Britain's First and Last Slavery Family:The Drax Heritage and Legacy - Stand Up to Racism Dorset
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2021
- Richard Drax, MP for South Dorset, is owner of the Drax Hall Estate, Barbados. This sugar plantation has been in his family for over 350 years, during which time the owners imposed countless cruelties on enslaved Africans and their descendants.
The Drax family amassed huge wealth from slavery, becoming part of the English landed aristocracy: their Charborough House in Dorset is a Grade 1 listed stately home. Now people of the Caribbean are calling for reparatory justice, including the restoration of Drax Hall Estate to the communities of Barbados.
Professor Sir Hilary Beckles is Chair of the Caricom Reparations Commission (CRC). He says: “The Drax family has done more harm and violence to the black people of Barbados than any other family. The Draxes built and designed and structured slavery.” Stand Up To Racism joins with the CRC in calling for the return of Drax Hall Estate to the people of Barbados.
How can reparatory justice be achieved today? What are the responsibilities of Richard Drax MP?
During my first visit to Barbados in 2016, my daughter and I visited the boundary of Drax Hall. The ruin of the old windmill still stands and sugar remains the crop. The atmosphere is palpable and we both found the sight of it all very distressing. In the silence of a hot afternoon, with a gentle breeze it was impossible not to think about all those people that would have stood in those fields, worked in that unforgiving heat and eventually died. The best we could do was stand in silence and acknowledge the weight of that terrible history that can still be felt today.
Sir, I am a Barbadian living in Ottawa Canada however, I sincerely appreciate the work you are doing. May God bless you tremendously.
Thank you Sir Hilary! I am Barbadian by birth and completed my secondary school education on the island and can't remember hearing anything about this awful family in the history I was taught at school. I am aware, however, where Drax Hall Plantation is located and would agree that the St. George valley is certainly the most fertile part of the island. This has been the most informative forty minutes I have had in quite some time. Cheers brudda!!!
Dr Beckles is a Historian and an outstanding West Indian .
.
Thank you Sir, for educating us
Thank you, Sir Hillary for bringing the Drax Hall story to the attention of all of us. We can only hope that Richard Drax will do what is honorable!
Thanks to you Sir Hillary Beckles, for connecting us with our history and enlightening us with the roles that notorious families, such as Drax has played in Barbados and Jamaica, and why Barbados finally shedding its relationship with Britain.
Big thank you Sir Beckles for educating me about the Drax Hall estate. I am totally lost for word that such evil occurred by the Drax owners. We know the terrible atrocities carried out by the British and to date they have no remorse. It about greed, the sad thing is, its still happening today. Instead there are statues everywhere with those evil abusers. You are right in what you said about doing the opposite of what they did. We need to make this world a better place. This earth belongs to all the good people.
Is it fair though to say that we have no remorse at all? As a British person I certainly do. I am so shocked that we did what Sir Hilary describes. However I don't think that he is fair when he says that there was no morality behind the abolition of the slave trade. Thomas Clarkson devoted most of his life to documenting the horrors of the TransAtlantic slave trade. He almost lost his life in Liverpool when about to be attacked by sailors whose master did not want the truth about slavery to be publicised. Many Christians deeply opposed the trade.
I believe that it is also historically inaccurate to say that slavery was only abolished because it was no longer economically beneficial . If that were so then why did it take so long to abolish it? Why did the Drax family oppose abolition, Sir Hilary? Also why did so many nations continue with the evil trade in sugar plantation slavery long after British abolition? These are huge issues that you overlook when dismissing the huge abolition movement in this nation. You might also be interested to know that the British government set up the West Africa Squadron to enforce the ban on transAtlantic slavery, a move which was costly in lives, treasure and time. I'm just starting to read a book called Royal Navy Versus The Slave Traders by Bernard Edwards.
The government of Barbados need to seize ownership of the property .and any assets. The Government also need to demand large reparations.
That is why i am in total disbelief that this government would even consider paying Richard Drax for the property. This foolisness, the prime minister, talks about two wrongs don't make a right is a nonsensical, heartless statement. Thank you, Sir Hilary, for this informative history lesson, i too agree that the plantation should be seized and used as a museum. The excuse of building low income homes there is absolute nonsense.
Thank you Sir. Hillary....you took us to a Brilliant , Historical and updated Narrative on the Drax Family.
Agreed. th-cam.com/video/Zy-GmrMbpMs/w-d-xo.html
how much of what he has added is true?
@@chulangjj Fortunately Barbados has written records of almost everything he said. Go read .
Excellent presentation and glorious plans for showcasing history of the horrors and base inhumanity and depravity the colonists and empire builders subjected Africans people to. Your magnanamous stance and aspirations do you proud. The mark of decency and honour be upon all your people from Barbados and may all those who benefit from the proceeds of their forefathers crimes receive their just desserts. God willing.
Asking my ass....nationalize the damn property without any compensation
Wow: there is also a Drax Hall in Jamaica.
Thank you very for such detail. We honour our ancestors and every African should also be made aware of as part of the process of emancipating from Mental Slavery.
Drax should donate the place to the Barbadian people, who in turn should turn it into a museum to the honour of the enslaved people who built it. This museum should be the museum of slavery as it was rolled out in the Caribbean that shows the full journey and story of a people so strong and gifted ....who survived a Hell and whose descendants are alive, highly educated and major contributors to the World today! Not a museum where we roll around in woe but one that celebrates those people. Indeed...the ones whose hands built Drax Hall. Hurricanes but it is still standing so good....the craftmanship of my ancestors. Leading museum of honour!
WOW..THAT WAS A VERY INTERESTING AND BRILLIANT HISTORY TRUE STORY OF THE SLAVE TRADE. IN BARBADOS.
I agree with the idea of flipping the script on the past ...i am mindful that many will not come along..but unward is our motto.....in the memory of my ancestors
I really appreciated your presentation. I love economic due to the level of awareness that it provides. It is interesting to learn that Jrax Hall is among the many plantations in Jamaica. I happened to know that community very well.
_The First Black Slave Society_ by Hilary Beckles. 📚
Thanks, Sir Hillary, for that important revelation
These are the persons who should speak publicly about the recent public scare and it's roots, he is wise and a voice of reason
Read, "a history of am Irish slave girl"
Fascinating insight into irish slavery in Barbados in the 17thc.
Thanks for highlighting part of our history .
A huge if not the majority of our history. Our ancestors was brought to the islands to work as slaves, one stage of the evilness that grew.
Thank you , wonderful eye opening !!!!!!
This history can not be escaped. The indigenous peoples akso suffered and must remember. It will haunt humanity forever. The entire civilization is built on it and we owe our ancestors honor to deride its horrors.
Good point. Before this time, there were indigenous people there! As long as the family still has money, they continue to perpetuate this horrible genocide of many.
There's Drax Hall in Jamaica as well.
thank you very much, professor sir hilary beckles. thank you.
In-depth and educational history. I 100% agree the script should be flipped on itself but alas as said, justice is carried out for narcotics but seldom served fairly for human trafficking. Nonetheless strive with what is right no matter what feathers or inheritance it will ruffle. Hiding behind their truth by saying it was long time ago nothing to do with, while living off the wealth comfortably .....!
Agreed. th-cam.com/video/Zy-GmrMbpMs/w-d-xo.html
Yes!
Show us a photo of this wicked James Draxx and his descendants.
This is one of descendants Richard Drax who currently owns the Drax death camp aka Drax Estate. A family not pure unadulterated evil.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Drax
Google it
Appreciate this knowledge
Prof what happened in Guyana to prevent what happened in Jamaica?
Drax as an mp without humanity lives on a huge estate in a large stone building which is probably heated by the tax payer and has hectares of land that his ancestors would of taken without consent to build his large mansion and estate . If we took back just the land there could be several hundred social houses built for the young families of this town . That would be compensation to the town as well as paying reparation to the poor slaves that suffered for the families greed and inhumanity . 😢
Well said. Colonizers take note
Where can i trace my African ancestors?
Which country in Africa?
My ancestors never returned to Africa. Never saw relatives and friends again. Cruelty of colonizers..
They were forced to sign an English name, given by colonizers.
It is better to bring this generation into the knowing the GODLY TRUTH OF THEY REAL HISTORY. THAT WILL CAUSE THEN TOO REFLECT MORE KNOWLEDGEABLE AND SAFE GUARD THEMSELVES IN THE FUTURE.
As prophecied in the Y'sralite scriptures of what would befall the Y'sralite people. But the Christian masters gave Christianity to the children of the slaves to keep then still enslaved to a white god his white son and his white subjects.
Read it, starting at Deutronomy 28 and as verse 68 says, no one would buy back the enslaved Y'sralites, they would have no kinsman Redeemer to redeem them from bondage.
We also have a Drax Hall Estate in Jamaica, but I don't know if it the same family, probably is!
Slavery is nothing to be proud of period. I find as the 9th generation of enslaved people in the Carolinas, the descendants of these slave-holding families are practically oblivious to "what their ancestors did". I have yet to find any sympathy let alone responsibilities to the descendent communities of those families who worked for nothing. These people are still major users to this day as tourism is built off of the narrative history of bonds people. Agreed, just ridiculously evil. ~Valerie Bowens, A descendent of dear John Bowens (enslaved at Drayton Hall Plantation) CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA th-cam.com/video/Zy-GmrMbpMs/w-d-xo.html
With respect, why don't you change your last name to a West African name in honour of your ancestors. I believe that is the correct thing to do, given your family history.
Why don't you change your last name
@bettyjenkins2162 Why should I? My last name honours my ancestors, culture, ethnicity, and blood. My last name belongs to me, my culture, ethnicity and no one else.
GOD IS IN THE MIDST. GOD IS JUDGING ALL OF THE HOLDERS AND UP HOLDERS.
I find it bizarre that someone speaking so passionately about the barbarity of British slavery on his people. Does not see a problem carrying a British peerage title before his name.
Why should he refuse it?
He worked for it.
He chose to accept it
His English name was given to his ancestors by colonizers.
His ancestors NEVER returned to Africa,never saw friends and family again. Think if this
Worked for no wages in the hot Caribbean sun.
Colonizers changed religion of the slaves.
There are plantations in Barbados and Caribbean where slaves were buried. Crime scenes
Our culture and traditions were changed by colonizers whose descendants are very rich today. Royal family is another example, of people who benefitted from slavery and are still rich from cruelty..don't u think Caribbeans deserve reparations..
Laws on Caribbean books are British laws.
British changed everything
Where can I trace my ancestors? Which country in west Africa?
Cruel colonizers
Speak of the Ashanti people involvement in the slave trade Sir Hillary, how ironic that title Sir youre keeping
People like you act as if the Ashanti were the only people trading slaves and as if the slaves they traded, were always innocent bystanders.
Sir Richard Drax's Twitter handle is "Thrasher" a coincidence??
He’s so frightened of speaking to normal people I see he hasn’t tweeted since 2016. Have followed though - thanks 😉
Drax Hall should be renamed and if wunna get rid of Nelson why hold on to Drax Hall?
You are wrong it's still going on, one of the more recent figures is Emma Harrison of A4e is one example, using jobseekers the unemployed as slave labour
I have been across there. Beside Drax There was the Chapmans that owned many plantation as well. I have felt the ancesers on the Hope plantation but I don't agree to put such burden on their descendance who see the world very different from the early Drax.
I don't know if they see the world differently. They have literally inherited the wealth earned from slavery; if they are so different, they would be too disgusted to keep that plantation in their family. They should have ( a long time ago) shaken off that blood soaked inheritance like a dog shakes off water.
It’s not personal. It’s business. They need to give the property back to the Caribbean governments for the benefit of the descendants of the enslaved people. Just give it back. Enough time has passed.
@@AnyahEMB Give it back is not the right term. You act as if it once belonged to the Barbadian government. It has always been private property. So what you're actually saying is give it up, or let us steal it from you because we want you to feel guilty about things your ancestors did centuries ago when you were not born and had no control over what they did.
The Chapman's were rich property owners in Bermuda also! I worked for the family over there.
Thanks for this presentation on the evils done by the Drax family during the days of slavery and thereafter. Let me say though, I cannot agree with you that an appeal should be made to the current Drax to hand the property over; it should be taken by act of the Barbadian Parliament without offer of compensation. If Drax dared to challenge the action then the response should be a claim in the British Courts and the International Court of Justice for compensation to Barbados since a clear line of ownership can be established from 1640 until now. I cannot agree with you that Caribbean slavery ended because Adam Smith showed it to be uneconomical. Slavery ended because of the 1831 rebellion led by Samuel Sharpe in Jamaica. It destroyed a third of the 600 hundred sugar estates, did one million pounds damage, and convinced Britain that if she did not declare emancipation, the enslaved people would take it just as the Haitians had done. Within months of the pacification in Jamaica, the U. K.Parliament constituted the committee to draft what became the Emancipation Act of 1834. So that is a debt owed to Haiti because after 1804, the British territories were haunted by the spectre of another Toussaint or Dessalines arising. I read Smith many years ago but I don't think that his main or minor thrust was that it was better to pay men than to enslave them. The way sugar production was organised in the Caribbean operating largely on credit, the planters were never going to be able to manage weekly or monthly paybills; they exploited labour to produce crops that were driven more by muscle than brain and profited from forced labour in exchange for meagre rations. Slave grown sugar continued to be the cheaper product after emancipation. You need to work on your use of English and to tidy up your library. I will have more to say on the larger issue of reparation at another time.
You sound very angry that you are not the one who revealed the atrocities done by this evil family and others. Why is it always one person who tries to discredit the truth spoken by another? Barbados have concrete evidence of the brutality and slave trade done by the Drax family and the British. Barbados was definitely the main hub for the slave trade, and is regarded as ground zero.
If you want to speak on Jamaica, then do so on your own forum. I'm sure Jamaica has it's own history regarding slavery. Trying to overshadow one's documentary with your personal assumptions shows your character.
The property should be seized by the Barbados Government if not handed over by an expected deadline! By the way, Mr. Beckles English sounds fine to me. Maybe you need to check your morals in the mirror.
Orville, thanks for your comment. We’d like to hear more about your thoughts. Would you contact Philip Marfleet at sutrdorset@gmail.com please?
In my family tree I have a slave trader and I'm very proud of him. People need to get it into there heads slave trading can be traced way back even the Egyptians dealt in slavery. Let me also remind you Africans also dealt in slavery selling there own so stop blaming the English.
Dare I say it, in my day we’d have been given the cane for spelling as terribly as you do. Doesn’t make it right. Shove your outdated opinions where the sun doesn’t shine. Old pea souper smoggy England where in the good old days you got cancer breathing city air….
@@DorsetChe Just because I used there and not their. It's hardly going to effect those bloody slaves is it?
That's not opinion it's fact
You do know Chattel slavery is historically unique in both magnitude and severity? Slavery is not new, but your humanity I have to question? Your the type who cares more about a dog then human beings I bet.
Your ignorance is showing and your narrative made only to suit your concsience. The premise of slavery in Africa was very different then. It was based on war...winners and losers. The losers...when enslaved could grow to high positions and many married into the families after time... Those who sold them did not know theycwere selling them into Hell. African 'slavery' was not done on basis of colour of skin!!!!!! You are stuck on the story you can live with. Go and learn. Stop being a part of the problem. You can do it. Yes you can.