A GROUP of heirs and successors of British slaveowners calling on King Charles and the Royal Family to follow their example and “Apologise for Slavery” and begin a process of “Reparative Justice” for the Caribbean, is also interested in doing the same in Guyana.

Among the group calling itself ‘Heirs of Slavery’ is Charles Gladstone, a second cousin of King Charles and a direct descendant of Prime Minister William Gladstone.

Today’s Gladstone, whose ancestors also owned plantations in then British Guiana, said, in a written statement to the UK press, that he joined the group “in an attempt to begin to address the appalling ills visited on so many people by my ancestor John Gladstone.”

John Gladstone, father of the prime minister William Gladstone (who served for 12 years over four non-consecutive terms from 1868 to 1894), was paid £106,000 compensation (worth at least £17m today) after the official Abolition of Slavery in the UK in 1834.

The Gladstone slave-owning family also paved the way for the start of Indentureship in the Caribbean, first through Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago, securing Indian labour to replace the unchained slaves after the successive ‘Abolition’, ‘Emancipation’ and ‘Apprenticeship’ schemes ended in the mid-1800s.

The ‘Heirs’ are among a few but growing number of representatives of UK families with slavery links committing to help push the Caribbean governments’ reparations agenda in the UK and the Caribbean.

They launched ‘Heirs’ on April 24, to lobby the UK government to acknowledge and atone for its role in the kidnap and transfer of 3.1 million enslaved Africans to its West Indian colonies during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.

They also want to convince the thousands of other UK (English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh) families also paid slavery reparations to join or follow their example and make family amends, even though 199 years later.

The ‘Heirs’ are also calling King Charles to engage with the 14 Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Governments that officially called almost a decade ago (November 2013) for the UK and European nations that built empires off slavery to start a dialogue about Reparations.

Approaching a decade later, neither the UK nor the European Union (EU) has afforded the 14 CARICOM leaders even an acknowledgement, far-less a long-overdue collective response.

However, the CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC) hasn’t been just sitting on its hands — or laurels.

Charged to pursue CARICOM’s 10-Point Plan for Reparatory Justice, the CRC held its 30th Quarterly meeting on April 25, where members also discussed the ‘Heirs’ and their role in supporting CARICOM’s reparations quest.

But the ‘Heirs’ have already started establishing Caribbean reparations connections.

On February 27, with the co-operation of the CRC and its Chair, Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Sir Hilary Beckles, the Trevelyan Family opened a private family fund in Grenada with 100,000 Pounds Sterling (equivalent of US $100,000).

The Trevelyan fund will be used for mainly educational purposes and will continue to be contributed to by family members, over 100 of whom signed a formal apology and related pledge, delivered to (and accepted by) Grenada’s Prime Minister and members of the island’s Cabinet, who attended the February ceremony.

The seed money for the Trevelyan Family Fund is actually ex-BBC presenter Laura Trevelyan’s entire retirement pension upon leaving the corporation (after 30 years’ service), to promote Reparations for the Caribbean.

But a lot’s also been happening on the flipside of the penny, including UK parliamentarians calling for peers with links to slavery to examine their consciences — and also engage with CARICOM.

Interestingly, two UK MPs were suspended by their parliamentary parties: a Conservative who said slavery should still be alive and a Laborite for writing a letter to the press with her views on racism in the UK.

Same across The Atlantic in the USA, where last week’s 5th State of the Black World Summit (SOBTW) in Maryland took place against the background of popular TV host ‘Dr Phil’ saying giving hundreds-of-thousands of dollars by way of reparations for poor African Americans would be “an absolute disaster”; and an Ohio Republican candidate saying that if elected, he’ll call for “Reparations for White Americans who died to free Black American slaves…”

But all this isn’t happening just because King Charles or President Biden were awoken by bad dreams.

Instead, it’s because, on both sides of the Atlantic, they’ve smelt the tea and the coffee, with UK public opinion hardening against racism, while the reparations movement continues making waves across America ahead of another presidential election.

Recent polls show more non-white UK citizens (including of Guyanese and Caribbean descent) feel the Royal Family has “a problem with race…”

However, many also feel that Charles, because of his persona, “can make the connection…”

The new king has to manage the Royal Family’s necessary adjustment to the accelerating rise in anti-slavery and pro-reparations sentiments abroad – and at home, accentuated earlier by revelation there was concern in the royal household about how Prince Harry’s first child (with his African-American wife Meghan) would look.

No one needs a research study to prove Buckingham Palace was involved in starting and continues benefitting greatly from riches inherited from Transatlantic Slavery, but King Charles has confirmed commissioning one — and says he’s also likely to consider Reparations.

Now he’s being loudly called-upon by blue-blooded heirs and successors of British slaveowners to apologise, atone and amend.

As with every family that benefitted from slavery, the Royal Household is also divided on Apologies and Reparations for Slavery; and successive UK governments have refused to even entertain discussions on Reparations, for fear of legal consequences of admitting guilt of having committed — and profited eternally from — what the United Nations has designated the “Worst Crime Against Humanity”.

But while Buckingham Palace wonders and ponders, the ‘Heirs of Slavery’ have started apologising and atoning in the Caribbean, starting in Grenada.
Will Guyana be next?