Descendants of slave owner to visit Guyana to offer formal apology

…to support UG’s research with £100,000

As the University of Guyana gears up to launch its International Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies, the descendants of a slave owner, John Gladstone – who enslaved over 2500 persons during tumultuous times – will be coming to Guyana to offer a former apology.
The University and the Guyana Reparations Committee invited members of the Gladstone family, part of a heirs of slavery grouping, to participate in the event since Quamina and his son John, who led the 1823 rebellions were enslaved on Gladstone plantations.
The University itself is founded on plantation lands upon which part of the revolutions were enacted.
“The Gladstone family, which includes several historians have today confirmed that they will in fact offer an apology given the role their ancestors would have played here,” UG shared in a statement.
An inter-generational dialogue between UG students and youthful members of the Gladstone family; a linking of the University of Guyana Library with digital archives of the Council of World Missions are some of the initiatives to be taken.
On Saturday, the UK Guardian reported that £100,000 will be donated to set the research department at the University of Guyana.
“The money is not coming from a single fund – each family member is making a contribution,” it added.

One of the descendants, Charlie Gladstone, shared that when he learned about John Gladstone’s involvement in slavery he was moved to tears.
“I felt absolutely terrible. I really, really hated it. It was a shock and I felt absolutely sick,” Gladstone is quoted in the British newspaper.
John Gladstone is the father of William Gladstone – four-time British Prime Minister. After the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, he received the largest of all compensated emancipation payments made via the Slave Compensation Act 1837 for the loss of his slaves.
Gladstone proceeded to expel the majority of the newly emancipated freedmen from his plantations and imported large numbers of indentured servants from British India as part of the Indian indenture system.
The University of Guyana will launch its International Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies in collaboration with the National Reparations Committee and Heirs of Slavery, on Friday.
The Diaspora and Migration Centre is set up to pursue five specific areas of research interest including Diaspora and Migration in and around Academia, Youth, Technology and Vulnerable communities, Indigeneity, Indentureship and Slavery as specific and integral aspects of dispersion.
The research track for slavery and indentureship is the reason why it was deemed appropriate to launch the Diaspora and Migration Centre (MiDias) in this historically auspicious month in regard to the emancipation of enslaved peoples as well as the 200th anniversary of the 1823 slave revolution in Demerara.
“The University has been collaborating for several years with several universities and the Guyana Reparations Committee on specific aspects of impacts of the plantations’ enterprise of slavery and indenture as well as indigeneity on native populations, including relations being experienced today,” UG said in a statement.