Alex Renton reckons with his Scottish family’s links to slavery

I n this issue of Reparation Conversations, a collaboration between The Gleaner and the Centre for Reparation Research (CRR) at The University of the West Indies, Alex Renton (AR), whose ancestors were enslavers in Jamaica and Tobago, talks to Professor Verene Shepherd (VS) about his family and his new book, Blood Legacy: Reckoning with a Family’s Story of Slavery , published by Canongate and which is available at Kingston Bookshop. Renton is donating all profits to charity.

VS: Thank you, Mr Renton, for taking the time to sit with me to talk about your book, ‘Blood Legacy: Reckoning with a Family’s Story of Slavery’.

AR: My thanks, Professor Shepherd, to those in Jamaica for their interest and generosity when I was researching this project.

VS: You start off the book by saying: “I am an heir of Britain’s slavery past.” Could you explain how you are connected to Britain’s slavery past?

AR: Both my mother and father’s families were involved in African enslavement.

The Fergussons, of Scotland, co-owned a Jamaican estate called Rozelle, in St Thomas, from 1769 to 1875 and a 300 acre estate at Bloody Bay in Tobago. In total, the Fergussons ‘owned’ around 950 enslaved people.

Conversely, on the Renton side, one great-great-great-grandmother was involved in abolition campaigning in Edinburgh in the 19th century. Meanwhile, a great-great-great-great-grandfather was born in Jamaica and appears to have been the grandson of a freed African woman, Mary de la Roche, by a white plantation owner. He himself ‘owned’ two enslaved people in 1817. My DNA test shows a small percentage from West Africa.

VS: When did you become aware of your family’s historical ties to slavery in the Caribbean, and why did you decide to write about it? What documents allowed you to write the book, in fact?

AR: I discovered the information five years ago in a private family archive. I started work immediately, transcribing the old letters and accounts my ancestors had filed away. There was every reason to do it. As a journalist who has reported from around the world on conflicts and problems caused by British imperialism, it was a story I felt I had to address. As a British citizen, in a country still riven by inequality and racism that derives from the empire and slavery era, it seemed important to examine and acknowledge this past.

VS: Did the story you uncovered come as a total surprise to you, or did your education help prepare you for what you found among these family papers?

AR: I had a top-quality, private education: Eton, etc. I did two history O’ Levels! But it turned out that my ignorance was vast – and shameful. We just were not taught about the period when Britain’s modern wealth was forged by exploitation of the most evil kind – 3.25 million Africans transported by Britain. Slavery continued till 1834. I had no idea – and, it turns out, nor do most Britons. We were taught nothing beyond ‘Wilberforce ended the slave trade in 1807’ – which, it turns out, is not wholly true either. If it was not for Bob Marley and others entering my consciousness as a teenager, I might easily think the same today.

VS: I gather from the book that your enslaver ancestors were absentees. What do the family papers reveal about instructions given regarding the care of the enslaved labourers on family properties in the Caribbean? How did the enslaved respond to the ways in which they were controlled?

AR: The papers reveal concern about the health and nutrition of the labourers, but it is no more than you’d expect for any valuable ‘property.’ From the 1790s, my ancestor Sir Adam Fergusson ordered the buying of more girls and young women in order to profit by ‘breeding’,as the price of enslaved people rose in the era of abolitionism.

There is, however, one extraordinary account, dictated by a man who escaped the Jamaica plantation in 1780 and made his way to London to beg for justice from Fergusson. Augustus Thomson (his ‘slave name’ was Caesar) was a vet and doctor. He tells a story of a falling out with the overseers, after which they whipped him, his wife, and children, burnt his house and stole his possessions. Thomson did not receive any justice, just empty promises. Bravely, he returned to Jamaica, but he remained an outlaw and was never able to rejoin his family.

VS: How did your family benefit from slavery and what level of compensation did they receive at Emancipation? How was this money spent or invested?

AR: While the plantation’s sugar output was never very lucrative, my grandfathers did benefit, to the tune of over US$2 million when compensation was given in 1836. None of it made its way to Jamaica or to the emancipated people at Rozelle. They, instead, built churches and schools in Scotland. While my family is not wealthy today as a result of slavery, the power and privilege that came from 19th-century wealth still mark us.

VS: What do you do now that you know of this aspect of your family history? Or, what has your family been doing with this information since the discovery?

AR: Most of my family support the acknowledgement of our past, and that acceptance of responsibility for the legacies of transatlantic slavery is a good thing that we must do. Some of us are donating to educational institutions and youth development charities in Jamaica and in the UK while discussing what more is in our power. Profits from the book are going to the same causes. More suggestions would be welcome. Please contact me via bloodlegacybook.com.

VS: What is your definition or understanding of reparatory justice?

AR: I personally support the aims of the movement for reparatory justice as defined in the CARICOM 10-Point Plan [repair the wrongs of slavery with a development package for the Caribbean]. I am appalled that my government, and others, have failed even to begin the talks first requested by CARICOM back in 2014, and I will say so wherever and however I can. Scotland, my home, could address this directly.

VS: What advice would you give to families that have uncovered similar ties to the trans-Atlantic trade in enslaved Africans and slavery but discover, deny and distance?

AR: My advice to them is, go online, have a look. Have a deep think about why your history is still so significant today. Listen and learn from the descendants of those who were enslaved. As Sir Geoff Palmer says, ‘You can’t change the history. But you can still change its consequences.’

VS: Thank you very much, Alex, for chatting with me so openly and honestly. I hope that the family will consider digitising the papers that can stand up to that process and donate a set to libraries in Tobago and Jamaica.

AR: Thank you, Verene, for this opportunity. The future of the archive is under discussion. I do not own it, but I hope very much it will soon be available to all digitally. The seclusion of the materials of this history is another wrong that needs to be put right.

Send feedback to reparation.research@uwimona.edu.jm.