Acknowledgement and repair: the Trevelyan family and Grenada
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- There have been calls for reparation for generations, but what are reparations, why are they important and why is this happening in 2023?
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An aristocratic British family is to make history by travelling to the Caribbean and publicly apologising for enslaving more than 1,000 people on six plantations. The Trevelyan family, which has many notable ancestors, is also paying reparations to the people of Grenada.
In 1835, the Trevelyan family received £26,898, or £2.6 million (£2,603,247.94) adjusted for inflation, in compensation from the British government for their 'loss of property' after the brutal state-sanctioned system of forced labour and human trafficking was formally ended in 1834.
A £100,000 fund, donated by BBC correspondent Laura Trevelyan, will be formally launched in Grenada on 27 February 2023 by Sir Hilary Beckles, chair of the Caricom Reparations Commission, and Trevelyan family members.
🕰 Content
Intro 0:41
The Slave Compensation 01:08
UCL Legacies of British Slavery 02:30
Grenada 03:11
Rich Because They are Poor 03:49
The Eastern Caribbean Reparation Fund 04:40
What does Reparation mean? 05:50
Germany 06:19
Impact of the Trevelyan Reparation 07:37
Acknowledgement and Repair 09:17
Summary & Close 09:55
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Further reading
Island Ancestors Blog
The Trevelyan Reparation: time to acknowledge and repair.
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Sir John Trevelyan 4th Bart. of Nettlecombe (1735 - 1828)
Legacies of British Slavery - UCL Department of History
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www.theguardia...
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www.ictj.org/r...
This is an important and rather emotional topic that I attempt to discuss in a balanced way. Please watch the *ENTIRE* video before commenting. Also, I recorded a deeper dive into this topic. Hit the like button if you want me to release this.
I enjoyed this video... but the whole topic is so complex, now I have even more questions than before !
Once again, another presentation well-done! It really helped bring some clarity to the concept of reparations, its importance and how it works. It definitely quieted my inner cynic as well regarding motive. Thanks for keeping us informed!
I think this is great. For those who were disadvantaged, something like this might not level the playing field, but definitely can help them out of poverty. Honestly, how people don’t understand starting from nothing and then still having to earn your keep working for the people who enslaved you is traumatizing. This is generational trauma we’re talking about. Not just monetary suffering but emotional suffering. And this pain is felt through generations.
Damn right reparations are needed. If people would think for a second “what if my ancestor was whipped, r word, and forced to work for nothing? Would I want to forgive the family that did this but also never said sorry or attempted to pay for their misdeeds?” The answer would absolutely be no!
If my family had owned slaves and I benefited from it, I would want to do what’s right and make up for my family’s sins. No one deserves to be treated like that. How sick do you have to be to live off the backs of slaves for hundreds of years and not once think about helping the families that were harmedv.
Sometimes evil can be inherited, I guess.
I wonder 💭 🤔
i think the idea of current reparations for historic misdeeds is pretty ridiculous. nobody alive today were the perpetrators, or the ones that were wronged. all it accomplishes is to reignite bad feelings on both sides and/or relieve guilt imposed by oneself or society for something that a person did not have anything to do with.
Well said ❤
Africa was depredated by colonialism is a fact. Africa is still depredated, losing people, escaping from misery and wars, and drowning in the sea to try to get some hope in Europe.
How set the boundaries of repairs? African new generations are still in trouble.
Your intros are legendary.
People tend to focus on the money paid to slave owners to bring the slave trade to an end in the British Empire. It was distasteful, but as pointed out it was a compromise. Abolitionists weren't happy about it. But we saw what happens when abolition is pursued in other ways in the American civil war, so all things considered it was likely the best option. It was also unprecedented at the time. None of the other European powers were all that interested in ending the trade, African powers certainly weren't, and Arab nations certainly weren't. There was no blueprint for the British to follow, and the only reason it happened at all was thanks to the British publics' fit of morality, and to quote Thomas Babington Macaulay, "We know no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality."
People also tend to forget the huge expense paid by Britain in trying to stamp out slavery across the globe, both in British lives lost and treasure. The British spent roughly the same amount between 1816 and 1862 suppressing the slave trade as they had profited from slavery prior, and that's not including higher prices paid by the British public for goods like sugar (in comparison to other European powers) due to British refusal to use slave labour or purchase goods from countries engaged in slavers.
Then there's foreign aid. The amount of money we've given countries - many of which were ostensibly victims of the British slave trade - is incomprehensible at this point. In 2020 alone, UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) spend was £14,479 million. In 2019 it was £15,197 million. In 2018 £14,552 million. At some point this claim that we owe something because of our ancestors' actions has to end. Apologising for things done by people long dead, to people who weren't alive to experience it, seems at best redundant, at worst ridiculous.
There were also many ex-slaves who owned slaves. The moral abhorrence to slavery is one that developed in Europe - arguably most acutely in England amongst evangelicals and Christian radicals like the Clapham sect - and then was exported around the world by the Royal Navy and the British Empire. To judge Britain by standards which hadn't even been dreamt up at the time of the actions for which they're being judged, and which they had to dream up more or less a priori, also seems a little unfair. A bit like calling a man stupid for walking before the wheel was invented.
Dude I like your content, and intent there-with, though you shouldn't sugar coat the the truths of the past - Germany didn't part with their investments in the Caribbean they withdrew their participation in the plundering and rape of the Caribbean, it's native people, and the African people who were brought there against their will - The Germans had FOMO, attempted to go into business with the invaders, and didn't care (after the fact) what had actually happened there (I.e., you knocked an old woman down to get those goods? Who cares! How much you want for 'em? Unbelievable) - People pre-modern era were a bit savage - let's not hide it.
Ridiculous… this does more harm than good
You give off aquarius vibes too.