Late last week, the decade-old effort by the 15-nation Caribbean Community to force European nations to apologize for the transatlantic slave trade and pay reparations received an interesting boost when descendants of one of the United Kingdom’s largest slave- and plantation-owning families formally apologized for the sins of their ancestors and pledged to push the Britain’s royal family and government to commence reparations talks with the region.
Charles Gladstone, representing 19th-century Scottish planter and slave trader John Gladstone, flew to Guyana, the headquarters nation of Caricom, to say that today’s generation of Gladstones regrets the involvement of their ancestors in the brutal and genocidal slave trade, pledging to collaborate with the regional reparations movement to effect change back in the U.K. in the near future. He was accompanied by five other younger family members as well as former BBC journalist Laura Trevelyan, whose family had earlier this year apologized to Grenada for a similar role held by her ancestors. One hundred and four family members signed the family petition saying they regretted slavery.
“It is with deep shame and regret that we acknowledge our ancestor’s involvement in this crime, and with heartfelt sincerity, we apologize to the descendants of the enslaved in Guyana. In doing so, we acknowledge slavery’s continuing impact on the daily lives of many. In apologizing for the actions of our ancestors, we hope to work towards a better future,” Charles Gladstone told a University of Guyana ceremony that was boycotted by senior representatives of Guyana’s Indo-dominated government. “Slavery was a crime against humanity, and its damaging impact continues to be felt across the world today. We understand that we cannot change history, but we believe that we can have an impact on the world in which we live. In apologizing for the actions of our ancestors, we hope to work towards a better future,” he said.
On Saturday, local African organizations exposed the Gladstones to a ceremony to apologize to African ancestors and beg for their forgiveness. Some speakers urged the visitors to seriously consider giving up some of their wealth to organizations in Guyana.
John Gladstone was an absentee planter who had never set foot in Guyana or the Caribbean but had owned more than 2,500 enslaved people in Guyana on a number of sugar and coffee plantations, not the least being one at Success Village on Guyana’s east coast. There, slaves rose in a freedom revolt back in August of 1823, but planters brutally crushed the two-day effort. Dozens of those enslaved were killed; others fled to the bushes while the severed heads of many were planted on poles all the way to the city, about seven miles away, as a lesson to others with similar ideas.
Local organizers showed the Gladstones what remains of plantation success Saturday, showing them the large village nameplate sign that identifies the village on the coast, now dominated by private homes and mom-and-pop shops.
The Gladstone apology came almost nine months after the Dutch government apologized for slavery in the Republic of Suriname and Dutch colonies like St. Maarten in the Caribbean. Dutch King Willem-Alexander has also offered regrets.
As the struggle continues, authorities in Barbados are engaging British lawmaker Richard Drax and family members on their role in slavery and plantation cruelties on the Eastern Caribbean island centuries ago. In fact, the Drax family still owns a plantation and other lands in Barbados, so theirs could be the next big thing in the reparations movement, officials say.
Meanwhile, Charles Gladstone says the family will create a fund for various unnamed projects in Guyana as part of a “meaningful and long-term relationship between our family and the people of Guyana. In writing this heartfelt apology, we also acknowledge Sir John Gladstone’s role in bringing indentured laborers to Guyana and apologize for the clear and manifold injustices of this.”
