Eight readers share their reaction to the Guardian’s Cotton Capital project, a special reporting series stemming from an investigation into the Guardian founders’ links to slavery and exploring how the transatlantic slave trade changed this newspaper, Britain and the world.
‘Lessons cannot be learned if these stories remain hidden’
I welcome the Guardian researching and clarifying its past links to slavery and the cotton trade in Manchester. I too had a great grandfather who had involvement in the cotton trade and a grandfather who was involved on a smaller scale, both liberal in temperament, both readers of the Guardian. A stain on our family which we must embrace and make amends for. Slavery might have been abolished, but it’s not defeated. While the history of slavery stays hidden in plain sight the lessons will not be learned, and racism, ignorance and discrimination will continue. Sara Robbins, 70, Isle of Wight
‘It’s so important that our country’s past is not whitewashed’
I have been learning about a history that I knew nothing about. My ancestors were slaves in the Caribbean island of Grenada. I grew up with my great grandmother who told me stories of her life on the island following the abolition. She told me that her own grandmother was born a slave and freed when she was three days old. As a child my great grandmother was always told to run and hide when they saw the devil on his horse. So much of our history and links to Britain – the mother country – has been forgotten. I’m happy that the Guardian has started writing these stories. The Windrush scandal has made it more important that our country is truthful about the past and does not whitewash it or pretend that it is unimportant. Lydia Maureen Bancroft, 69, retired nurse, Mistley, Essex
‘I wish all companies and wealthy people would research the source of their wealth’
I wish all companies and wealthy people would research the source of their wealth. An organisation should be set up to collect this data and work on “compensation” payments. School curricula (and universities) should include this history, so books and teacher training is needed.
Just about the only thing anyone knows about Africa is that Africans were slaves. Nothing is known about Africa prior to the arrival of Europeans, or about the societies and fate of Indigenous peoples when Europeans settled in the Americas. We need to re-educate everyone, including politicians, the police, teachers, et al. Marika Sherwood, 85, researcher into history of “Black” peoples in the UK for the past 2,000 years and trade in enslaved Africans, lives near Faversham, Kent
‘The Guardian has a vital role to play in shaping public discourse around issues of race and racism’
The acknowledgment of the role the paper’s founders played in transatlantic slavery is a necessary step forward, and the Guardian has a vital role to play in shaping public discourse around issues of race and racism. However, it is important to recognise that this acknowledgment comes after years of silence. Black journalists and other people of colour have been fighting for years to be represented and included in the newsroom, but continue to face barriers.
The commitment to restorative justice and the investment of funds are important, but it must be recognised that reparations cannot be effective without addressing internal issues. To begin this work, the Guardian should work with Black communities to co-produce a radical antiracist framework for the company. It must undertake an ongoing process of internal reform and accountability, working to eradicate systemic racism in every aspect of the organisation. It is time for the Guardian to take a long hard look at itself and to take real, concrete steps towards becoming an antiracist institution. Only then can it effectively contribute to the broader struggle for racial justice and equality. Lee Jasper, Black activist, former senior political adviser to Ken Livingstone, London
‘These stories were not taught in school, but should be’
I’m really interested in this as I grew up in the north-west of England – my parents were both weavers and my extended family (grandparents and great aunts and uncles) worked in the mills. I grew up learning about King Cotton and the impact on local communities. I didn’t learn about it from school but from my family’s stories. My mum entrusted me with her copy of King Cotton by Thomas Armstrong. It covers the Lancashire cotton famine during the American civil war and is a really relevant backdrop to the Guardian’s project. The weavers refused to weave slave-picked cotton, leaving them and their families to face starvation and the awful, shameful prospect of the workhouse.
I would like to see the history of the transatlantic slave trade taught in schools as it forms the basis of the lives we live today. This project is excellent for educating us about this period of our hidden history. Jean Willmott, 62, Lincolnshire
‘It was painful to discover my family profited from the cotton trade’
I am the descendant of a cotton mill owner from Bolton near Manchester. The realisation of my family involvement in the slave trade came in a Black US literature course I took in Maryland, US. I was able to take this BA course because I had just received a small inheritance from my father, whose money came from the cotton trade.
It was a very painful moment, but it made me understand just how much of British history is tied up with the slave trade and how much it is still hidden and not discussed. My immediate family are socialists, as am I, so it came as a shock to me to discover that this issue was never discussed. Now I realise that this is not uncommon. I’m glad that Guardian journalists are talking about it and that this issue can be put out into the public domain and become part of our cultural discourse. Anonymous, 74, Cornwall
‘I hope Australia’s history of slavery will be explored next’
I feel heartened to see, at last, a process of truth telling that uncovers the legacy of brutality behind the wealth of the UK and better still that, however imperfectly, attempts will be made at meaningful reparations. I would like to see this extended to other British colonies, beyond the North Atlantic slave trade. The model of British imperialism that was exported to Australia includes a history of slavery, of inhumane treatment and dispossession of First Nations Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People, the legacies of which continue today. As much as we must face that with a Makarrata truth telling process at home, the connections to Britain must also be part of it. Anonymous, 33, a doctor, Melbourne
‘An international reparations movement is a mechanism for taking responsibility today’
I am deeply grateful for the Cotton Capital project. I have been teaching and writing about racism in the United States – past and present – for my entire career and have advocated for truthful recognition and acknowledgement of the enduring impact and legacy of enslavement in fostering inequality, contributing to the wealth of the UK and US, while impoverishing countries in Africa and the Caribbean.
The internalisations of historical and structural racism in the form of biases and stereotypes, as well as the persistence of institutional racism continue to haunt both of our societies to this day. I commend the Guardian for excavating its own history of entanglement in the slave trade and for going beyond this to contribute to an international movement of reparations, encouraging others in the UK to do the same. The project of reparations will never undo the terrible harm wrought by slavery and other forms of racism, but it is a mechanism for taking responsibility today. Joshua Miller, professor of social work and writer about racism and coloniality, Northampton, Massachusetts
