Thomas Gladstones
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 22:45
Descendants of British 19th-century politician William Gladstone are traveling to Guyana this week to apologize for their ancestors’ role in slavery in that country. They also donate 100,000 pounds (117,000 euros) for the establishment of an institute in Guyana that will conduct research into the history of enslaved people, according to The Observer.
William Gladstone (1809-1894) was Treasury Secretary four times and Prime Minister four times in the second half of the nineteenth century. This was partly due to the fortune that his father, John Gladstone, left from slavery.
That fortune enabled William to attend the elite boarding school Eton College and the University of Oxford and to devote himself fully to politics. In his younger years he set himself up as a defender of slavery.
rich
John Gladstone owed his fortune to owning plantations in Guyana and Jamaica and the enslaved who had to work for him there. In 1823, a revolt broke out on one of his plantations in Guyana, involving 13,000 enslaved people.
Joshua Bryant The plantation revolt in Guyana in 1823
The revolt was crushed and 330 enslaved people died. As a result, the movement for the abolition of slavery gained momentum.
Ten years later, slavery was abolished in the United Kingdom. The owners of enslaved people were compensated from a special fund. John Gladstone owned 2,508 enslaved people, amounting to compensation worth £106,000 (124,000 euros), a fortune for the time. He invested most of his money in railways around Liverpool and his art collection.
Privileged
“John Gladstone committed crimes against humanity,” says his descendant Charlie Gladstone (59) now in The Observer. “He was a despicable fellow. Greedy and imperious. But one way or the other, my family owes much of its privileged position to him.”
Six members of the family will therefore travel to Guyana on Thursday to apologize and make the donation. Guyana commemorates the enslaved uprising that began 200 years ago.
2023-08-20 20:45:53
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