Caribbean nations campaigning for slavery reparations have won support from an unexpected source: the slavery reparations heirs, descendants of some of Britain’s most prominent families to have benefited from the slave trade.
As prime ministers, courtiers and aristocrats, the Gladstone, Lascelles and Trevelyan families were at the heart of the governing elite down the decades. They accumulated significant wealth from slavery through the ownership of plantations in the West Indies and South America. Now members of those families are publicly backing the call for reparative justice.
The slavery reparations heirs who have taken this position are not speaking for every family that benefited from slavery. Some descendants remain opposed to reparations. But the public apologies and personal payments made by members of the Heirs of Slavery group have changed the shape of the debate, because the call for justice now comes from inside the families that profited.
How the slavery reparations heirs learned their family history
Laura Trevelyan, a former BBC journalist, said she had been unaware of her family’s involvement until she heard about an archive listing compensation payments to plantation owners, triggered by the British parliament’s abolition of slavery in 1833. She said she was clueless about the history until she searched the database.
She found Trevelyan family members had claimed compensation for what was termed their property in Grenada. The revelation spurred Trevelyan, who made a public apology in Grenada in 2023, to co-found the Heirs of Slavery group, which supports reparative justice.
With other members of her family, she has paid voluntary personal reparations of around £100,000, or about $133,000, earmarked for educational projects. She said everyone she met in Grenada answered yes when she asked whether she should apologise for what her ancestors did, and whether she personally should pay reparations.
Charlie Gladstone, a co-founder of the group, is a direct descendant of the reforming 19th century prime minister William Gladstone, whose father John was one of the largest slave owners in the British West Indies. Gladstone followed suit by making a public apology in Guyana in 2023.
Another group member is aristocrat David Lascelles, the Earl of Harewood, whose family has close links to the royal family. A portrait of actor David Harewood hangs at Harewood House, after it emerged his ancestors had worked on Lascelles sugar plantations in Barbados.
Why the slavery reparations heirs matter before the King’s tour
The issue is likely to be raised during a Caribbean tour by King Charles III, which begins on Tuesday when he travels to the Bahamas, then to Guyana and to Antigua and Barbuda, where he will address the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. A Buckingham Palace spokesman said the King would acknowledge the darkest days of colonial rule and slavery during the trip.
The UK government in September reiterated its rejection of reparations calls, and modern royals have expressed remorse without an official apology. That gap is where the heirs’ position carries weight: they have apologised and paid, while the state has done neither.
Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali said his country would continue to champion the issue, calling slavery the worst indignity to humankind, and called for a mature discussion covering apology, debt relief, education, healthcare and climate adaptation. Caricom’s Reparations Commission Ten-Point Plan calls for monetary compensation, debt cancellation and a full apology.
A further legal strand is approaching. Britain’s Privy Council, the final court of appeal for UK overseas territories, will next year hear a petition for slavery reparations filed by Jamaica. The petition asks the court to rule on whether the capture, transport and enslavement of Africans in Jamaica was ever legal under English law, and whether the UK owes the people of Jamaica a reparatory remedy. A ruling on legality would go beyond the political debate, because it would test the legal foundation of the trade itself.
The families who still oppose reparations
Not all families who benefited from slavery have agreed with the Heirs group approach. Caricom Reparations Commission chair Hilary Beckles has repeatedly spoken out about former Conservative lawmaker and UK landowner Richard Drax, 68, whose ancestors established Drax Hall Estate in Barbados in the mid-17th century.
