My brother compensated the planter who enslaved our great-grandfather
Published:Wednesday | February 11, 2026 | 12:10 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
My eldest brother was sent by our father to England in 1961. He went there on a promise that he was going to a better place. He unceasingly recounts to me the racism he encountered there. He joined the Royal Airforce and immediately became a British taxpayer. Our father was born in 1913 and his father, Joshua, was born in 1865, the year Paul Bogle was executed. Joshua’s father, our great-grandfather Edward, was an enslaved boy in 1838, the year slavery was abolished. History tells us that he should have been freed in 1834. However, the planter class lobbied their parliament that 20 million pounds was not enough compensation for the loss of their human property. As a result, they successfully voted for an additional four years of free labour from Edward and all the other enslaved. This amendment made their total compensation 40 million British pounds.
Edward, therefore gave four more years of gruelling unpaid slave labour to the Planter who owned him, and then that Englishman was handsomely rewarded for losing Edward’s body to freedom.
That 20-million-pound cash payment of 1838 was a debt to be repaid annually by British taxpayers, and was not paid off until 2015. This means that a member of my family – my taxpaying brother – helped to compensate the man who enslaved our great-grandfather. The man who was enriched by the free labour of my great-grandfather, was again enriched by the taxes paid by Edward’s great-grandson, my brother.
To say the least, this recount “makes my blood run cold… It’s the crucifixion of my inner soul”. The pounding in my mind of “my brother compensated his great-grandfather’s enslaver” just won’t go away. I can’t even begin to understand the torture Edward, a mere child in 1834, experienced when he was told he had a further four years to reach freedom. What will never, ever go away is my debt to Edward to fight for our pay day. I will force the door of the British Parliament open. We will enter it to remind them that my brother paid the debt that their ancestors voted to reward themselves for, to fund from the public purse, the greatest crime against humanity.
BERT SAMUELS
Attorney-at-Law