Will the Church of England confess and pay its slavery debt? As things stand, no | Robert Beckford

As part of the increasingly urgent debate about slavery and its legacy, an uncomfortable question arises: How much do we trust the church?

Because it was recently revealed that the 18th-century Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Seck, approved Purchase of enslaved Africans The case of the Barbados sugar plantation raises serious questions about the integrity and capacity of the Anglican Church and the Evangelical Alliance’s restorative justice initiatives (USPG) is the Anglican missionary agency supporting churches around the world.

In 1758, Seck agreed to repay £1,093 to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG), which operated Codrington Manor, Barbados The company operated from 1710 to 1834, after accepting two plantations (the Upper and Lower Plantations) as gifts from violent colonists. Christopher Codrington (1668-1710).

There was no piety there. He discussed the plantations in his 2012 book Mastering Christianity: Missionary Anglicanism and Slavery in the Atlantic World., Historian Travis Glasson It was believed that Christian ownership had little impact on the lives of slaves. For many years, the word “Society” was branded on the chests of newly arrived African captives as a sign of ownership.

Secker’s revelations – Archbishop of Canterbury and Chairman of the SPG – Direct involvement in the atrocities of slavery cast doubt on the claim that the Church of England and the SPG were separate financial entities and highlighted the Church’s material and spiritual interests in running the Codrington estate. This historical fact was mentioned in an exhibition on the relationship between the church and slavery, which was held at Lambeth Palace Library last year. Slavery: Voices from the Archives, Especially as the exhibition features artifacts from other missionary organizations, such as the abominable Bible Anthology used by slaves in the British West Indies. or “The Slave Bible”in which passages relating to rebellion or liberation are omitted.

The USPG (the successor organization to the SPG) says it has taken “full responsibility” for its role at Codrington Plantation and has established a renewal and reconciliation project in Barbados in partnership with the Codrington Trust, which currently manages the estate. But what does “full responsibility” mean here? It has pledged £7 million spent in the country Compensation. But why £7 million?

Calculate using the same method Brattle’s report on the transatlantic slave tradethe most comprehensive analysis of the claims to date suggests that the actual debt is around £6 billion: £7 million is a very cheap payout for the US Coast Guard.

In fact, “cheap” seems to be the way the church is choosing. Earlier this year, a monitoring panel responsible for evaluating church commissioners £100 million offer No one knows how the committee arrived at the £100 million figure, and the group Request a tenfold increase In order to bring the commissioners closer to estimating the value of their immoral investment in slavery, Estimated £1.3 billion.

The Church of England’s behavior here and in the Caribbean seems strange. In Barbados, Trevor Prescod, chairman of the National Reparations Working Group, declared himself Feeling disappointed and disrespected He was shocked to learn of the ADF/Codrington Trust compensation agreement, which was reached in 2023 without consultation with his working group. The fact that the Anglican delegation reached a separate agreement with the Codrington Trust without adequately involving the individuals appointed by the Barbados Government to handle all compensation matters on behalf of citizens speaks to the unequal power relations that exist in these negotiations, and the lack of real public scrutiny.

Other denominations were also difficult to convince. In April this year, the United Reformed Church sent a delegation to Jamaica Apologize for its historical role in slaverywhen Jamaicans saw a black British woman, Dr. Tessa Henry Robinson, the current leader of the sect (herself a descendant of Caribbean slaves), apologizing to black Jamaicans, they were disturbed by the absurdity of it.

Are these unfortunate events part of a lesson learned, or is this a fundamental problem with the church’s system of reparations? I think the answer is the latter. It is clear that these church groups are controlling the reparations negotiations, controlling the financial settlements, and ultimately failing the descendants of enslaved people.

One has to wonder what else we don’t know about their past activities. Why are these churches offering so-called reparations agreements when they appear to have done no adequate research into historical crimes against black people, including their own entanglements with British racism? This is an insult to the memory of slaves and, according to authoritative analysis, only a fraction of what is due.

The scale of the crime is beyond doubt. Howard Gregory, the Anglican Archbishop of the West Indies, described Codrington Hall as “a symbol of slavery at its worst” (ironically, this was at the opening of the 2023 Slavery Exhibition, which made no mention of the Codrington Hall story).

The Church’s failure to act – its failure to do the right thing – is generative: it means that the descendants of slaves have been (re)evangelized. This can and should be avoided. The Church seems to be bound by a terrible past, but as Jesus himself said: “The truth will set you free.”

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