Steve Cushion previews an upcoming seminar for London Socialist Historians

 The Drax family have owned the Drax Hall Plantation in Barbados, along with the accompanying 621 acres of land, since the 17th Century. It is currently the property of Richard Drax, Member of Parliament for South Dorset. He also owns Charborough House, a Grade 1 listed manor house in rural Dorset. In addition, he holds the lordship of the manor of Longburton and owns the greatest acreage of land in the county of Dorset, owning approximately 13,870 acres.

Richard Drax’s 17th-century ancestors, James and William sailed to Barbados in the late 1620s, where they arranged for land in the centre of the island to be cleared and began growing and processing sugar.

The Drax family devised a commercial sugar plantation model, worked by enslaved labourers brought from Africa, that was copied across the West Indies and the Americas. In 1650, Sir James Drax paid for the construction of the plantation house Drax Hall.

David Olusoga says: “The Drax family are one of the few who were pioneers in the early stages of the British slave economy back in the 17th century and, generations later, still owned plantations and enslaved people at the end of British slavery in the 1830s… the Drax dynasty were able to generate extraordinary wealth through the cultivation of sugar by enslaved Africans.”

The Government of the Republic of Barbados is campaigning for the payment of Reparations by former colonial powers and institutions which profited from slavery, including the descendants of individuals, families and companies whose histories are discussed in his book. One of those individuals is Richard Drax

David Comissiong, Barbados’s ambassador to CARICOM, says of the Drax family: “You can’t simply walk away from the scene of the crime. They have a responsibility now to make some effort to help repair the damage. We are establishing a fund into which families, corporations and establishments like universities that were implicated in some way in the crime of enslavement can pay.”

To assist the campaign for Reparations, the TUC, London East and South East Region has set up a Reparations for Afrikan Enslavement Steering Group.

Profits from British slave trafficking and the unpaid labour of enslaved workers contributed significantly to the accumulation of capital in England, which financed the Industrial Revolution and, conversely, contributed to the underdevelopment of member states of the Caribbean Community, both through the profits made from sugar and other tropical products as well as the supply of cheap raw materials such as cotton to European and North American manufacturers.

These profits went, directly or indirectly, to the manufacturers and other suppliers of the trafficking, to the shipping industry, into the construction of infrastructure such as canals and railways, but above all to the financial services industry. Many of today’s banks and insurance companies can be traced back directly to concerns that had their first growth through their financing of trafficking and enslavement. It would therefore seem reasonable that these modern corporations should refund the unpaid wages from which their predecessors profited so handsomely.

The international trade union and labour movement have a duty be in the forefront of the Reparations movement because this struggle is about redress for unpaid labour, including the special oppression of women, who were forced to have children to provide a continued source of enslaved labour.

Racism, which the supporters of the trafficking used as a justification for enslavement, has infected British society. The racism of the police, Stop and Search, the unemployment figures for young Black people, the endless discrimination and petty humiliations of everyday life, the Windrush scandal: all these factors and more have their origins in the invention of racism to explain the wealth and power that the British ruling class gained from enslavement.

As well as the return of unpaid wages, we seek Reparations for the former enslaved Afrikans and their descendants for the denial of their culture and history; human rights abuses, including but not limited to, murder, rape, flogging, branding, denial of freedom of movement, freedom to worship, freedom to own land, and the right to education; and for the severe generational psychological damage to enslaved people and their descendants, long after 1838, caused by their status as enslaved people and perpetuated by associated systemic racism and racial discrimination.

The call for Reparations for enslavement appeals in a broader sense to the ‘correcting of a wrong’. In the case of trafficking and enslavement with its persistent legacies, this means implementing measures of compensation at different levels. It embraces a multitude of symbolic and material dimensions, including the call for apology and recognition, but also for collective investments that would address the structural inequalities and racial discrimination Afrikan people still suffer in terms of accessing education, health systems, income, housing and labour markets, to name just a few.

Besides financial transfers, claims for Reparations demand support for historical and commemorative activities, the erection of memorials, returning artifacts, days of remembrance and museums that would contribute to decolonising the history of enslavement and its legacies.

The LESE TUC Reparations for Afrikan Enslavement Steering Group sets as its aims to:

• Campaign in the trade union movement for Reparations for enslavement.
• Support and publicise the work of the CARICOM Reparations Commission.
• Support those governments, such as Belize, that have lodged claims for Reparations and encourage other governments to follow their example.
• Liaise with other bodies such as the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Afrikan Reparations and local Reparations groups such as Global Afrikan Congressuk (GACuk).
• Work for the decolonisation of education at all levels.
• Support local campaigns for the removal of statues and similar memorials to traffickers and enslavers.
• Provide speakers for trade union meetings.

Steve Cushion is a Senior Research Fellow at University College London – Institute of the Americas.

Reparations for Enslavement as a trade union issue

A London Socialist Historians seminar at the Institute of Historical Research

On-line with Zoom on 23rd January 2023, 5:30pm – 7:00pm

Free to attend, but you must book in advance here

Image: Charborough House. Author: Nirvana, available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication