The Royal Family & the Caribbean Slave Trade. No future in England’s Dreaming
The Duke and the Duchess of Cambridge have been in the Caribbean on a visit which tied in with the Queen’s Jubilee year. In the context of 2022 there was controversy and some protests.
The Sunday Times has published a summary of the visit (27th March). It notes there were cheering crowds but also considerable criticism. The Royals didn’t get too far in Belize where there were protests. They did better in Jamaica but the decision to use the Land Rover also used by the Queen and Prince Philip in 1962 provoked criticism that the Royals were living in the past.
The Duke did note in a speech that he understood that those islands where the Queen is still Head of State were unlikely to continue with the arrangement.
The Caribbean islands are of course independent but in some cases the Queen remains the Head of State. Barbados dropped HM last year and Jamaica appears to be in the process of doing so.
In a speech (extract and link to BBC report below) the Duke acknowledged the appalling history of slavery and the slave trade- going one suspects rather farther than Boris Johnson would. However as a BBC analysis underlines ‘sorrow’ is not the same as an apology, since that would raise the question of reparations. This indeed was the demand made during the Royals visit.
The Royal African Company(founded 1660)was responsible for transporting 187,000 slaves from Africa to English colonies including the Caribbean islands between 1672 and 1720. Many were branded with the initials of the Royal who founded the Company, the Duke of York ‘DY’. How this translates into the wealth of the Royal Family remains open to question. The BBC suggest that this is a matter for the Government not the Royals but there is surely nothing to stop the Royal Family from signalling that they believe reparations in some form should be forthcoming.
The Duke of Cambridge has spoken of his “profound sorrow” over slavery during a speech at a dinner in Jamaica.
Prince William said slavery was abhorrent, “should never have happened” and “forever stains our history”.
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