Welsh slave owning past has resurfaced as descendants uncover their ancestors’ deep ties. Given that the impact did not end when slavery did, does Wales need to reckon with its past?
April and Laura have never met, but history ties them together. While April is the descendant of Jamaican slaves, Laura comes from a British family that built their wealth from owning them. From opposite sides, both women are trying to ignite conversations that many are reluctant to open back up.
Dr April-Louise Pennant takes her last name after the Pennant family in North Wales. The family owned Penrhyn Castle until the 1950s with most of the family’s wealth coming from the profits reaped from sugar produced at their Jamaican plantations. Their history is well documented, yet it leaves out the lives of the enslaved Africans in Jamaica responsible for enriching the Pennant family while inheriting nothing but the name that enslaved them.
“As a child, I was told that my surname was Welsh in origin. But it wasn’t until I moved to Wales that I began to explore the connection with Penrhyn. The wealth produced by slavery had a huge impact on the history of Wales, yet there remains a huge silence of the voices of enslaved African people in current narratives,” said the award-winning sociologist and activist.
Once Dr Pennant traced back the origin of her name, she was driven by her goal to educate people on her untold Jamaican family history that was buried and long forgotten.
“This is an area of history that has been overlooked and it’s now time to make sure that the enslaved Africans that gave so much are rightfully recognised and honoured for the role they played in the fortunes of Wales,” said Dr Pennant.
At the opposite end, Laura Trevelyan, a British Amercian journalist, has also come to the realisation that her current state of wealth and privilege comes due to her family’s owning of slaves in the Caribbean.
“Working with Caribbean leaders, my family apologised to the people of Grenada in a public ceremony. At the advice of Grenada’s leaders, I paid reparations to support education in Grenada as a lack of education, poverty and illiteracy were direct legacies of slavery,” said Laura.
As the founder of Heirs of Slavery, she encourages other British families with similar histories to fix the past they cannot change or deny.
Among the many affected, both April and Laura expressed the need for the British government to engage in reparatory justice, but their requests have gone unanswered, with no plans to address them anytime soon.
When asked about reparations, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, “I think from my point of view and taking the approach, I’ve just taken, I’d rather roll up my sleeves and work with them on the current future-facing challenges than spend a lot of time on the past. That’s my focus.”
The prime minister mentioned that his focus is on current issues like climate change. But if the dreadful past isn’t going to be addressed, is it only painful to remember, or do its consequences still affect us too?
“I think all of that money had disappeared by the end of the 19th century. There’s nothing left of that money, physically, but I think there is privilege; that is something that has been inherited down the generations,” said Renton, a descendant of slave owners and another founder of Heirs of Slavery.
Amidst the many voices that advocate for reparations, there is a lack of megaphones being passed to those affected but never heard, the descendants of the African slaves. And it is the lack of their voices that leads to the issue being dismissed as history with no lasting footprints.
To uncover these voices, Dr Pennant is currently on fieldwork that will be used to help drive initiatives for change.
“Using the case study of one family, which had two branches – the Pennants of North Wales and the Pennants of Jamaica, this research will facilitate connections across the Atlantic, documenting the histories of the people who created so much wealth and prosperity, but had none of the benefits,” said Dr Pennant.
Her research is driven not only by what happened in the past but also by the inequalities that still stand today.
“The more I research & the more I learn, I also see, and am experiencing, just what a contested space I am venturing into & how there remains unbalanced & unchecked power and privilege in these spaces. It has also increased my interest in the heritage sector as a whole as I am understanding more and more about its importance in creating & preserving the national identity & memory of society,” said Dr Pennant.