THE Archbishop of Canterbury has thanked journalists and historians for uncovering links between an 18th-century predecessor and the transatlantic slave trade. Such revelations motivate the Church to “do more to reckon with our past”, he said.
Archbishop Welby was responding to articles in The Observer on Sunday, based on documents present in the Lambeth Palace Library archives. They showed that, within the mid-18th century, payments for the acquisition of “recent negroes” were approved by the then Archbishop, the Most Revd Thomas Secker.
He approved reimbursements for the acquisition of enslaved people to work on sugar plantations in Barbados which were owned by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG).
Learning of the involvement of Archbishop Secker, who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1758 to 1768 and president of SPG, was “particularly painful”, Archbishop Welby said. He praised the “indefatigable effort of journalists, theologians, and historians, who work to explore essentially the most egregious features of our history — each for the Church of England and the broader country”.
Such work “is incredibly essential and most welcome”, he said. “As a Church, it motivates us to do more to reckon with our past and repair the injuries inflicted by this evil trade, whose legacy still impacts people’s lives today.”
The documents referred to by the Observer show that, in November 1758, Archbishop Secker, as chair of a gathering of SPG, approved a payment of £1093 for “the acquisition of latest negroes [from Africa] and for the hire of enslaved labour from a 3rd party”.
The transaction was required “for the long run lasting advantage of the estates”, Archbishop Secker was told. An extra payment was approved two years later.
The Observer also quoted from a letter he wrote in 1760, by which he seems to recognise that conditions on the estate may be resulting in the deaths of the enslaved people working there, and the following request for funds to buy replacements.
“I actually have long wondered and lamented that the negroes in our plantations decrease and recent supplies turn out to be obligatory, repeatedly. Surely this proceeds from some defect, each of humanity and good policy. But we must take things as they’re at present,” he wrote.
SPG was left the sugar plantations in the desire of the colonial administrator and slave owner Christopher Codrington. In September last 12 months, SPG’s successor organisation, the Christian charity USPG, pledged £7 million to be spent in Barbados over the subsequent ten to fifteen years (News, 13 September 2023).
“USPG is deeply ashamed of our past links to slavery,” the final secretary of USPG, the Revd Dr Duncan Dormor, said on the time. “We recognise that it isn’t barely enough to repent in thought and word, but we must take motion.”
In January last 12 months, the Church Commissioners announced the creation of a £100-million fund, investments and grants from that are earmarked to assist “address a few of the past wrongs” of links between Queen Anne’s Bounty — which provided a part of the endowment now managed by the Commissioners — and transatlantic chattel slavery (News, 10 January 2023).
This spring, a report by an independent oversight group beneficial that the monies for the fund be made available in five years, and that the Church seek to draw partners to expand the fund (News, 4 March).
An Emeritus Professor of History on the University of Southampton, Dr Richard Dale, has argued that the Church never benefited from investments within the slave trade (Comment, 22 March).
In March, the Bishop of Croydon, Dr Rosemarie Mallett, who chaired the oversight group, said that quite than simply a payment made in an try and right a flawed, the Church was embarking on a deeper process from which “everybody advantages”.
“This isn’t about parents’ giving children sweeties when the parents feel they’ve done something flawed; that is about ensuring that the best way by which we engage in the long run with impacted communities will likely be of the now, and for the then,” she said.
In response to the Observer articles, a spokesperson for the Commissioners said that they “will proceed to welcome constructive engagement as we seek to learn and understand more. We have committed to undertake and enable further research, within the knowledge that our archives could have much more to inform about other ways by which the Church was involved in African chattel enslavement.”
