Guardian apologises after founders’ link to transatlantic slavery revealed

The Guardian has issued an apology after uncovering links between its founder and the transatlantic enslavement of African people.

An investigation found that John Edward Taylor, who founded the Manchester Guardian in 1821, was connected to transatlantic slavery, along with his backers.

The findings follow independent academic research, commissioned in late 2020 by the paper’s owner Scott Trust, which threw up “significant new facts” about the publication’s origin story.

The trust said it would use the investigation to “inform our purpose” as it issued an apology “to the affected communities identified in the research” and “surviving descendants of the enslaved”.

It also announced a ten-year programme of restorative justice, worth £10 million, which include funding new scholarships to bring more young Black journalists into the profession. It will also create more reporting roles in the Caribbean, Africa, South America and in Black communities in the UK and US and set up a restorative justice fund to support programmes in Jamaica and the southeastern United States.

The trust has previously said that it had no evidence that Mr Taylor was a slave owner, or involved in the slave trade “in any direct way”.

Ole Jacob Sunde, chair of the Scott Trust, said: “The Scott Trust is deeply sorry for the role John Edward Taylor and his backers played in the slavery economy. We recognise that apologising and sharing these facts transparently is only the first step in addressing The Guardian’s historical links to transatlantic slavery, which was a crime against humanity.

“In response to the findings, the Scott Trust is committing to fund a restorative justice programme over the next decade, which will be designed and carried out in consultation with descendant communities in the US, Jamaica, the UK and elsewhere, centred on long-term initiatives and meaningful impact.

“These are significant new facts about The Guardian’s origin story, and they must therefore inform our purpose as we move forward, pushing us to do more to reflect the society we aspire to, alongside the radical history of Peterloo which originally inspired our values and our mission.”

The research, by the University of Nottingham’s Institute for the Study of Slavery and the University of Hull’s Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation, found Taylor had links to slavery through partnerships in cotton manufacturing and merchant firms which imported raw cotton produced by enslaved people in the Americas.

Researchers reviewed an invoice book showing that Shuttleworth, Taylor & Co. received cotton from specific plantations from the Sea Islands region of the United States.

Nine of the eleven men who loaned Mr Taylor money to found the Manchester Guardian had similar links to the slavery economy through their commercial interests in Manchester’s cotton and textiles industry.

One of these financial backers, Sir George Philips, enslaved African people in his capacity as co-owner of a sugar plantation in Hanover, Jamaica. In 1835, Mr Philips unsuccessfully attempted to claim compensation from the British government for 108 people enslaved on the plantation.

The findings highlight the intertwining of British wealth, privilege and profits from slavery.

The Scott Trust’s research comes at a time when numerous British institutions have been examining links to slavery, from the Church of England to Cambridge University.

Meanwhile, republican sentiment is growing among Caribbean nations that were once colonised by Britain with some signalling intent to remove King Charles as head of state.

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Barrister Matthew Ryder, a board member at The Scott Trust, told The Independent that this historic research has a “deeply personal significance” for some of the most senior people within the organisation who are of African descent and have been involved in the project.

That includes journalists Joseph Harker, senior editor for diversity and development, and Maya Wolfe-Robinson; as well as Scott Trust members David Olusoga and Mr Ryder himself.

“Hundreds of British organisations, companies and institutions have deep links to the exploitation of enslaved people. But that history is too often hidden or barely recognised,” he said.

“Worse still, there is no acknowledgement of how that history should inform the present and the future work of those organisations and British society as a whole.

“The Guardian’s own story of the progressive and liberal purposes for which it was founded must be placed in the context of the injustices against African enslaved people in which all of British society was complicit. The Guardian decided it could not allow that element of its history to go unacknowledged any further.”

The news title has launched a journalistic project today, named Cotton Capital, about itself, and about Britain’s connections with slavery, which will run over the next few weeks.