Gladstone heirs’ apology must include compensation, reparative justice – Pres Ali

Ahead of today’s event that will see the descendants of slave owner John Gladstone – who had enslaved over 2500 persons during tumultuous times here – offering a former apology for the actions of their ancestors, President Dr Irfaan Ali has called for that apology to include compensation and reparative justice.

The University of Guyana and the Guyana Reparations Committee invited members of the Gladstone family to participate in the launch of UG’s International Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies today. On Thursday, UG said the apology they helped negotiate with the Gladstone heirs for Guyana includes slavery and indentureship, since the particular ancestor was integrally involved in both.
In a live broadcast on his social media page, President Ali welcomed the Gladstone heirs’ apology, which he said is the first step in the process of reparative justice, is an acknowledgement of the cruel nature of African enslavement and indentureship in Guyana, as well as an act of contrition that paves the way for justice.
“The apology offered by the descendants of John Gladstone underscores their willingness to confront their family’s dark past and to acknowledge the immense pain, suffering and indignities inflicted upon innocent persons through their family’s actions,” the Head of State noted.
In his Emancipation Day message, the Guyanese Leader had called on those who were complicit in, and who profited from, the trade in captive Africans and African enslavement to offer just reparations.
According to the President, the Gladstone family has already admitted that it benefitted from African enslavement and indentureship on the Demerara and other plantations owned by its patriarch, and has agreed to undertake certain actions.
To this end, he declared, “I therefore propose that the intended apology include issues of compensation, reparative justice, and those involved to be posthumously charged for crimes against humanity.”
Based on historical records, John Gladstone was an absentee owner of plantations in Jamaica and Guyana, building on his wealth earned from the mercantile trade in India, the United States, and the West Indies.

After the British seizure of the colonies that became Guyana in 1803, John Gladstone began to invest in them. His interests and acquisitions included at one time the plantations at Belmonte, Coverden, Hampton Court, Industry, Met-en-Meer-Zorg, Success, Vreed-en-Hoop, Vreedenstein and Wales.
Despite the 1823 Demerara Slave Revolt at his plantation at Success, Gladstone was not deterred from expanding his investments in the then British Guiana. At the time of slavery abolition, he received compensation, which at today’s value is estimated at more than £10 million, while the freed Africans received nothing.
Anticipating a collapse in African field labour after the end of the apprenticeship period, Gladstone, along with other planters, helped to pioneer the use of Indian indentured labour in British Guiana, introducing a new form of servitude to the colony.
In 1837, an Act was passed which allowed Gladstone to import Indian indentured immigrants. Serious abuses of Indian indentured immigrants on Gladstone’s Vreed-en-Hoop plantation were uncovered soon after by a member of the Anti-Slavery Society.
Despite his outsized influence in British Guiana and the empire as a whole, Gladstone never once visited the West Indies.
In recent years, the demands for reparations for African enslavement and indentureship have intensified. According to President Ali, these calls for reparations are not intended to promote or leverage shame or guilt over the slave trade and slavery, neither are they extortion. Instead, he argued, the demand for reparations is a commitment to righting historical wrongs.
“Millions of Africans endured unspeakable horrors – displacement, captivity, extreme and brutal physical and sexual violence, and the severing of family ties. They were treated as chattel, their labour exacted under the harshest conditions. They dehumanised slaves by taking away their culture, religion, and even their names. The heinousness of this crime against humanity demands that we seek to right these wrongs. Yet we face a push-back when it comes to recompense for this crime – something that does not accord with the fundamental underpinnings of justice,” the Head of State stressed.
He further outlined that another important reason why the Caribbean is demanding reparations is because slavery has bequeathed a legacy that the region endures even today. With two out of every five slave persons being shipped to the Caribbean, the region still bears witness to the lasting impact of this historical injustice, a burden that has impeded development and hindered progress.
“The call for reparations is an essential response to right a historical wrong and mitigate the enduring legacy of slavery. Reparations are aimed at ensuring a reckoning for the greatest crime against humanity and addressing the multifaceted inheritance of slavery,” the Guyanese Leader noted.
The Caribbean Reparations Committee’s 10-point plan for reparations offers a roadmap toward dismantling the barriers that persist. It calls, inter alia, for an unconditional apology and investment in education, healthcare, infrastructure, and cultural revitalization – an investment not only in the present, but also in the future, ensuring future generations are unshackled from the chains of history.
While acknowledging the historical atrocities of slavery, and offering an apology is undeniably significant, President Ali noted, those constitute just the initial step on the path towards achieving comprehensive reparative justice for African enslavement.
“An acknowledgement and apology serve as a moral reckoning, validating the pain and suffering inflicted on generations past. However, the multifaceted legacy of slavery extends far beyond the confines of historical memory. The descendants of John Gladstone must now also outline their plan of action in line with the Caricom Ten- Point Plan for Reparatory Justice for Slavery and Indentureship,” the Head of State noted. (G-8)