A BBC journalist and an MP made a podcast about slavery

A friendship can survive many things. But could it survive finding out that one of your friend’s ancestors probably enslaved your own? For Norwich South MP Clive Lewis and former BBC journalist Laura Trevelyan, it was an uncomfortable revelation they had to face head-on.

“Clive’s ancestors might have been enslaved by mine, which is horrible – but it’s a starting point to get into a very necessary topic,” says Trevelyan. “If I felt angry,” adds Lewis. “I would’ve said so to Laura. Our relationship is one where we can speak openly with each other.”

Lewis and Trevelyan have created a new podcast, Heirs of Enslavement, which tackles their shared history, and their fight for reparatory justice for the descendants of enslaved people in the Caribbean. On their show, and over Zoom today, the pair have an upbeat rapport, with laughter and mutual compliments flowing easily. They’re also somewhat unlikely allies: Lewis, 52, is a republican on the Labour left, while Trevelyan, 55, says she has “pretty centrist” leanings. They tell me they understand if people might see their connection as surprising, even before knowing their shocking historical link. But despite their differences, they are united in their passion for conversation, as well as their shared desire for reparations when it comes to Britain’s part in the horrors of slavery.

“People that know us both know that we come from very different backgrounds,” Lewis says. “And there’s definitely space between where our politics lie. I think that’s what makes it all the more attractive and interesting; it shows how people from quite a broad spectrum of politics can come together on what is quite a controversial issue.”

Trevelyan’s awareness of her family history began in 2014 when, while working as an anchor for BBC World News America, she discovered that her ancestors had not only owned up to 10 different plantations in Grenada, but had actually financially benefited from the abolition of slavery in 1837. “They got compensation for six different sugar cane plantations in Grenada for what was termed their property,” she explains. The Trevelyans ended up receiving £34,000, equivalent to £3.5m in 2021, providing them with wealth and social influence for generations.

Yet, it wasn’t until the killing of George Floyd in 2020 and the resulting revival of the Black Lives Matter movement that Trevelyan properly faced up to her ancestors’ role in a centuries-old social imbalance. “Every night I was anchoring the US BBC News broadcast, interviewing people about the meaning of the protests in the States,” she says. “I thought, if the legacy of slavery in America is police brutality towards Black men, what does it mean in Grenada? What’s the legacy there? What’s the debate? What role did my ancestors [play]?”

The UK narrative is that wealthy people are that way because they’ve earned it. It doesn’t tell you where that wealth came from – the brutality of empire and postcolonialism. Forgetting is convenient

Clive Lewis

Trevelyan explored these questions in the 2022 documentary called Grenada: Confronting the Past. In 2023, 104 descendants of the slave plantation owner Sir John Trevelyan signed a letter of apology to the people of Grenada on behalf of their ancestors, and also established an educational fund on the island worth £100,000. Trevelyan then left her 30-year broadcasting career to advocate for Caribbean reparations full time.

Back in Britain, Lewis was no stranger to the debate over compensation for descendants of slavery. The son of the prominent Grenadian-British trade unionist Tony Lewis, and influenced by the late Labour politician and reparations activist Bernie Grant, Lewis had long been wondering how best to bring to the political forefront the issue of British reparations to the Caribbean. “Even in my own party, this wasn’t an issue that was being discussed,” he says. “Labour’s one-line position is: ‘The party does not believe in reparatory justice’. It was an issue I was looking at but thinking, ‘How do I speak up about this?’”

Days after the Trevelyans’ public apology, Lewis took action. He told ministers that the UK must pay reparation to Caribbean countries to make up for Britain’s role in slavery. “I knew that that was my moment to stand up in parliament and say: ‘If Laura and her family can do this, then why isn’t the British state?’”

From there, Lewis and Trevelyan’s friendship began. They started to message and call each other on WhatsApp, commending one another for taking stands while sharing their individual resources. When the opportunity to visit Grenada together and create a podcast about it arose, they couldn’t say no. In Heirs of Enslavement, they take a fascinating journey through Grenada and other Caribbean countries, speaking to figures of the reparatory justice movement such as Sir Hilary Beckles, chairman of the Caricom Reparations Commission.

While there, however, they learnt that their Grenadian histories were linked more directly than they’d previously considered. “Clive’s father is from Gouyave, which is close to the Beausejour plantation, which the Trevelyans part-owned,” Trevelyan says. “People don’t move that far away from their ancestral home. Grenada is a small island of about 120,000 people, and the Trevelyans owned 10 plantations over 150 years. The historians we spoke to in Grenada said that it’s really very likely that Clive and I are linked by this history.”

How is it possible to move past a revelation as painful as that? How must it feel to stand in the blazing hot sun, in a field of towering crops, imagining the cruel conditions of harvesting them 200 years ago? Lewis admits that it wasn’t easy, but that he and Trevelyan’s efforts to bring justice to those harmed by British colonialism were greater than getting stuck in the specifics of their history. “Some elements of the trip were definitely eerie, standing on the plantation that Laura’s family owned, with Laura. At one point, we were standing next to an outhouse which could have been a sugar storage place, or slave quarters. But being stood there, as friends, was kind of a full-circle moment.”

Lewis and Trevelyan saw first hand how slavery and colonisation are discussed with total transparency in Grenada, which opened their eyes to the comparative silence surrounding both subjects in the UK. Neither of them thinks the lack of conversation is an accident.

“It’s my firmly held opinion that one of the reasons for the UK ‘forgetting’ about this was because it was a vast crime scene,” Lewis says. “The UK narrative is that wealthy people are that way because they’ve earned it, and they’re smart, they’ve invested wisely. It doesn’t tell you where that wealth came from – the brutality of empire and postcolonialism. Forgetting is convenient.”

A direct relative of Trevelyan was also instrumental in forming how Britain’s relationship to slavery is taught. “In school, I was just taught that Britain abolished slavery, and how fantastic that was,” she says. “My great-grandfather, GM Trevelyan, was the bestselling historian of the first half of the 20th century. He must have known about the history of slavery money in his family, but in his history of England, he celebrates abolition as a core principle of 19th-century liberal Britain. There’s no discussion of the horrors or the legacies of the slave trade.”

Though they’re aware that not everyone will be receptive to revisiting the uglier side of British history, Lewis and Trevelyan hope that their podcast helps educate all listeners – whether descendants of the enslaved, enslavers, or neither – on how the past still has major effects on today. “Clive and I are a microcosm of Britain’s history,” Trevelyan says. “It’s painful, but there’s great promise in the future in addressing it.”

‘Heirs of Enslavement’ is available on all podcast providers

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