Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Israeli media: The IOF tried to locate the paratrooper and failed to determine his landing location, speculating that he headed north.
Israeli media: The IOF spotted a paratrooper flying over their outposts on the border with Lebanon before he disappeared.
Israeli Tourism Minister Haim Katz will be heading a delegation to Riyadh in the first public Israeli visit to Saudi Arabia.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin detailed exchange of views on situation around Nagorno-Karabakh and normalization of Yerevan-Baku ties: Kremlin
Russian Black Sea commander shown working after Ukraine said it killed him
Kremlin says US Abrams tanks will 'burn' in Ukraine
China warns Philippines not to 'stir up trouble' over disputed reef
Lebanon arrests man who fired on US embassy last week: Reuters citing security sources.
Bahrain announces the death of two of its soldiers participating in the coalition forces, including an officer, in an attack near the Saudi-Yemeni border and accuses Ansar Allah of being responsible.
Russian Foreign Ministry: Yesterday's bloodshed in Kosovo is a direct result of Prime Minister Kurti's policy of fueling the conflict and cleansing the region of Serbs.

Barbados seeks reparations from UK MP over family’s slavery legacy

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: Agencies
  • 26 Nov 2022 23:50
  • 9 Shares

The Drax family, the first sugar plantation owners in Barbados and Jamaica, pioneered the use of African slaves.

  • Barbados to make UK MP pay reparations over family’s slave legacy
    The Emancipation Statue is a public sculpture in Barbados symbolizing the "breaking of the chains" of slavery at Emancipation.

Richard Drax, a wealthy conservative MP in the British Parliament, will be asked by the government of Barbados, a former colony of the British empire, to pay reparations associated with his ancestor’s pivotal role in slavery.

Richard Drax is reported to have visited the Caribbean island for a meeting with the country’s Prime Minister, Mia Mottley.

The MP had reportedly inherited the plantation where his ancestors created the first slave-worked sugar plantation in the 17th century.

Mottley’s cabinet have laid out the next steps for the procedure, which include legal action in the event that Drax declines to pay reparations. 

Barbados became independent from the United Kingdom in November 1966, more than three centuries after English settlers arrived and turned the island into a wealthy sugar colony based on the work of hundreds of thousands of African slaves.

It became a republic on November 30, 2021, after it rebuked the monarch of England as its head of state.

Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax - Conservative MP for South Dorset.

>Lives in family's ancestral seat, Charborough House.
>Holds the lordship of the manor of Longburton.
> Largest individual landowner in Dorset, owning 2% of the land
> Owns sugar plantation in 🇧🇧 pic.twitter.com/m26tByOpHO

— Sir Walter Raleigh 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (@NxlAnglo) November 26, 2022

The Drax family is 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 was able to generate extraordinary wealth through the cultivation of sugar by enslaved Africans.

The MP's ancestor, Sir James Drax, was among the first colonizers in Barbados in the early 17th century. 

Related News

Barbados suing Benedict Cumberbatch and family over slave trade past

Majority of Canadians back abolishing monarchy

The family owned a plantation in Jamaica, which they sold in the 19th century.

When slavery was abolished, the Draxes received £4,293 12s 6d in 1836 for freeing 189 enslaved people, a sum estimated to be worth £3 million.

Barbados MP Trevor Prescod, chairman of Barbados National Task Force on Reparations, said, "If the issue cannot be resolved we would take legal action in the international courts. The case against the Drax family would be for hundreds of years of slavery, so it’s likely any damages would go well beyond the value of the land."

Prescod added, "The Drax family had slave ships. They had agents in the African continent and kidnapped black African people to work on their plantations here in Barbados. I have no doubt that what would have motivated them was that they never perceived us to be equal to them, that we were human beings. They considered us as chattels."

This is the first time a family has been singled out among all countries of the Caribean who are generally seeking reparations from particular Western governments. 

The plans which have been laid out so far include suggestions to turn the 17th-century Drax Hall into an Afro-centric museum and for a large section of the plantation to be used for social housing for lower-income families.

Drax has been the subject of heavy criticism after the Observer revealed in December 2020 that the MP concealed his inheritance of the 250-hectare (617 acres) Drax Hall plantation, which only surfaced after official documents revealed him as the owner.

Drax inherited a plantation in Barbados, valued at Bds$12.5m (£5.25m), from his father in 2017.

The 64-year-old MP currently resides in his family mansion in Charborough Park, Dorset. 

His family fortune is estimated to be worth at least £150m, and he owns 23.5 square miles in Dorset, including an estate and grouse moor in Yorkshire.

The family also owns 125 properties in Dorset, either personally or through family trusts, as well as a £4.5m holiday villa on nearby Sandbanks.

Read more: University of Cambridge's wealth 'significantly' linked to slave trade

  • Barbados
  • Slavery

Most Read

Russia destroyed leopard tank in Ukraine with fully-German crew

Russia destroyed leopard tank in Ukraine with fully-German crew

  • Europe
  • 23 Sep 2023
Ukrainian soldiers ride an APC on the front line near Bakhmut, in the Donetsk region, on June 5, 2023 (AP)

US sees Ukrainian army demoralized, no chance to win: Seymour Hersh

  • Europe
  • 21 Sep 2023
Blinken’s ‘Variable Geometry’ for a New Cold War

Blinken’s ‘Variable Geometry’ for a New Cold War

  • Analysis
  • 24 Sep 2023
Zelensky joins Canadian Parliament’s ovation to WWII Nazi soldier

Zelensky joins Canadian Parliament’s ovation to WWII Nazi soldier

  • US & Canada
  • 25 Sep 2023

Coverage

All
Morocco & Libya Disasters

Read Next

All
Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh arrive in Armenia's Goris, the town in Syunik region on 25/09/2023 (AP)
Asia

Explosion at fuel depot in Nagorno-Karabakh kills 20, injures 200

US fears running out of funds for Ukraine aid as shutdown looms.
US & Canada

US funds for Kiev enough 'for next few weeks' as shutdown looms: WH

FBI
US & Canada

FBI report predicted 2020 election riots two months before Jan. 6: NBC

Marchers bearing insignias of the white supremacist group Patriot Front pause during a gathering on Saturday, July 2, 2022, in Boston (AP)
Europe

Network of far-right militias covertly proliferating in US: Report

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS