The family of former Prime Minister William Gladstone is being asked to give money to Jamaica as compensation for what their ancestor did during the time of slavery.
The Gladstone family said sorry for owning slaves in Guyana in the past and promised to provide money for the study of slavery and other projects at an event on Friday.
However, the family has been accused of not recognizing the need to provide compensation for the effects of slavery in Jamaica.
The family said to the BBC that right now they are only thinking about Guyana.
The Gladstones said, “There is a lot to do here in Guyana. ”
John Gladstone, who was the father of William Gladstone, a highly respected prime minister of the UK, owned many slaves in the British West Indies.
The University of London’s (UCL) Legacies of British Slavery database reveals that John Gladstone, in the 1800s, had ownership or mortgages on 2,508 enslaved people in Guyana and Jamaica.
He received over £100,000 as payment after the British Parliament made a law to end slavery in many British colonies in 1833. He was given £15,052 for 806 enslaved people in Jamaica.
Charlie Gladstone, who is the great-great-grandson of William Gladstone, said sorry to Guyana for his family’s involvement in slavery. He called slavery a terrible crime and recognized that it still affects people’s lives today.
He said that the family agreed with and supported a plan suggested by Caribbean countries that had ten different points regarding reparations.
But they did not talk about John Gladstone owning slaves in Jamaica during the ceremony in Guyana on Friday, and they also did not mention it in the family’s statement last week when they said sorry and promised to donate.
According to Verene Shepherd, who is the director at the Centre for Reparation Research at the University of the West Indies, John Gladstone had important land and buildings in Jamaica.
She said that the Gladstone family needs to go to where the crime happened and say sorry to the people who live there.
The professor of social history from Jamaica advised the family of Gladstone to “pledge to give reparations, like they are doing in Guyana.”
Reparations are given as compensation for something that was considered wrong or unfair. It can come in many different ways.
The Gladstones promised to give £100,000 to the University of Guyana’s International Institute for Migration and Diaspora Studies. The institute started last week.
In Guyana, the family promised to provide money to help with different projects in the country and support UCL’s Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery for five years.
Prof Shepherd said that since they have realized they have been ignored, he believes Jamaica should reach out to someone or take action in some way.
The BBC has learned that Jamaica’s National Council on Reparations is talking about the Gladstone case and thinking about what they should do.
The council has not talked to the Gladstone family yet.
John Gladstone was a wealthy Scottish businessman who became very rich by owning sugar farms and having people work for him without their freedom. This happened before slavery was officially ended.
His important role in the industry influenced the political career and reputation of his son, William Gladstone. William’s opinion about slavery changed throughout his life.
In his first speech to Parliament, the Liberal prime minister supported plantation owners’ rights, but later stated that slavery was the worst crime in history.
William Gladstone was a leader of the Liberal party who served as the prime minister of the United Kingdom on four separate occasions in the 19th century.
The Gladstones are a family from Britain and they are the most recent descendants of people who owned slaves in the past. Recently, they have been trying to make up for the wrongs done by their ancestors.
During the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, people became more aware of the family’s historical connection to slavery.
Since that time, a few people in the family have joined a group called the Heirs of Slavery. This group is made up of British individuals whose families made money from the slave trade across the Atlantic. They now want to do something to make up for the wrongs of the past.
Other people in the group are Laura Trevelyan, a former journalist from the BBC, and her family. They said sorry to Grenada and pledged to give £100,000 as compensation in February this year.
In a recent interview, United Nations Judge Patrick Robinson expressed doubt about these families.
He said that the amount of money paid for reparations should depend on how many slaves John Gladstone owned and how much his family financially gained from this.
He said he would be ready to request a calculation from the Brattle Group, a company that studies economics and made a report on the money that states should pay for their role in slavery.
“If people want it to be taken seriously and not just as a symbolic action, they need to determine the reparations that are owed,” Mr. Robinson stated
The Brattle Group Report, written by Mr. Robinson, suggested that the UK should give $24 trillion (£18. 8 trillion) as compensation for its role in slavery in 14 different countries.
Robert Beckford, a professor at the University of Winchester, suggested that the Gladstones should do a similar calculation to show how much money they actually owe.
The professor said that instead of giving money to a university for more research, he would have “liked it better if they talked to community organizers or reparations groups, to figure out the best way to move forward. ”
He liked the Gladstone apology in Guyana, but he thought it was wrong that Jamaica wasn’t acknowledged. He felt that this showed that the country didn’t want to confront and accept the terrible and cruel reality of chattel slavery.