Malcolm Brabant:
A document recently emerged showing that, in 1689, King William III accepted shares worth $300,000 in today’s values in the slave-trading Royal African Company.
The donor was Edward Colston, the company’s deputy governor, who made a fortune from trafficking 80,000 Africans to the Americans. Three years ago, anti-racism activists tore down Colston’s statue in his home city of Bristol.
Faced with growing proof of the crown’s ties to slavery, King Charles has promised to support researchers by opening up the royal family’s archives.