Jamaica to petition King Charles for reparations over Britains role in slave trade

Jamaica is taking its campaign for Britain to pay reparations for the ravages of the trans-Atlantic slave trade to King Charles III.Using legal traditions that stretch back to the early days of the British Empire, Jamaica will on Monday petition the king to refer a series of questions about slavery and the UK’s responsibility to pay damages to a committee of the Privy Council, which serves as the highest court for former colonies that retain ties to the British legal system.While the petition is formally addressed to the king, Charles has no personal say on whether it will be referred to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and he will act on the advice of the government.The filing was timed to coincide with the anniversary of the day in 1781 when the Liverpool-registered ship Zong set sail from West Africa with 442 enslaved Africans on board.When water supplies ran low on the way to Jamaica, the crew decided to throw 132 men, women and children overboard, calculating that it would be more profitable to file an insurance claim for the lost “property” than to sell their weakened and dehydrated captives for a reduced price.Publicity about the Zong massacre helped fuel the campaign to end slavery in the British Empire.

Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807, but it wasn’t until Aug.1, 1834, that the enslavement of human beings was outlawed.“In relation to the wrongs that were done, we want answers,” Jamaican Culture Minister Olivia Grange told The Associated Press on Sunday before a church service in south London, the first in a series of events scheduled around the filing.“Once we get those answers, then our attorneys, our lawyers, will determine what the next move is,” she added.Jamaica is one of the leaders of the effort to get Britain and other European nations to apologize for their role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and pay reparations, both for the enslavement of individuals and for the continuing impact on their descendants arou...