St. Kitts joins other bloc nations in going after former slave-owning families
Just like Barbados, Grenada, and Guyana have done in recent months, authorities in the eastern Caribbean nation of St. Kitts say they are preparing to directly engage a British family that owned enslaved Africans in the federation with Nevis to pay reparations for their role in the slave trade.
The National Reparations Commission in St. Kitts has pointed fingers at British brewing company Greene King, and there are plans to begin formal negotiations with the company, which says it is the United Kingdom’s leading pub retailer and brewer with more than 1,600 pubs, restaurants, and hotels across England, Wales, and Scotland. But it had roots in St. Kitts, so the local committee says the time has come to directly engage the company about its role during the slave trading era, because it is a direct beneficiary of slavery and was compensated by British authorities for losing its “property” when slavery was abolished in the early 1800s.
The company recently apologized for the role of its predecessor owners during slavery and promised compensation, although no figure nor details of the plan have been released.
In making its move, St. Kitts joins fellow eastern Caribbean countries Grenada and Barbados, as well as Guyana, in moving to specifically engage major British players who profited from slavery—and now have enormous business enterprises—to bring them to the negotiating table.
The British Telegraph recently ran a detailed piece about the move by St. Kitts authorities, tracing the role and history of Greene King from its origins in 1823 through “very profitable” sugar plantations. Benjamin Greene, the original owner/founder, enjoyed the profits, later transferring ownership to his children, who grew the company to what it is today.
Carla Astaphan, who chairs the Kittian reparations body, said in a recent essay that Greene was a big supporter of slavery because it brought him so much riches. “He moved to London in 1837 amid controversy over abolition of enslaved Africans. He was an avid supporter of chattel slavery and was against its abolition,” said Astaphan. “When Britain’s parliament passed the act to abolish chattel slavery in August 1833 to be effected August 1, 1834, Benjamin Greene would be awarded payment for six enslaved persons on the island of Montserrat. On St Kitts, there were two estates. The compensation was paid for 156 enslaved Africans on Phillips Estate and 69 on [the] Con Phipps Estate in St. Thomas Parish. Annual revenues for the Greene King company is reported to be around Sterling 2 billion.”
The latest move by St. Kitts represents a change in tactics by the 15-nation Caribbean Community (Caricom) bloc of nations. They are now pivoting to directly engage families while governments focus more on pushing European governments into formally commencing discussions about slavery. The Dutch have already formally apologized and have said they are ready to talk, while fierce resistance has come from France and Portugal.
Grenada has already engaged the Trevelyan family in the UK, and Guyana is in talks with the Gladstone family of England and Scotland. The Gladstones apologized in Guyana last year and have said they are ready to discuss compensation in various forms.
Barbados, on the other hand, says they are receiving fierce negative feedback from the Drax family, represented by current Conservative lawmaker Richard Drax. Drax has held private talks with Prime Minister Mia Mottley, but has publicly taken the stance that today’s generation should not be blamed for the sins of his ancestors.
Governments have already said they would take the issue to court if talks and other options fail. In fact, they have already retained a British firm that won compensation for Kenyan tribespeople slaughtered by British soldiers during the colonial era.
The St. Kitts committee, meanwhile, said CEO of Greene King Assad Malic had mailed them to indicate that the company is reacting to today’s changed world by supporting diversity and contributing to ethnic causes.
The communication said, “In 1836, Benjamin Greene passed the control of the Brewery in Bury St. Edmunds to another of his sons, Edward, who was not involved in plantations at St. Kitts. While the company still bears the name Greene King, none of the descendants are now involved in the management of the company. The actions of Benjamin Greene are part of our company’s history that we cannot change, but we have been focused on what we can do in the present and the future by making substantial financial investments to support race diversity in our business and we aspire to be an inclusive employer and a truly anti-racist organization.”
The response was, “This is not satisfactory. The St. Kitts Nevis National Reparations Committee is of the view that Greene King is not absolved from reparatory justice to St Kitts and Nevis and Montserrat. We have responded to the company and outlined our position; we will continue to press the case.”
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