Heirs of Slavery Co-founder Laura Trevelyan

Laura Trevelyan by © Dan Callister

In April 2023, former BBC News correspondent Laura Trevelyan co-founded Heirs of Slavery, a group of descendants of people who had profited from British transatlantic slavery and wanted to make amends. Other members include David Lascelles, 8th Earl of Harewood; Charles Gladstone, who is descended from prime minister William Gladstone; and journalist Alex Renton. The group has called on the British Prime Minister and King Charles to make a formal apology on behalf of the United Kingdom.

Heirs of Slavery Mission Statement:

It is a history that we have all examined and acknowledged publicly. There are wrongs in today’s world that derive from the exploitation of African people and their descendants by Britain and other former colonial powers. We believe it’s important to acknowledge this crime against humanity and to address its ongoing consequences. We wish to support today’s movements seeking apology, dialogue, reconciliation and reparative justice.

We encourage others who have similarly examined their family history to consider how personal charitable donations, according to their means, can help the futures of people in the Caribbean and Britain. But our main purpose is to lend our voices, as the ‘heirs’ of those involved in the business of slavery, to support campaigns for institutional and national reparative justice. 

• We support the CARICOM nations’ Ten Point Plan for Reparatory Justice.

• We encourage the UK government and other former colonial powers to open a dialogue with CARICOM concerning the plan.

• We welcome initiatives from the Royal Family, the Church of England, the Bank of England and other institutions, private and public, to analyse their role in transatlantic slavery, and their responsibility to the descendants of the enslaved today.

• We support efforts to better inform the public about the history and ongoing effects of transatlantic slavery, including making historical archives more accessible. 

• We support initiatives by University College London, the universities of Glasgow and Lancaster, and others, to research the extent and impact of transatlantic slavery. 

• We welcome the Dutch government’s recent apology for the Netherlands’ historic role in slavery, and note its establishment of a reparations fund to tackle the legacy of slavery in the Netherlands and its former colonies.

“We cannot change the past. But we can change the consequences” — Professor Sir Geoff Palmer KT, Windrush-era migrant to Britain, Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University