within the former Caribbean colonies.
Members of the Trevelyan household on the Reparations Discussion board 2023 in Grenada, signing and presenting a proper apology.
Reynaldo Bernard/Laura Trevelyan
cover caption
toggle caption
Reynaldo Bernard/Laura Trevelyan
Members of the Trevelyan household on the Reparations Discussion board 2023 in Grenada, signing and presenting a proper apology.
Reynaldo Bernard/Laura Trevelyan
In a interval of greater than 150 years, it’s estimated that the British Empire traded 3.1 million Africans to the Caribbean, North and South America and elsewhere. The slave commerce was abolished by Britain’s parliament in 1807. An act of emancipation was handed in 1833. However Trevelyan says it wasn’t till 2016 when College Faculty London printed a web based database of compensation that she found a startling injustice.
Enslavement, abolition and compensation
“It wasn’t the enslaved who acquired compensation. It was the slave house owners who have been paid as a result of that was the one method that abolition may get via Britain’s parliament,” Trevelyan tells NPR’s Michel Martin. “What was already a horrific scenario was then made much more unfair.”
Trevelyan and Lascelles say they discovered their ancestors earned the equal of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in compensation when slavery was abolished. Trevelyan has donated a portion of her BBC pension to reparations and, in February, she and different members of the family traveled to Grenada to make a proper apology.
Trevelyan household’s letter of apology introduced to the prime minister of Grenada
Laura Trevelyan
cover caption
toggle caption
Laura Trevelyan
Trevelyan household’s letter of apology introduced to the prime minister of Grenada
Laura Trevelyan
Lascelles, who’s a descendant of George V and a household that constructed Yorkshire’s Harewood Home, tells Morning Version he found a lot of his ancestors’ historical past via containers of archival papers associated to companies within the former British West Indies and saved on his household’s property.
“They have been in very, very fragile situation. They have been in containers that [were] shoved behind a boiler within the basement of the home. However clearly, as soon as it was out within the open, I’ve made it very clear that it was one thing we needed to handle and communicate overtly about,” Lascelles says.
Lobbying the royal household
Trevelyan says she and different members of rich British households need to set an instance via “coalition constructing.” They usually’re asking King Charles to affix them. Though Lascelles says he and the king don’t have a private relationship, he predicts Charles is prone to be open concerning the royal household’s personal discoveries.
“They’re researching their very own historical past and they’re speaking overtly about that and even given a timescale and when the type of fruits of that analysis will occur,” Lascelles says.
The group can also be calling on the British authorities to interact with CARICOM, the Caribbean governments reparations fee, which asks the previous colonial powers for debt aid and for funding in well being and training.
Grenada Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell and Laura Trevelyan on the Reparations Discussion board in Feb. 2023 in Grenada
Reynaldo Bernard/College of West Indies
cover caption
toggle caption
Reynaldo Bernard/College of West Indies
Grenada Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell and Laura Trevelyan on the Reparations Discussion board in Feb. 2023 in Grenada
Reynaldo Bernard/College of West Indies
“These are areas the place the Caribbean was left with nothing when emancipation occurred and slavery ended,” Trevelyan says.
Trevelyan factors to a “lengthy overdue reckoning” with reparations funds established by entities from the Dutch authorities to the Church of England. Though most individuals within the U.S. oppose reparations, Trevelyan hopes it will likely be completely different in Europe.
“It’s ugly and it’s tough,” says Trevelyan. “But it surely’s essential to speak about how the current is outlined by the previous. And acknowledgement is hopefully the start of therapeutic.”
“It’s about duty in the long run, isn’t it?” Lascelles says.
Jan Johnson and H.J. Mai contributed modifying.
