Yo My new cousin is Justin Welby, the unknowing Archbishop of Canterbury. We are not close in any sense. But we have a great-great-grandfather in common: Sir James Ferguson of Kilkerran, who died in 1838. His Welby side goes back five generations, mine six. It's not as possible as you might think: we all have 128 grandparents at the time of six moves. But this particular historical figure is notable for what he and tens of thousands of Britons like him did, the consequences of which still divide and poison society today.
Welby's statement acknowledges Ferguson's past as a slave owner and shows that he knows little about our ancestors. So here are some details. Ferguson and the generation before him owned enslaved blacks in Jamaica and, for a time, Tobago. Jamaica's Rochelle sugar plantation had between 160 and 200 at one time, while Bloody Bay in Tobago had 75.
He's a serial killer. In bad years, more than 20% of adults died, mainly from disease and violence; Infant deaths are so common that they are not recorded. Before 1807, when shipping men from Africa was abolished, Caribbean planters considered it more economically beneficial to work until a person died than to care for them. The British transported 3.1 million Africans across the Atlantic; When slavery was abolished, 250 years later, 800,000 people remained enslaved.
The Fergusons were very ordinary, small-scale slaves, much less important in wealth than the bankers and insurers. What our ancestors did to obtain substantial tax revenue was legal and of course was actively encouraged by the British governments. Ferguson's uncle, Sir Adam Ferguson, voted in favor of a navy and army to protect his interests in the West Indies, just as he had voted against William Wilberforce's efforts to abolish the “slave trade” in Sir Adam and his brother were involved in sending smugglers from present-day Ghana to the Caribbean.
When it became clear that the trade would eventually be banned, Sir Adam encouraged his managers to buy more young women to raise new workers, just as farm animals are raised. Failed. The teenagers died or failed to have as many children as he expected. He became very angry (I read his letters to his managers at the Tobago plantation).
But the most important thing I would say to cousin Justin is that this is absolutely racist. Our Christian ancestors could not legally or morally enslave a white man. Because of their conscience, they had to turn black people into non-human beings. Slaves had all their African names erased and replaced with the type that might be associated with a pet dog. They rejected efforts to baptize or educate them, which would have recognized their humanity. In Tobago, the Fergusons were branded “property” by them.
Welby did not back down in the face of the church's complicity. The Church of England was a “grotesque and abominable sinner,” he said in a sermon in Jamaica in July, benefiting not only from the moral support it gave to slaves but also to itself. Some archbishops did so directly. Welby said: “We are deeply, deeply, deeply sorry.”
For more than 250 years, many slaves put part of their wealth into the church collection plate. Did they seek repair? Welby has pushed for recognition of those donations and for the soon-to-be-initiated Church Commissioners. The compensatory justice fund: all this in the midst of a storm of harsh criticism from the right of the Church. “Woke Welby” and even “anti-Christian” were some of the insults hurled at him. The abuse by telegraph-reading Anglicans hurts more than him, but it is the establishment into which he was born and educated.
But Welby admitted his connections. Now it has to go further. Apologies and acknowledgment logically support calls for reparations in the Caribbean, West Africa and here. Many families with this story, adapted from Britain and other slaveholding European countries, developed it.
After newsletter promotion
Last year, some of us created Legacy of Slavery to support efforts to heal the wounds that are still open, to encourage others who are willing to admit that their ancestors benefited from slavery. When people come forward, we recommend that they thoroughly research the story and listen to those on the other side of the story. I've done it with people from all over England and from Caribbean plantation places my ancestors never visited. I'm still learning.
Unfortunately, few deny the continuing importance of this history. It is yet another atrocity: a shameful recommitment by former Conservative leadership candidates this week. Meanwhile, the government has rejected the idea and is discussing compensation. It was not on the agenda of the Commonwealth Assembly, although most other countries still wanted to talk about post-colonial reconciliation. Labour's position is deeply short-sighted and betrays all those who still have any faith in British morality and justice. Welby could tell.
His story shows how deeply ingrained this past is in us. More than 2 million Britons like Welby and I joined the ranks of those who received the reparations granted to slave owners after the abolition of slavery in 1833. Many more were linked to the wealth created by all the industries based on slavery. slavery, from banking and insurance to shipbuilding and weaving clothes for slaves.
The man crowned archbishop last year is the greatest heir to all slavery; The links run through all predecessors, from Charles II to George IV. Welby could now help the king, head of the Church of England, tell the truth about his ancestors. Welby's long-awaited apology to appease such a public figure will leave a lasting legacy and truly begin the process of reconciliation.
-
Do you have any comments on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to email a response of up to 300 words to our Letters section to be considered for publication, click here.
