In recent years, several wealthy white people – mostly British – have begun to unravel the sordid and immoral ways in which their families made their money. More often than not, all of these “old families” made their fortunes through the transatlantic slave trade. Former BBC journalist Laura Travelyan is one of those people. She was an on-camera BBC reporter for 30 years and she had a moment, in 2020, covering the George Floyd/Black Lives Matter protests in the US. She suddenly saw the links between her family’s history and the present day. She did some investigative work on her own family and ended up quitting her BBC job. Now she works full time on Caribbean restorative justice and the legal cause of seeking community reparations.
For 30 years, former BBC journalist and news anchor Laura Trevelyan traveled the world, reporting on some of the biggest stories of our time. While covering the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd in 2020, Trevelyan had an epiphany: It was time for her to confront her family’s role in a horrific era in history — the slave trade.
Trevelyan’s aristocratic ancestors owned more than 1,000 slaves in the Caribbean island of Grenada in the 18th and 19th centuries.
“There were protests every single night [after George Floyd’s murder]. And it’s the lead story on the program that I’m on. Not just as a journalist professionally, but also thinking personally, I was asking if the legacy of slavery in America is police brutality towards black men, then what’s the situation in Grenada?” Trevelyan, 55, tells PEOPLE. After Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807 (though slavery itself didn’t end until 1833), slave owners negotiated compensation for the loss of “property.” In 1834, the Trevelyans received the equivalent of what would be $3.6 million today.
Since discovering her family’s past, Trevelyan has quit her prestigious job at the BBC and joined the movement of getting reparatory justice for the Caribbean. That ultimately led to her apologizing publicly at an event in front of Grenada’s Prime Minister and paying $127,000 in reparations, which will be used to help fund educational programs in the country.
“Paying $127,000” – I’m sorry? Where’s all that family money? Maybe she isn’t the primary heiress, that would be my assumption. In any case, Trevelyan is now speaking out about how King Charles should basically do what she did, apologize thoroughly and begin making reparations.
Former BBC journalist Laura Trevelyan, who quit her job to join the Caribbean’s fight for reparatory justice, wants King Charles to apologize for the royal family’s historic involvement in the slave trade.
Trevelyan, 55, spearheads a group of British families who want to make reparations for their ancestors’ participation in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. In February 2023, Trevelyan gave $127,000 of her pension savings to the government in Grenada (which will be used to help fund education initiatives) after she learned her family once owned 1,000 slaves in the Caribbean nation. And she would like Charles, 74, who has supported an investigation into the royal family’s ties to slavery, to follow suit.
“I would hope very much that in the coming years, he can apologize for the royal family’s historic links to slavery and make a meaningful financial gesture that would be seen as reparative,” Trevelyan tells PEOPLE. “But what that figure is, I have no idea.”
My guess is that Charles – and everyone in the institution – would probably be okay with apologizing in some way, but he knows that the apology, however weaksauce, would just be the first stage in an even bigger call for reparations. Truly, that’s the “math” of this situation – Charles refuses to apologize for the crown’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade because he doesn’t want to give up one penny of the billions he’s inherited, not to mention all of the jewels, art and treasure the crown has stolen for centuries.
Photos courtesy of Instar, Getty.
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I don’t believe Charles would be okay with apologizing. I suspect he believes that the Empire was a force for good and that people did bad things on both sides. Furthermore apologizing would just ramp up the calls for reparations from the Royal Family. Charles likes to think of himself as not being racist but he is.
Oh, he’s incredibly racist. He’s the same person who heard his bestie Michael Fawcett call a biracial coworker the n word and brushed it under the rug. It’s easy for him to believe he isn’t racist because he can take photos with non-White people, but he’s as racist as they come, and he’ll never see it.
very few people will admit their racism, but I think you’re right in that charles probably does believe the Empire was a force for good and its so unfortunate that people are just focused on the slavery and colonialism aspects of it and ignoring how rich it made his family, or something.
I mean they invited members of the Kenyan diaspora to look at artifacts/treasures the British took from Kenya before his tour!! Like that required multiple people to be like “hey, showing them what we stole is a good idea before we go there on a state visit!!”
A lot of nice white people don’t think they are racist, but they still carry around racist thinking and stereotypes while resisting calls to excavate their own biases. 🙁
I don’t think they would ever apologize either. We’ve seen these past few days (and many times before that in other flop tours) that they much prefer to see themselves as victims in this story as much as the people who suffered from colonization and slavery. But they are following the same rules as other countries so it’s not surprising.
“We stole these diamonds and art fair and square!!!!”
I just found out that the British museum has more of the wall carvings of the Parthenon than 1- the actual Parthenon 2- the museum next door to the Parthenon that displays the art from the Parthenon.
Who the actual f do the British think they are to hoard a dozens of counties’ history and art and culture in unopened boxes in the basement of their museum with little to know record keeping of what they have?!?
BECAUSE THE MUSEUM IS UNDER FUNDED ABD THRY DONT HAVE THE PEOPLE POWER TO OPEN ANY OF THE BOXES PROPERLY AND TAKE SOME BLOODY PUCTURES.
this whole world is a farce
I can’t snark on Laura for donating $127000 of her pension.
💯
It’s unfortunate that more people don’t at the very least recognize their privilege was created on the backs of enslaved people. $127K isn’t a fortune but at least its a start.
Yellowy, ITA! As far as I’m aware, she is one of the very few people actually paying any reparations and doing the work.
As to KC: He CAN apologize, it’s just the question if he WILL do so. Britain is behind with the words and museums. Societies are woefully behind righting the injustice and imbalance that enslavement has caused.
My guess is that she is not personally wealthy and giving that amount from her pension probably hurt. She sounds sincere and very active in the restorative justice and reparations movement. I hope she is leaning hard on any family members who still hold inherited wealth.
Agreed. I mean, it’s not an enormous sum considering what we’re talking about here, but it’s better than the
~ zero ~ dollars that the BRF have given.
After listening to Princess Anne’s comments on Slavery earlier this year, I don’t think the Windsors will ever apologize. There is the issue to reparations, but what’s more troubling is that I don’t think they feel they done anything…wrong. It’s pretty gross. If Charles refers to the genocide in Kenya as “wrong doings” I cannot imagine how they would begin to apologize for their involvement and profit from the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
The $3.6 million almost 2 centuries ago would be long gone, no matter how good their investments were.
Estates suck up money and most were unprofitable since before WW1.
Hell, even the parents of the youngest Kennedy generation in the USA can no longer afford to buy their way into Harvard.
her family may come have artistocratic roots from almost 200 years ago but it doesn’t necessarily mean she’s worth millions, so 127k is an okay start I think.
the history of imperialism and colonialism is complicated and messy because it requires that (white) people look at history with something other than the perspective of “the british empire was the greatest empire ever” or “lets learn how the colonies were formed in the US!” like colonialization was something kind of cute the puritans did before fighting off that same big bad british empire.
We say that history is written by the victors, and that’s how its taught in the US (I’m assuming in the UK as well.) So understanding the impact of colonialism, imperialism, slavery is complicated because it means doing away with the overlying theme of most US history classes – that we were on the side of right.
This isn’t impossible and its not even that hard, but it becomes harder when some states are trying to push the idea that slaves were actually engaged in some sort of vocational rehab where they learned transferable skills, or that admitting the US was ever in the wrong is seen as an unpardonable sin. And it does involve being able to say “hey, we were wrong, and no it wasn’t me, but I’ve benefited from that and I’m sorry.”
the british monarchy is so convinced of their eternal rightness that they are never going to be able to say that.
It seems to be the case everywhere that people on the right hold the view that teaching history honestly is unpatriotic. Or else they actually do believe that slavery and colonialism are perfectly fine. I haven’t heard if Florida schools are actually going to go ahead and teach “the benefits of slavery” such as slaves learning skills—which of course, white people proceeded to exploit for their own benefit.
Well said. The problem with admitting that we were *not* on the side of right means admitting that our country can be capable of great evil. And if we admit that, then that calls into question not just history but current events. If we continue sending aid to Israel while they murder thousands of Gazans, are we on the side of right? If we give tax breaks to corporations who utilize child labor in foreign countries, are we on the side of right? If we let people die instead of expanding healthcare just because we want lower taxes, are we on the side of right?
And the last thing many people in the US or the UK want to do is to confront and change their actions.
🎯
@MF, great comment!
This! 100% this!
MF – yes yes yes yes yes.
I find that people who are unable to be wrong in their own lives are the most outraged that their country might be doing or has done bad things.
Whereas people who can readily admit they are wrong see no problem with addressing the horrific ways in which their country has been wrong and the devastation it left in its wake that is still ongoing in so many peoples lives.
I doubt Chuckles will apologize much less return jewels. As for the other reparations Chuckles isn’t paying dime one.
It’s difficult – impossible – for white folks (especially governments) to apologize when they just aren’t sorry. Black people aren’t seen as fully human, which is why they brutalized us without remorse. To this day, we aren’t seen as equals, so apologies will NEVER happen. They aren’t sorry the slave trade happened. If the truth was openly spoken, I think many would be thrilled to go back to those Bad Old Days.
KCIII can start by giving back the jewels and the British government can give back the stolen artifacts, but then what is today’s Britain without the stolen jewels and artifacts.
KCIII is the personification of today’s Britian.
Of course the odious little man won’t apologise. Apologies are for oiks “don’t cha know”, he couldn’t apologise because it would mean that all the money he has grabbed from the British tax payer and tax office would be at risk, and how would he stable his nag then?? Will no one think of the gin 🤔🤔
@MaryPester. Yes stable costs are expensive and I’m sure the gin and oats for her are top of the line🍸🍸🥕🥕.
Chuck might think slavery is bad in general, but he’s not sorry. He probably thinks the lowly peasants are jealous of his divine status in life, and that’s why they’re grumbling.
Laura Trevelyan is to be commended. She is probably not an heiress, so the money is significant, for her. Hope this thing gathers momentum.