{"id":326084,"date":"2025-08-07T20:27:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T20:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/326084\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T20:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T20:27:09","slug":"new-research-reveals-king-george-iv-profited-from-slavery-in-grenada-grenada-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/326084\/","title":{"rendered":"New research reveals King George IV profited from slavery in Grenada | Grenada"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grenada<\/a> has vowed to step up its pursuit of an apology and reparations from King Charles<\/a> after new research revealed that George IV personally profited from slavery on the Caribbean<\/a> island.<\/p>\n

The research by independent scholar Desir\u00e9e Baptiste<\/a> shows that George IV, who ruled for a decade until 1830, received profits from enslaved labour on Grenadian plantations \u2013 a finding that experts say heightens pressure on the monarchy to confront its historical links to slavery.<\/p>\n

Baptiste found a 1823-24 document at the National Archives in London revealing a \u00a31,000 ($1,343) payment \u2013 equivalent to around \u00a3103,132 ($138,490) today \u2013 from two Crown-owned estates in Grenada<\/a> where hundreds of enslaved people laboured in the 18th and 19th centuries.<\/p>\n

The funds were paid into King George IV\u2019s private coffers, and contributed to his \u201clavish lifestyle\u201d, said Baptiste, a researcher on colonialism and transatlantic slavery who has roots in Grenada.<\/p>\n

Arley Gill, the head of the Grenada<\/a> Reparations Commission said: \u201cWe always knew that the Royal Family directly profited from the Atlantic slave trade and slavery, but now that we know that the Royal Family directly profited from the state of Grenada, we renew our call, even stronger now, for the royal family to apologise and to pay reparations.\u201d<\/p>\n

King Charles expressed sorrow over slavery in a speech to Commonwealth leaders<\/a> in 2022, and last year, amidst calls for discussions on reparations at the Commonwealth leaders\u2019 summit, the monarch acknowledged the \u201cpainful aspects\u201d<\/a> of Britain\u2019s past \u2013 but he did not directly address the thorny issue of reparations.<\/p>\n

Gill said the people of Grenada are calling on Charles to go further than vague expressions of regret, and make a full apology \u201cbecause blood is on the hands of the British royal family\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is still the head of state of Grenada. And it will not be worthy of him to be the head of state of a country that he profited from in slavery and [for which he] failed to apologise and failed to make reparations. He will not be a worthy king,\u201d Gill said. He argued the new revelations gave added urgency to efforts to remove the King as head of state in Grenada.<\/p>\n

Baptiste\u2019s research was verified by a University of Manchester professor, Edmond Smith, and Nick Draper, founder of University College London\u2019s Legacies of British Slave-ownership project.<\/p>\n

Smith, who is supervising a PhD study on the royal family\u2019s role in slavery, said as more evidence is uncovered the monarchy\u2019s profits from slavery will become clearer. He said this payment \u201cmight well just be the tip of the iceberg\u201d.<\/p>\n

Buckingham Palace did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

King Charles has backed the study led by Smith, following a 2023 Guardian report<\/a> revealing that in 1689 King William III received \u00a31,000 ($1,343) in shares in the Royal African Company, which trafficked thousands of enslaved Africans to the Americas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis evidence fits with long-term patterns of colonial exploitation by the British royal family, including repeated efforts to find novel income streams from colonies in the Caribbean<\/a>,\u201d Smith told Reuters.<\/p>\n

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Baptiste\u2019s research, from her independent study \u201cSlaves the Property of His Majesty: George IV and Grenada\u201d, comes amid growing global momentum for reparations for slavery, especially across the Caribbean and Africa.<\/p>\n

During the centuries-long transatlantic slave trade more than 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped and forcibly transported to the Americas<\/a>, where they were sold into slavery.<\/p>\n

In July, Caribbean leaders backed a petition from Jamaica to King Charles<\/a> on reparations, which asked the monarch to use his authority to request legal advice from the London-based privy council \u2013 the final court of appeal for UK overseas territories and some Commonwealth countries \u2013 on whether the forced transport of Africans to Jamaica<\/a> was lawful, if it constituted a crime against humanity, and whether Britain was under obligation to provide a remedy to Jamaica for slavery and its enduring consequences.<\/p>\n

Keir Starmer\u2019s government has resisted discussions about the issue, with an official spokesperson saying<\/a> last year, \u201cwe do not pay reparations\u201d.<\/p>\n

With reporting by Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grenada has vowed to step up its pursuit of an apology and reparations from King Charles after new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[5105,7710,519,448],"class_list":{"0":"post-326084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-royal","9":"tag-royal-families","10":"tag-royal-family","11":"tag-royals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114989370204317161","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}