Revealed: How the Church of England’s links to slavery reached the highest levels | Slavery

In the 18th century, the Archbishop of Canterbury approved the payment of slaves for Barbadossee the file Observer Already revealed.

Thomas Seck agreed to repay £1,093 for the purchase of slaves for Codrington Plantation and for the hiring of slaves from third parties, measures which were said to be “carefully calculated for the long-term future benefit of the estate”.

These files are Lambeth Palace Library Detailed description The Church of England and Slavery on plantations owned by its missionary arm, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG).

In response Observer Revelation, Justin WelbyThe Archbishop of Canterbury said: “Every new piece of evidence about the Church’s involvement in the slave trade is sobering, but it is particularly distressing to read that a former Archbishop of Canterbury was involved in the purchase of slaves.

“It also reminds us that the work is not done and that we need to do more to examine our role in the trade in enslaved Africans, which is a desecration of God’s creation that treats men, women and children as less than human.

“While nothing can fully atone for these crimes, we are committed to discovering more, recognizing that this will take many years and potentially span generations.” He said research into “the most shocking aspects of our history” was “very welcome.”

In 1710, Christopher Codrington, the colonial administrator, left two sugar plantations to SPG. His will stipulated that he wanted the plantations to employ 300 slaves and to establish a college on the estate. It is estimated that the plantations generated £5 million in revenue per year in today’s money.

The SPG was founded by royal charter in 1701 to convert the colonists to Christianity, and its governing meetings were regularly chaired by the current Archbishop of Canterbury, who was sworn in as president of the SPG throughout the period when slaves worked on the plantations (from 1710 to 1838).

According to documents in the Lambeth Palace Library archives, at meetings chaired by Seck in November 1758 and August 1760, payments were approved for the purchase of “new negroes” and reimbursement for hired slave labour.

Trevor PrescodA Barbadian MP and chair of the Barbados National Reparations Task Force said evidence showed the church was involved in slavery on the plantations “up to the archbishop.”

“The Church was central to the establishment of slavery and was probably one of its biggest beneficiaries,” he said. “No one understands the gravity of this crime against humanity better than the Church, and it is now responsible for compensating all victims of slavery.”

Anglican missionaries owned slaves on Barbados plantations, where they were branded and forced to work “under the whip.” A document listing plantation slaves in 1781 shows that there were 73 children among the slaves.

In 2006, the Church of England apologised for its “involvement in the slave trade” and running Codrington Plantation, but had not previously acknowledged the Archbishop of Canterbury’s role in approving funds to buy African slaves.

The Church Commission, the body responsible for managing the church’s financial assets, released a full report last January describing the church’s financial links to the slave trade through: Queen Anne’s BountyIt pledged £100m to the fund, which is used to supplement the income of clergy, to “address past mistakes”.

In March, an independent monitoring group advising the Church Commission on historical links to the transatlantic slave trade released a report that recommended the Church “fund research to fully expose the Church’s involvement in the African slave trade and how the Church used the wealth it generated”.

Last September, United Social Gospel PartnersThe successor organization to the SPG issued an apology for slavery on its plantations, calling it a “crime against humanity.” The group said slaves were branded and not properly cared for, leading to many deaths.

The church committee said: “We are committed to conducting and promoting further research, knowing that our archives will tell us more about other ways in which the church was involved in African slavery.

“This includes Codrington Plantation – for example, a recently discovered letter suggests that high up in the hierarchy were aware of the horrors of slavery on these plantations. We have published this letter on the Lambeth Palace Library website and mention Codrington on our own website where we publish the findings of our research into the church commissioners’ links to African slavery.”