Oxford University college defies calls to remove statue of slave owner Christopher Codrington from its library after agreeing to change room’s name The Barbados governor bequeathed £10,000 to All Souls College upon his death A marble statue of Codrington has stood in the library since the 18th century The graduate college has reviewed its links … Read more
British academics are to create the largest ever database of investors in the slave trade that will highlight ties to modern-day firms. The Dictionary of British Slave Traders is a project supported by £1 million in government funding using research by British historians and experts. The database will feature biographies of investors covering a 250-year … Read more
A rare first edition of one of the earliest accounts of 18th-century slavery, written by the first known Black Briton to have voted in England, will go under the hammer in the New Year. Charles Ignatius Sancho’s 1782 two-volume book The Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, an African is one of the earliest accounts of … Read more
A monument in Carmarthen dedicated to a hero of the Battle of Waterloo also known as the ‘Tyrant of Trinidad’ will not be removed or renamed as part of a Welsh government probe into ‘offensive’ statues. The memorial to Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton has stood in Picton Terrace in the south-western town since 1888. A campaign … Read more
National Trust is accused of recruiting ‘biased’ team of academics to probe its properties links to empire and the slave trade Colonial Countryside projects looks into links of 11 trust properties to slave trade The project involves nine historians working with 100 primary school children However, the National Trust has come under fire for the … Read more
Independent MP William Wilberforce wrote the Slave Trade Act in 1807 which abolished the industry across the British Empire. It was enacted in 1833 The transatlantic slave trade was launched by Portuguese traders with the construction of sub-Saharan Africa’s first permanent slave trading post at Elmina in 1492. But it soon passed into Dutch then … Read more
When Mahmud Kamani faces adversity, he drives to a run-down suburb of Manchester, peers up at the one-bedroom flat that he once called home and reflects on his rags-to-riches journey from market trader to billionaire boss of the Boohoo fashion empire. In recent months, the 56-year-old has had good cause to make such a journey. … Read more
TfL is urged to rename Maryland station because of ‘links to local slave owner with plantations in America’ despite doubts about name’s origin Newham councillors called for review of Maryland station amid alleged slave link But academics argued the name’s origin is from Old English word for boundary If approved, the name change could lead … Read more
More than 200 statues, streets and buildings in Wales named after historic Britons have been identified as having connections to the slave trade, according to a Welsh government-ordered audit. The review was ordered by First Minister Mark Drakeford following the death of George Floyd in the US and the toppling of the statue of Edward … Read more
Racism and discrimination exist in UK because Britons don’t ‘wholly understand’ nation’s slave trade history, says National Trust academic National Trust published report on links between slavery and Trust properties Rita McLean is chair of a group examining how to act upon the findings In 2007 Ms McLean said: ‘A lot of the problems in society … Read more