LONDON, CMC -The Trevelyan family in the United Kingdom say they will offer a public apology to the people of Grenada, where their ancestors had more than one thousand enslaved people.
According to an article published online by the BBC, the family, who owned six sugar plantations in Grenada, will also pay reparations.
The report stated that in 2022, a family member, a BBC reporter, Laura Trevelyan, visited Grenada and was shocked that her ancestors had been compensated by the UK government when slavery was abolished in 1833 – but freed enslaved Africans got nothing.
Speaking to the BBC personally on Saturday, Trevelyan recalled her visit to the island for a documentary.
“It was horrific… I saw for myself the plantations where enslaved people were punished when I saw the torture instruments used to restrain them.”
“I felt ashamed, and I also felt that it was my duty. You can’t repair the past – but you can acknowledge the pain.”
Trevelyan said seven family members plan to travel to Grenada later in February to issue a public apology.
The family will give US$120,000 to establish a community fund for economic development on the island.
According to Trevelyan, in 1834, her family received about £34,000 for the loss of their “property” in Grenada – the equivalent of about £3m in today’s money.
“For me to be giving £100,000 almost 200 years later… maybe that seems inadequate,” she said.
“But I hope we’re setting an example by apologizing for what our ancestors did.”
The Grenada National Reparations Commission described the gesture as commendable.
Trevelyan, currently a BBC correspondent in New York, said she wanted to go to Grenada in the wake of the racial reckoning in the United States.
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