To think descendants of slave owners should visit former plantations?

[rowernoke]

Particularly if their family still has wealth earned through the atrocities of the slave trade and slavery?

For example, Laura Trevalyan visited former plantations in Grenada and met with local people to understand the role her ancestors played in the slave trade. She was so moved by this that she is now sponsoring education initiatives for those affected.

I think it's fine as long as it's part of a wider Global Apology Movement.
For example, I'll not be apologising while the people of West Africa descended from the traders who sold slaves to the Europeans and Americans in the first place are let off.
I also think we really need to dig in to the history of all nations and pull all the threads to uncover historical wrongs which needs to be financially put right. If it pulls apart the tapestry of that nation and causes immense poverty and division today, it's fine because surely someone somewhere will be paying out to that nation in turn anyway.
One thing I am unsure of is how far back we should go. History gets murky at different times in different parts of the world. What body of evidence is needed? Will archeological be ok or do we need verified written records? That could probably be problematic/discriminatory....
So many questions....

Sorry for typos. I don't seem to be able to edit!

The sorts of families that still have vast wealth inherited from the slave trade would not be made to do anything. Most of them happily continue with their unethical trading practices today.

Exactly.

The vast majority of people who bought a share in a plantation in the 1700s, never set foot outside of their own county. It was just an investment to them - and (oddly, horribly, bafflingly - granted) entirely acceptable at the time.

Maybe all Germans should visit Auschwitz?

Sadly I agree with this. You'd likely get empathic ordinary people apologising and taking the heat whilst the mega rich would get out of it somehow with legal loopholes and expensive lawyers.

They literally dont give a fuck.

Indeed.

Ah, white saviour syndrome.

Why only the wealthy? Why not the descendants of Brits who happily raped women in India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Kenya etc?

People always seem to forget the uncomfortable truth that many of the slaves own ancestors willingly sold their own people to European slave traders for financial gain. It was not only outsiders who became wealthy off the back of the slave trade.

I think its because this form of slave trade ended with documented compensation to the owners. So records exist and put a financial value on it. We know what happened to some of that money subsequently. The very nature of it makes people think in terms of finance.

Whereas there isn't a documented financial value recorded on various acts of brutality and rape.

Pointless virtue signalling. I am the descendants of slaves and slaveowners. It's history. You're all descendants of Anglo Saxon and Roman slaves. All descendants of early factory owners. Are the descendants to if Algerian slavers who raided the south coast of England for decades having this debate.

How about we put as much energy into modern slavery and take a stand against Chinese slavery?

We give lots of aid to our formal colonies - do France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium?

Let's not be so down on our country and take a more balanced, longer view.

The irony of this type of suggestion is that it's aim is to create more divide and racial tensions, exactly the kind of thing we should be working towards eliminating. The issue is about wealth, acquired through historical immoral means. Focusing on the US slave trade and ignoring other historical wrongs and modern day slavery illustrates this point. We could be worrying about the eastern European sex slaves or the Irish occupation of old and many other examples PP have made, but wheres the white saviour role in that? It's much more fun for OP and others online to provoke people of colour into feeling victimised and white people into feeling defensive and create racial divisions.

I don't know what I'm supposed to do with this proposed action.
The most recent & relevant ancestor was born in 1838, almost 200 years ago.
I work that out as ... 4 generations ago.
He (GWS) was roughly the 20th child of a large plantation owner in Tennessee.
GWS didn't choose to be a slave owner's child, either.
GWS fought in the US civil war, travelled to Indiana after the war to join an older sibling (I think) & never had a lot of money.
Maybe GWS had siblings whose descendents are now wealthy, I dunno.
He had some kind of falling out with his family (letters from his sister) but I don't know nature of that.

I have Puritan ancestors who effected genocide on the N. American indigenous population. I feel a lot sadder about what they did. Presumably my more distant ancestors also effected genocide on the Celts, etc.

Obsession with past wrongs is a bad thing, I'm sure of that.

All, whether descendants of slaves or slave owners, or none of the anbove, ought to be interested in their family history. It can be one of the factors shaping who we are and can help with self understanding. But we can’t force it and money should not be involved unless the person desires.

Well put.

This, a thousand times!

I think slavery needs to be put to bed now in terms of people alive today having to feel guilty about it. Remember it so it doesn't happen again, yes, but stop with all the nonsense like in this op and reparations etc. And I say that as someone whose great grandparents were indentured.

Put your efforts and the spotlight on current day slavery and trafficking. Those people need help more.

Oooh how crass of you!

I feel that by dismissing this, you're being selective and about which bits of history you care about.

I just actually googled and Charles Trevelyan was her great great great grandfather. He is one of the most hated figures in Irish History and is name most people here will have heard of. His family also received massive amounts of compensation from Queen Victoria in the early 1800s for the abolition of slavery so they seemed to cause absolute fucking misery all over the globe so I can possibly understand her personally being ashamed of her family's past past. However no you can't hold people accountable for things their ancestors did.

Absolutely.
Similarly, the Ottoman Empire invaded, raped and pillaged my country and neighbouring countries; took young women as sex slaves in harems and boy children (toddlers+) to forcibly convert into their religion.
The Turkish people, Turkey as a state as well as the other nearby states who made up the Ottoman Empire should be made face this, have it in their history books including the suffering the Ottoman Empire caused, and pay reparations.

Put your efforts and the spotlight on current day slavery and trafficking. Those people need help more.

A million times this

I agree with this. About the unfair wealth, if someone wants to create a charity, it is great but you cannot force people. Kids of CEOs, investment managers, politicians have unfair advantage which kids of people working in the companies at junior levels or those impacted by the loss of their investments thanks to ambitious and agreed decisions made by hedge fund managers don't. What about when a parent give inheritance to one child and not the other and the children of those who left out are impacted. I would be all for it, if this social justice is done for everyone but I think it won't happen, and such debates can only make one side not resentful and angry rather than moving on.

It's not just white people descended from slave owners.

I wouldn’t be happy if I was expected to apologise for things I didn’t personally do. There have been some absolute dicks in my family, for example my father abused my mother. So I’m responsible for his actions, am I?

This!