On Monday, Labour for a Republic will host a fringe event at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.
Professor Hakim Adi, a historian of Africa and the African diaspora, will be joined by the Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy to discuss the monarchy’s role in the slave trade and urge Keir Starmer to take action if elected prime minister.
It comes after a researcher digitising the records of the South Sea Company – a British company which supplied slaves to South America during the 18th century – found an illustration in the British Library showing slaves being branded with royal insignia.
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The Washington Post published the documents, which according to the researcher who discovered them, Nicholas Radburn, highlight the close connection between the monarchy and the South Sea Company’s role in slavery.
Tricia Duncan, the vice-chair of Labour for a Republic, said: “The links between the monarchy and the slave trade are deep and undeniable. They are the source of much of the Monarch’s vast wealth and they should also be the source of deep shame.
“It is distressing for many people that this history has been swept under the carpet and we welcome the work that our speakers, Bell and Hakim, have done to bring this important issue into the public’s consciousness”.
In July, the Dutch King apologised for the Netherlands’ involvement in slavery and the impacts it continues to have today.
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While King Charles has not followed in his footsteps with an official apology, he has signalled his support for more research into the connections between the slave trade and the British monarchy and said the issue brings him great “personal sorrow”.
Ben Clinton, campaign coordinator for Labour for a Republic, said the money for reparations should come from the royal family’s personal wealth and not the public purse.
He said: “Illustrations of the hot-iron branding of slaves with the royal insignia, uncovered by researchers at the British Library and reported in the Washington Post, are a striking and terrible reminder of the monarchy’s central role in the slave trade and remind us that no reparations for these horrific acts have yet been made.”
“That’s why we’re calling on Labour in government to take the lead and ensure that the monarch not only properly recognises his family’s legacy but makes reparations, not from the public purse, but from his own pocket.”
Buckingham Palace has been contacted for comment.