Gladstone heirs to apologize for both Slavery and Indentureship

Aug 25, 2023 News

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Kaieteur News – The University of Guyana on Thursday disclosed that the apology it along with the Guyana Reparations Committee (GRC) helped to negotiate with the Gladstone heirs for Guyana includes both slavery and indentureship. In a press release, the University said that this was so since the particular ancestor was integrally involved in both.

In an earlier release the University had indicated that the John Gladstone owned plantations and managed several others not owned by him.

Quamina and his son John, who led the 1823 uprisings, which are being commemorated this month, were enslaved on Gladstone Plantations amongst thousands of others. The University itself is founded on plantation lands upon which part of the revolutions were enacted. While no attempt is being made to equate the impact of slavery with that of indentureship, The Gladstone ancestor is also recorded as “one of the initiators of schemes for the exporting of indentured labor to the Caribbean” (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/8961).

It is also indicated their ancestor John Gladstone who died in 1851, might have owned the Whitby and Hesperus, the ships which transported the first East Indian Indentured to Guyana. The Gladstone family, which includes several historians will in fact offer an apology given the role their ancestors would have played here. The short formal ceremony begins at 9:00 hrs. at the George Walcott Lecture Theatre at the University’s Turkeyen Campus on Friday, August 25, 2023.

All groups from all umbrella bodies from ethnic and other cultural groups on all sides have been invited at hear the apology. After the formal ceremony, the moment will be marked by an inter-generational dialogue between University of Guyana students and youthful members of the Gladstone family, a linking of the University of Guyana Library with digital archives of the Council of World Missions and an exhibition of scholarly work by University of Guyana scholars throughout the day on the subject matter.

“Other events are being held over the weekend under the auspices of the Guyana Reparations Committee. The University reasserts that no financial negotiations of any kind regarding reparations were discussed or agreed upon with the Gladstone heirs. Reparation payments are not within the purview of the University and therefore cannot be part of any conversations between the national academic institution and the Gladstones.”

Additionally, the University said that “It is unclear whether an amount of 100,000 pounds accepted by the Government of Grenada from the Trevelyan Family might have become infused into a story about Guyana which was carried by international news since the University was not the source of the international news stories. The Gladstone family who are arriving upon the invitation of the University of Guyana and the GRC have for decades been supporting educational, historical and cultural projects through grants which are divorced from reparations and which have benefitted other Universities given the important role of Universities in the illumination and removal of systems of oppression.”

The University of Guyana assured the public that as the national University it continues to be focused upon positive and respectful projects based on evidence, historical fact, fairness and respect for all our peoples.

“The University looks forward to this moment as one of the national recognition of the origins of our national trauma as well as our resilience, and to contribute to processes of personal and national healing, introspection and unity. The Gladstone family apology is noted as an important first step in the process of reparation, official acceptance of historical culpabilities and the dismantling of systems which perpetuate these legacies today. The public is invited to attend the event virtually or in person.”

Persons desirous of attending the event virtually can register using https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Ob0sefwYTY-YVypQZPTePA#/registration

The apology takes place as part of The Diaspora and Migration Centre that is set up to pursue five (5) specific areas of research interest including, but not limited to Diaspora and Migration in and around Academia, Youth, Technology and Vulnerable Communities, Indigeneity, Indentureship and Slavery as specific and integral aspects of dispersion.

The University said that the research track for Slavery and indentureship is the reason why it was deemed appropriate to launch the Diaspora and Migration Centre (MiDias) in this historically auspicious month in regard to the emancipation of enslaved peoples as well as the 200th anniversary of the 1823 Slave Revolution in Demerara.

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• Guyana Reparations Committee (GRC), Indentureship, John Gladstone, several, slavery

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