General Chat

Rollo,
Going on what you said about going to your course for speeding,and 'passing the estate of a distant rellie' I presume your extremely distant 'rellie' is Drax.

What social institutions did they build in Jamaica and Barbados that are still being used? That seems a very nice thing for them to do - but I suppose they'd made quite a bit from the trade.
Any idea when they were built?

Shirley, that sounds awful.

Sylvia, It wouldn't be so bad if the truth about slavery was at least touched upon - but it isn't.
I feel that if there is a slavery museum in the area - like there is in both Bristol and Liverpool, the statues should be put in the museum and the real story told.
It would be nice to have statues that are more relevant to today.

I'm really torn.

I understand the desire of various communities not to venerate certain of our ancestors.

Yet, destroying statues, removing paintings, etc etc doesn't remove what happened in the past.

It will only hide it even more.

We should be adding plaques to those statutes and art work, saying something along the lines of .......... "This guy did some horrible things in the the 18th (19th) century which include xxxxxx . But he also did some good things. We must remember him for both aspects."

That way we remember and abhor the slave trade or anti-semitism, but remember the social institutions or anti-slavery work that he/she did either alongside that or in later life.

So much of what what happened back then was what everyone or almost everyone else believed and often were also doing. Just as today everyone or almost everyone is anti-racism, anti-homophobia, pro-LGTBQ2.

You can't destroy history. You do need to bring it out into the light.

One of my rellies got a mention while I am living in a house built with the proceeds, just typical early c19 terrace. The family built social inst in Barbados and Jamaica which are still in use. The last one of us only came back in the 1960s.
I love Barbados.

I don't think it is the job of today to sit in judgement on yesterday.
Despite better ethics there are more de facto slaves than ever.

My aunt was a BHC in 1909 aged 10 years old

That was a form of slavery

She was treated abominably. Forced to sleep in the barn and whipped by the lady of the house if she didn’t do things as she wanted.

Went barefoot all week and then wore Ill fitting boots on a Sunday and made to walk behind the horse and cart that took the family to church and hit for not keeping up

Her crime was losing her mum when she was 7 years old and her father having no one to take on 4 children was forced to put them in the workhouse and from there they were in a workhouse run children’s home

Did anyone watch this last night?

If so, how many of you have looked on the database to see if you have any slave owning ancestors?

I have to admit, I have scoured the database, and found no slave owners (so far) amongst my ancestors.
However, I did find out who the slave owner was, of my grandad's best mate's ancestors.