To think descendants of slave owners should visit former plantations?

OP was of course referring to the white people who inherited the wealth of the plantation. That wealth is often still in the families - think privileged Eton/Harrow types.
It'd be nice to think of these people making voluntary reparations (financial, social or both) to acknowledge their own massive headstart and the continuing injustices facing slave descendants. Unfortunately I think there's still a huge air of entitlement within this group so it's unlikely.

I hope you didn't scream 🙄

Why stop there?

All royals and nobility only have all the lands and wealth they do because their ancestors were better at stabbing our ancestors.

They didn't get that land or those estates by asking nicely and purchasing them from the original owners. They earned wealth by using our ancestors as serfs. So if we are doing this then we may as go all the way.

I'll just pop on down to London and ask the King to start totting up the bill.

Then we will have to work out which poor bastards our ancestors robbed the land from.

And so on.

I actually have a little sympathy for the idea of people who inherit big wealth, looking to see if it's really thiers to inherit. It's not about being guilty and being punished. But if someone was about to give me a stately home and a trust fund to match that was traceable back to slavery and the documented compensation that was recieved, I'd probably wonder if it was OK to keep it all.

I mean, I'm only human so would probably justify keeping it somehow in reality.

The other thing I wonder is the national trust preserves a lot of these houses for the nation. I always find it odd that us commoners can go look at the houses rich people live ld in anyway, but I do wonder if they know the house was built from slave compensation, if part of the entry fee should go to wherever the slaves were.

No

Well I don't know about just slave owner descendents but everyone should educate themselves on the horrors of slavery. I found visiting plantations very moving, but just as much as spending a long time staring at a collar in the Wilberforce Museum in Hull.

Kamala Harris is descended from a slave owner. How do you possibly think that might have happened? So it is indeed possible that those conceived in rape can become millionaires.

Quite. And perhaps they could chip in for reparations as well? Or just give themselves a tenner and call it quits. 🤷

Richard Drax is a case in point, as he lives a life of privilege today and is likely to profit still further from the plantation land.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/20/tory-mp-from-slave-owning-family-set-to-gain-3m-from-sale-of-former-plantation

Anyone who has driven to Dorset and seen ‘the wall’ will be under no illusions as to the wealth of the family.

So basically what you are saying OP is you want me to give money to people because of something somebody I never knew did hundreds of years ago. That would be a hard never gonna happen from me.

i think that all the Normans should give the lands back to the Saxons who in turn should give the land back to the Celts! Also all Normans should pay reparation for the indenture of the Saxons.

Also I think that all descendants of the Russian royal family and aristocracy should make reparations to all the nationalities and Jews forcibly removed from their homes.They should also pay reparations to descendants of the serfs etc.

I think that all Americans should give back the land to the original inhabitants of America.

I would like all descendants of British landowners in Ireland to make reparation to the Irish for the death shops and potato famine.

Just from the top of my head!

In reality we are where we are and have to be fair form now on in with the situation we have.

Aren't there more slaves today than there ever was in the trans Atlantic slave trade?

Gosh, maybe we should all focus on that instead of empty meaningless fretting and fawning over a past no one alive is responsible for or suffered from today?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/news/2019/feb/25/modern-slavery-trafficking-persons-one-in-200

Why? You cannot be held responsible for another's actions. What happened was awful but you cannot punish or blame people who have nothing to do with it. You also cannot easily untangle money from it as it's too far gone. Its a meaningless gesture all round. Education and a commitment to end all slavery is what now needs to continue

I think in nowadays world they might need to do different stuff in their life.

Don't be ridiculous OP. That's a ticket to civil war and unrest. Funny how you didn't think of Catholics in NI, you went straight to slavery, much more virtue signalling there.

I admit I know little of history, but isn't that the same Trevelyan notorious in Ireland where a million died during the famine and saying it was God's way of punishing them? Maybe the descendants could visit the west coast where abandoned villages are still visible today. For anyone that doesnt know there was no 'famine', the country was rich in food but it was exported. So British people ate it and wealthy English people profited more. That was only 170 years ago, long after the slave trade was abolished. So let's make everyone who is wealthy in the UK do a tour and hand out money to the Irish, generous upper class Brits helping the poor unfortunate Irish. See how ridiculous that would be? And racist too?

Agree. How far back do we go. The slaves were captured by fellow Africans and sold. The Arab run slave trade from the East coast of Africa was far bigger, and covered a broader spread. why does no-one mention that? A laser focus on a single area does not address the wider point.

Why?

They are not responsible for what their ancestors did.

Do you expect everyone to look into their family tree and apologise for something that was done by someone else centuries ago?

Because most of us will probably have some dodgy ancestors who did something wrong at some point in history...

So a complete waste of time.

There are so many current issues (xenophobia, racism, violence against women and girls) to challenge that there is no point in virtue signalling about the past.

Yes I agree. I know people who will happily buy "hauls" of summer clothes from Shein and the like, or giggle about the crap that arrived from Temu. Likely made by slaves today. But this is seen as an acceptable thing to do.

If People are genuinely concerned about making up for the wrongs of slavery then they should turn their attention to fixing the current issues of modern day slavery.

to me that’s the only way you can genuinely apologise

but they won’t. Instead they want to virtue signal and say the right things and apologise to people for something they didn’t do (rendering it meaningless).

Wouldn’t it be better to fight modern slavery?

I think it’s just totally impractical. What do we do about those in Africa who captured and exchanged the slaves in the first place? What about those who worked on the slave ships? Plantation owners who bought slaves? Politicians who allowed it to flourish? Mill owners who benefitted?
you then have the issue if the poor orphaned children working in cotton factories in awful conditions bound by an indenture.
The past is full of people doing awful things. I agree with PP - all we can do is reflect on the actions of others and aim to be a much better person.

Oh come on OP- a lengthy trip to Grenada and starting an education initiative isnt going to be cheap is it? That would involve many, many thousands of pounds.

If she is rich enough and privileged enough to do that then thats great but how is the average person in the UK going to afford to do all that even if they do have dodgy ancestors.

But it's true?

The slaves in Africa were already slaves, if they weren't bought by Europeans and others, they'd still be slaves.

When the slave trade was ended in the West, Africans still enslaved each other.

You do know that there are slaves in Africa still today right?

I went to a former plantation that was the destination of my ancestors in St Kitt's & Nevis. Great views, and they made a wonderful lunch and cocktail. Would recommend.

Maybe we should focus on the atrocities happening right now instead of the past. 3 little girls were just murdered at a dance class and this is what you're worrying about?