<
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2023/mar/28/guardian-owner-apologises-founders-transatlantic-slavery-scott-trust>
"The owner of the
Guardian has issued an apology for the role the newspaper’s
founders had in transatlantic slavery and announced a decade-long programme of
restorative justice.
The Scott Trust said it expected to invest more than £10m (US$12.3m, A$18.4m),
with millions dedicated specifically to descendant communities linked to the
Guardian’s 19th-century founders.
It follows independent academic research commissioned in 2020 to investigate
whether there was any historical connection between chattel slavery and John
Edward Taylor, the journalist and cotton merchant who founded the newspaper in
1821, and the other Manchester businessmen who funded its creation.
The Scott Trust Legacies of Enslavement report, published on Tuesday, revealed
that Taylor, and at least nine of his 11 backers, had links to slavery,
principally through the textile industry. Taylor had multiple links through
partnerships in the cotton manufacturing firm Oakden & Taylor, and the cotton
merchant company Shuttleworth, Taylor & Co, which imported vast amounts of raw
cotton produced by enslaved people in the Americas.
Researchers from the universities of Nottingham and Hull were able to identify
Taylor’s links to plantations in the Sea Islands, along the coast of South
Carolina and Georgia, after reviewing an invoice book showing that
Shuttleworth, Taylor & Co received cotton from the region, which included the
initials and names of plantation owners and enslavers.
Another of the
Guardian’s early financiers, the West India merchant Sir
George Philips, co-owned the Success sugar plantation in Hanover, Jamaica.
He unsuccessfully attempted to claim compensation from the British government
in 1835 for what he regarded as the loss of his human property, which was 108
people. His partner, however, successfully claimed £1,904 19s 10d in
compensation, which, according to the most conservative estimate, is worth
approximately £200,000 today.
Alongside an apology “to the affected communities identified in the research
and surviving descendants of the enslaved for the part the
Guardian and its
founders had in this crime against humanity”, the trust also apologised for
early editorial positions that served to support the cotton industry, and
therefore the exploitation of enslaved people."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
