Wealthy British family to pay reparations to Grenada
The descendants of a British aristocrat will apologise to the people of Grenada for their family’s role in the enslavement of Africans on the island and will pay reparations.
Laura Trevelyan, a reporter with the British Broadcasting Corporation, told the publication that the apology would be issued later this month when seven members of her ultra-wealthy family visit the country.
The family will give £100,000 to establish a community fund for economic development in Grenada and the eastern Caribbean.
Trevelyan visited Grenada last year to film a documentary.
One of the places she visited was a plantation once owned by her ancestors.
She was shown the instruments used by the plantation’s overseers to punish the enslaved people.
Of that experience, Trevelyan said: "I felt ashamed, and I also felt that it was my duty. You can't repair the past - but you can acknowledge the pain, and I want to do something to improve it."
Trevelyan acknowledged that the family’s compensation is a drop in the bucket to correct history's wrongs.
In 1834, the Trevelyan received about £34,000—about £3 million in today's money—as compensation for their over 1,000 slaves.
“I completely understand that this can seem like an inadequate gesture… So for me to be giving £100,000 almost 200 years later for a fund that is going to look at economic development in Grenada and the Eastern Caribbean, maybe that seems like it’s really inadequate. But I hope that we are setting an example by apologising for what our ancestors did by enslaving the people of Grenada, and I will also hope that we are looking for explanations,” she said.
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