Blood legacy : reckoning with a family's story of slavery

Through the story of his own family's history as slave and plantation owners, Alex Renton looks at how we owe it to the present to understand the legacy of the past. When the transatlantic slave trade was abolished across most of the British Empire in 1833, it was not the newly liberated who received compensation, but the tens of thousands of enslavers who were paid millions of pounds in government money. The descendants of some of those slave owners are among the wealthiest and most powerful people in Britain today. A group of Caribbean countries is calling on ten European nations to discuss the payment of trillions of dollars for the damage done by transatlantic slavery and its continuing legacy. Meanwhile, Black Lives Matter and other activist groups are causing increasing numbers of white people to reflect on how this history of abuse and exploitation has benefited them. Blood Legacy explores what inheritance - political, economic, moral and spiritual - has been passed to the descendants of the slave owners and the descendants of the enslaved. He also asks, crucially, how the former - himself among them - can begin to make reparations for the past. LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 'An incredible work of scholarship' Sathnam Sanghera Through the story of his own family's history as slave and plantation owners, Alex Renton looks at how we owe it to the present to understand the legacy of the past. When British Caribbean slavery was abolished across most of the British Empire in 1833, it was not the newly liberated who received compensation, but the tens of thousands of enslavers who were paid millions of pounds in government money. The descendants of some of those slave owners are among the wealthiest and most powerful people in Britain today. Blood Legacy explores what inheritance – political, economic, moral and spiritual – has been passed to the descendants of the slave owners and the descendants of the enslaved. He also asks, crucially, how the former – himself among them – can begin to make reparations for the past. Notes Introduction Family tree 1In the family papers TOBAGO – 1773–1785 2A prospect of acquiring a fortune Map: Eastern Caribbean, 1775 3People as property 4Many ways to die: pirates, famine and the flux 5Tobago today JAMAICA – 1769–1875 6A fine property in Jamaica: Rozelle Map: Rozelle Estate, c. 1780 7Enlightenment gentlemen and runaway slaves 8‘Goatish embraces’ and the breeding of humans 9The money and the pox 10Slavery modernised 11The end of the British trade 12Decline, disgust and death 13Cleansing the money 14Emancipation at a price 15Freedom’s debt 16Betrayal: absentee landlords and planter-magistrates 17The Empire strikes back Map: South-east Jamaica, 1865 18Jamaica today Appendix: What happened next? and What to do? Acknowledgements Select bibliography Notes Image credits Index When British Caribbean slavery was abolished across most of the British Empire in 1833, it was not the newly liberated who received compensation, but the tens of thousands of enslavers who were paid millions of pounds in government money. The descendants of some of those slave owners are among the wealthiest and most powerful people in Britain today. Alex Renton explores what inheritance - political, economic, moral and spiritual - has been passed to the descendants of the slave owners and the descendants of the enslaved. Hometown: Toronto, ON One man's personal discovery of his family's involvement in transatlantic slavery leads to his call for a wider reckoning among the descendants of slave owners