Voluntary payments by descendants of British slave-owning families are adding a personal dimension to Caribbean reparations demands, as a royal visit and a 2027 court hearing keep the debate in view.
Laura Trevelyan, a former BBC journalist and co-founder of Heirs of Slavery, said records connected her relatives to claims for plantation property after Britain abolished slavery in 1833, AFP reported. “I was clueless,” Trevelyan told AFP. She said she and relatives directed about £100,000 ($133,000) to education projects. AFP reported that Trevelyan apologized publicly in Grenada in 2023.
Charlie Gladstone, another co-founder, also apologized publicly in Guyana in 2023, AFP reported. Gladstone is a descendant of former Prime Minister William Gladstone; AFP said William’s father, John, was among the leading slave owners in the British West Indies. The Gladstone, Lascelles and Trevelyan families accumulated wealth through plantation ownership in the West Indies and South America, AFP reported.
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Reparations Commission’s Ten-Point Plan calls for monetary compensation, debt cancellation and a full apology. Guyana President Irfaan Ali has urged discussion of reparations and an apology, including possible debt relief and funding for education, health care and climate adaptation.
AFP reported that the UK government again rejected calls for slavery reparations in September. It also said members of the modern royal family have voiced regret, but the family has not formally apologized. A Buckingham Palace spokesman said King Charles III would acknowledge the “darkest days” of colonial rule and slavery during his trip.
AFP said reparations are likely to be raised during Charles’ Caribbean visit. His itinerary includes the Bahamas and Guyana, as well as an address to the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Antigua and Barbuda; the tour begins Tuesday. The summit has already become part of the reparations debate: EconoTimes previously reported on Beckles’ appeal for Charles to support summit talks on reparatory justice.
Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, chair of CARICOM’s Reparations Commission, put the death toll at as many as 30,000 enslaved people on Drax plantations in Barbados and Jamaica across two centuries, AFP reported. Former Conservative lawmaker Richard Drax opposes reparations, AFP reported. The Drax family founded its Barbados estate in the mid-17th century, AFP reported. Drax has called their role in the slave trade “deeply, deeply regrettable” and said people today cannot be held responsible for events centuries ago.
Britain’s Privy Council is expected to hear Jamaica’s petition in 2027. The petition asks whether English law permitted the capture and forced transport of Africans to Jamaica and their enslavement, and whether the UK owes Jamaicans a remedy.
