The Gladstone family is right to apologise for its links with slavery

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From today's Observer:

The family of one of Britain’s most famous prime ministers will travel to the Caribbean this week to apologise for its historical role in slavery.

Six of William Gladstone’s descendants will arrive in Guyana on Thursday as the country commemorates the 200th anniversary of a rebellion by enslaved people that historians say paved the way for abolition.

Charles Gladstone, whose family will travel to the Caribbean this week to apologise for its slave-owning past.

The education and career of William Gladstone, the 19th-century politician known for his liberal and reforming governments, were funded by enslaved Africans working on his father’s sugar plantations in the Caribbean.

As well as making an official apology for John Gladstone’s ownership of Africans, the 21st-century Gladstones have agreed to pay reparations to fund further research into the impact of slavery.

The Gladstones are from being the only landed family whose fortune was founded in enterprises built on slavery, but I have not come across another one acting in this principled way.

Another piece in the Observer reminds us that the Conservative MP Richard Drax inherited and controlled one of the biggest plantations in Barbados where his ancestors were the driving force behind plantation slavery. They also owned slave ships. The MP for South Dorset, who is worth about £150m, refuses to apologise for his ancestors' role or offer reparations.

But the Gladstones are clear:

Charlie Gladstone, 59, who lives in Hawarden Castle, the north Wales home of his great-great grandfather William, said: "John Gladstone committed crimes against humanity. That is absolutely clear. The best that we can do is try to make the world a better place and one of the first things is to make that apology for him.

"He was a vile man. He was greedy and domineering. We have no excuses for him. But it’s fairly clear to me that however you address it, a lot of my family’s privilege has stemmed from John Gladstone."

When looking at Britain's past we tend to be selective in what we are associate ourselves with. It's a territory thick with irregular verbs: we defeated Hitler, but I have nothing to do with slavery.

And as Eric Williams, the first prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, observed:

The British historians wrote almost as if Britain had introduced Negro slavery solely for the satisfaction of abolishing it.

So I salute the Gladstones for what they are doing. You can read about the Demerara Rebellion in the Observer too.