William Gladstone's descendants to apologise for family's part in slave trade

[Judi Lynn]

The former prime minister’s father, John Gladstone, was one of the largest slave owners in the British West Indies.

Patrick Daly
5 hours ago

The family of Victorian-era prime minister William Gladstone are due to travel to the Caribbean to apologise for the historical part an ancestor played in the slave trade.

William, who was Liberal prime minister on four occasions in the 19th century, was son of John Gladstone – one of the largest slave owners in the British West Indies.

Charlie Gladstone, the great-great-great grandson of John, said he “felt absolutely sick” when he found out about his family’s slave-owning past.

He and five other family members are due to travel to Guyana in South America to make an apology for John’s ownership of Africans, according to The Observer. They also reportedly intend to pay reparations to fund further research into the impact of slavery.

John Gladstone was a Scottish merchant who made a fortune as a Demerara sugar-planter and had hundreds of enslaved people working in plantations in the decade before emancipation.

. . .

“He was a vile man. He was greedy and domineering. We have no excuses for him.”

More:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/guyana-rishi-sunak-victorian-bell-ribeiroaddy-prime-minister-b2396074.html