14 Caribbean nations sue Britain, Holland and France for slavery reparations

In a case that could cost hundreds of billion pounds, 14 Countries have hired lawyers to demand compensation for the 'awful' legacy of the Atlantic slave trade

1861 drawing of a chain gang (Daily Mail)

Tom Leanard and Simon Tomlinson UK Daily Mail 11 October 2013

Map shows the main transatlantic routes out of Africa during the slave trade from 1500-1900

Map depicts the slave and non-slaveholding states at the outbreak of the Civil War, along with the dates when each non-slaveholding state legally ended slavery

Caricom has hired British law firm Leigh Day, which recently won compensation for Kenyans tortured by the British colonial government during the Mau Mau rebellion of the 1950s

Britain is being sued with France and the Netherlands by 14 Caribbean countries demanding what could be hundreds of billions of pounds in reparations for slavery.

Around 175 years after Britain freed its last slaves in the West Indies, an alliance of Caribbean nations is demanding to be repaid for the 'awful', lingering legacy of the Atlantic slave trade.

Caricom, a group of 12 former British colonies together with the former French colony Haiti and the Dutch-held Suriname, believes the European governments should pay – and the UK in particular.

It has hired the British law firm Leigh Day, which recently won compensation for hundreds of Kenyans tortured by the British colonial government during the Mau Mau rebellion of the 1950s.

Caricom has not specified how much money they are seeking but senior officials have pointed out that Britain paid slave owners £20 million when it abolished slavery in 1834. That sum would be the equivalent of £200 billion today.

But the decision was reversed by President Andrew Johnson after President Abraham Lincoln's assassination in 1865, it was noted by Al Jazeera America.

In 2008, Barack Obama said he did not support reparations to the descendants of slaves, going against the views of around two dozen members of Congress who sponsored legislation to create a commission on slavery.

In the same year, the House apologised for slavery, with the Senate following suit in 2009, but neither mentioned compensation.

In its lawsuit, Caricom claims slavery condemned the region to a poverty that still afflicts it today.

And they are comparing their demand to Germany recompensing Jewish people for the Holocaust and New Zealand compensating Maoris.

'Awful legacy': In a speech at United Nations General Assembly last month (above), Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, said European nations must pay for the slave trade

A Sorry history that shipped up
to 60m Africans into slavery

Portuguese traders built sub-Saharan Africa's first permanent slave trading post at Elmina in 1492.

It passed into Dutch and English hands and by the 18th century they shipped tens of thousands of Africans a year through 'the door of no return' onto squalid slave ships bound for plantations of the Americas.

European traders would sail to the west coast of Africa with manufactured goods which they exchanged for people captured by African traders.

The European merchants would then cross the Atlantic with ships full of slaves on the notorious 'Middle Passage'.

Conditions were so torrid that many of the captors, who often had barely any space to move, did not survive the journey.

Those who made the voyage were destined to work on plantations that produced products such as sugar or tobacco for consumption back in Europe.

By the end of the 18th Century, campaigners called for the abolition of the trade, but this was fiercely opposed because it was so profitable.

After years of campaigning by anti-slavery activists like politician William Wilberforce, Britain banned the trade in slaves from Africa on March 25, 1807.

Slavery itself was not outlawed by Britain for another generation, in 1833, and the transatlantic trade continued under foreign flags for many years.

Some estimates say as many as 60million people were shipped into bondage.

'The awful legacy of these crimes against humanity ought to be repaired for the developmental benefit of our Caribbean societies and all our peoples,' said Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of the tiny Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

He called it a 'historic wrong that has to be righted'.

Verene Shepherd, who is coordinating Jamaica’s demands for reparations, said their slave ancestors 'got nothing' when they were freed.

'They got their freedom and they were told ‘Go develop yourselves’,' she said.

Critics have pointed out that many of Caricom’s members are hardly poor – including millionaire havens such as the Bahamas and Barbados.

Prime minister Tony Blair expressed regret for the 'unbearable suffering' caused by Britain’s role in slavery in 2007 but made no mention of financial compensation.

Britain has said that paying reparations for slavery is the wrong way to address 'an historical problem'.

Caricom insists they are hoping to reach a settlement with the European countries and will only take legal action if talks collapse.

'A Caricom reparations commission has been set up to work out should be paid and how much, led by Barbados historian Sir Hilary Beckles.

Sir Hilary says they are 'focusing' on Britain because it was the largest slave owner in the 1830s.

'The British made the most money out of slavery and the slave trade - they got the lion’s share. And, importantly, they knew how to convert slave profits into industrial profits,' he said.

Some Caricom countries already get financial aid from Britain and other Commonwealth countries.

Martyn Day, the British lawyer who is advising Caricom, told the Daily Mail he doubted it would affect their membership of the Commonwealth.

I know they are hoping they can resolve this amicably rather than having to take matters through the courts,' he said.

He said: 'Our advice has been that the Caribbean states should be claiming in relation to the impact of the slave trade on the Caribbean today rather than looking for reparations related to what happened to the slaves historically.'

'Guilty by Association' denial by 'Catholic Online'

Los Angeles, CA catholic.org 11 October 2013

... There is no question that the problems which plague the Caribbean are the result of slavery's long shadow. Yet, the guilt is widely spread and those living today have not perpetrated any crime against those living in the Caribbean. You cannot make the innocent pay for the sins of the guilty, or else it is not justice.

Instead, the world should recognize that slavery casts a long shadow that affects us all today. Instead of reparations, the people of the Caribbean must take responsibility for their condition and find ways to cooperate with the nations of the world to lift themselves from poverty. They must fight corruption within their governments, build trades and industries that the world wants, and take responsibility for resolving their own issues as nation-states. Likewise, the world does owe them cooperation in a spirit of brotherhood. Where before masters ordered slaves, why not let the great grandchildren contract as equal partners? There is no better justice than that.

Meanwhile, the world would do well to be reminded that newer forms of slavery have replaced the African chattel-slavery of centuries past and that more people live in bondage today than at any other time in history. This slavery is both real and immediate and should be the focus of efforts at abolishment and justice.

As for the long-dead past, it is for God to dispense justice.

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