King Charles said in Barbados in 2021 that the period of Britain’s involvement in the slave trade was the "darkest days of our past". Photo / Getty Images
Caribbean nations are to formally demand slavery reparations from the Royal family, The Telegraph can reveal.
Lloyds of London and the Church of England are also set to be approached with demands for reparative justice for their role in the slave trade and plantation system.
National reparations commissions in the Caribbean want to bypass the British Government and pursue financial payments directly from British institutions with historical links to slavery.
It is understood that formal letters are being prepared to put the case for reparations to these institutions by the end of 2023.
The shift in strategy, from pursuing government agreements to seeking institutional reparations, is inspired in part by Laura Trevelyan, the former BBC correspondent, who has given £100,000 (NZD$211,600) to atone for her family’s ancestral slave holdings, illustrating that arrangements can be made below the state level.
Speaking to The Telegraph in Grenada, Arley Gill, a lawyer and chair of the island nation’s Reparations Commission, said: “We are hoping that King Charles will revisit the issue of reparations and make a more profound statement beginning with an apology, and that he would make resources from the Royal family available for reparative justice.”
“He should make some money available. We are not saying that he should starve himself and his family, and we are not asking for trinkets.
“But we believe we can sit around a table and discuss what can be made available for reparative justice.”
He added that the duty to offer reparations lay “at all levels, banks, churches, insurance companies like Lloyds, and universities and colleges that benefited”.
Research by Desirée Baptiste, the writer and researcher, recently revealed that the King is the direct descendant of Edward Porteous, a merchant who used slave labour on tobacco plantations in Virginia.
The Royal family as an institution also played a direct part in founding the slave-trading Royal African Company, from which it earned a return, and the Palace has said it will support further research into the family’s links to the trade.
In 2021, the King spoke on the occasion of Barbados becoming a republic, calling the period of Britain’s involvement in the slave trade the “darkest days of our past”.
However, there has been no formal apology, in contrast to the Dutch king who this year made a formal statement on his nation’s links to slavery.
Lloyds of London has accepted that it played a key role in insuring shipping, including underwriting slaves as part of a ship’s cargo.
Barclays and RBS are among the banks that had a direct link to the slave trade, whether through finance or the slave ownership of their directors.
Leading figures in the Church of England owned slaves, the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel invested in Barbados plantations, and the fund for poorer clergy, titled Queen Anne’s Bounty, was supported by investments in the slave-trading South Sea Company.
The Telegraph has learned that these leading British institutions are set to receive formal demands being prepared by the Reparations Commission for St Vincent and the Grenadines, whose chair also sits on the reparations commission for Caricom (Caribbean Community), a political and economic union of 15 regional member states.
Adrian Odle, a lawyer and commission chair, told The Telegraph that British institutions are compromised by their ancestral guilt, saying “every property that the royal family is in possession of has the scent of slavery”.
He will push to bypass the UK Government, which has so far not been receptive to the idea of reparations, and demand insulation restitution with formal letters set to be drafted and delivered by December.
It is understood that Ms Trevelyan’s personal pledge of £100,00 for her family’s ancestral slave profiteering has “opened a can of worms” in the strategising of Caricom nations, which have until now been focussed on governmental agreements.
Reparations experts in the region now see the virtue in attempting to “outflank” the British Government by agreeing reparations deals with individual families and institutions, in a new approach which sources have said could be used to exert political pressure on Rishi Sunak and future UK leaders.
Gill, who is considering how Grenada could pursue reparations in future, said: “I would say that since the Laura Trevelyan initiative, there has been a buzz among our leaders in the Caribbean that this thing ought to happen and should happen.
“Our leaders have seen that this thing is feasible. When we spoke of reparations five years ago, ten years ago, in some circles we were laughed at.”
On the institutional pressure that could be exerted, he added: “They can force the Government’s hand to do the right thing. But the Government must do the right thing.
“What we are asking for is not charity. It’s not about the British aid programme. We are saying that you must pay your debt, which is not a hand out: it is an obligation morally and legally.”
This view has been contested by many, including writer Douglas Murray, who argue that as no one in the present was involved with slavery, reparations payments as atonement would be morally questionable.