According to Scottish author Alex Renton, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s revelation regarding his family’s involvement in the slave trade highlights the necessity of discussing the harm this terrible period in world history caused to generations of people and working to make amends.
Archbishop Justin Welby revealed in a statement on October 21 that he had lately learned that his late father, Sir Anthony Montague Browne, had a family history of enslaving people in Jamaica and Tobago.
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He stated, “His great, great grandfather was Sir James Fergusson, an owner of enslaved people at the Rozelle Plantation in St Thomas, Jamaica. While I sadly only discovered my relationship to Sir Anthony in 2016, three years after his death, I did have the delight of meeting my half-sister and her son.”
Welby stated that his most recent journey to Jamaica “has helped me to confront the legacies of enslavement in the Caribbean and the responsibility owed to those who still suffer from the effects of this evil trade.”
He expressed gratitude to everyone who has dedicated their time to this field of study.
According to Welby, a large number of these individuals are descended from slaves.
“I reiterate the Church Commissioners’ commitment to a thorough and accurate research programme, in the knowledge that archives have far more to tell us about what has come before us – often in a very personal way. I give thanks to God for this journey.”
Renton learned that the Fergussons, a branch of his family, were involved in the slave trade.
In 2021, he authored a book titled “Blood Legacy: Reckoning with a Family’s Story of Slavery.”
Renton traveled to Jamaica and Tobago to see the family’s holdings.
Scottish author Alex Renton is urging individuals who profited from the transatlantic slave trade to make amends for the harm it caused.
The Carrick Estate in Bloody Bay in Tobago was owned by the Fergussons of Kilkerran from 1770 until the 1790s.
Up to 70 Africans and children were held as slaves there at any given time.
From 1760 to 1865, they also shared ownership of the Rozelle sugar plantation in Jamaica.
There were 198 slaves employed there at its peak.
According to the information Renton supplied, “The Fergussons shared compensation with their co-owners, the Hunter-Blair family, of £3,591 8s, 8d in 1836 for giving up their enslaved ‘property’ when Britain abolished slavery between 1833 and 1838.”
Renton stated in a statement, “The story of British enslavement of Africans isn’t over. The legacies are still affecting lives in UK and all over the Caribbean. It was a racist enterprise, backed by British law and the British state and it is time we faced up to this past and our debts.”
He continued, “‘Members of the family have been making personal donations towards repair initiatives since our generation became aware of the Fergusson history in transatlantic slavery a few years ago.”
“We give as we can to educational organizations and to support youth and economic empowerment efforts in Tobago, Jamaica, and the UK.”
Sir Adam Fergusson, the tenth baronet, gave a separate statement on the family’s behalf, saying, “The Archbishop’s connection with the family is a surprise to us all. It is sobering that, five or six generations on, very large numbers of us will have links, known and unknown, to this terrible phase of our history.”
He went on to say that the family’s history of slavery is a terrible aspect of it.
“The links have been very fully researched and written about in recent years, as part of the long overdue wider awareness of Ayrshire’s, Scotland’s and Britain’s role.”
“The Archbishop’s connection with the family is a surprise to us all. It is sobering that, five or six generations on, very large numbers of us will have links, known and unknown, to this terrible phase of our history.”
According to Renton, the UK is indirectly involved in this issue because of its obligation to own its role in slavery and the demand for reparations.
This “terrible crime against humanity in Jamaica and Tobago, that many African people had been treated like animals and died horribly” was something his family acknowledged three or four years ago, he said.
Renton stated, “This is an awful part of history that still affects people in the UK, people in Tobago today.”
He went on to say that racism made this possible.
Along with Laura Trevelyan, Charles Gladstone, David Lascelles, and others, Renton founded the Heirs of Slavery organization.
The organization seeks to persuade other families that benefited financially from slavery to own up to their past, provide an apology, and back reparations initiatives in the Caribbean and Europe.
On October 20, Dr. Claudius Fergus, the head of the T&T National Reparations Committee, challenged a recent British government stance that reparations were not up for discussion at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa.
October 21 marked the start of the CHOGM, which will conclude on October 26.
The Prime Minister stated that Caricom plans to speak “forcefully” on the reparations issue at the CHOGM at Emancipation Day celebrations in Port of Spain.
Dr. Rowley stated that Caricom was anticipating the response from the incoming British Labour administration on this matter before departing to attend the CHOGM on October 21.
