6. Church of England's involvement
 
The Christian Churches (both Protestant and Catholic), contrary to their mission, were very much part of the colonial project that exploited foreign resources and native labour for the financial benefit of Europe. Bishops & missionaries became an integral part of the machinery of conquest and land grab. Slave apologists including clergymen did not hesitate to re-interpret the New Testament epistles to justify slavery. Instead of denouncing unjust policies of their governments and campaigning against slavery, the missionaries exhorted the slaves and the poor to bear their sufferings with fortitude; they would be rewarded in heaven. The Church of England itself was deeply involved in the slave trade for over a hundred years.

The churches directly owned slaves and profited from the trade. The Church of England kept slaves on its Codrington estates in Barbados. Bishops sitting in the House of Lords repeatedly voted against abolition. Indeed, some of Bristol’s church bell rang out in relief in 1791 after Wilberforce’s Bill was defeated. When the slave trade was abolished in 1807, slaveholders were compensated [around £20 million] for their ‘losses’. The church received £8,823 8s 9d, (£500,000 in today's money), for the loss of slave labour on its Codrington plantation in Barbados. The then Bishop of Exeter and his business associates received even more, nearly £13,000. One just wonders how these learned clerics understood Christ's teachings.

It was not until  08 February 2006, when the C of E finally acknowledged its complicity in the trade at its General Synod in London, admitting that “we were at the heart of it” and apologised for profiting hugely from the trade.  Archbishop Rowan Williams acknowledged: "We share the shame and the sinfulness of our predecessors... To speak here of repentance and apology is no enough... the past must be faced and healed ..."

The Rt Rev Tom Butler, Bishop of Southwark added: "The profits from the slave trade were part of the bedrock of our country's industrial development. No one who was involved in running the business, financing it or benefiting from its products can say they had clean hands. We know that bishops in the House of Lords with biblical authority voted against the abolition of the slave trade."

Codrington descendants speak out
Anglican culpability in the Caribbean slave trade can be traced back at least to 1710, when the planter Christopher Codrington died, leaving his 800-acre Barbados plantations and slaves to the Church's newly-established Society for the Propagation of the Christian Religion in Foreign Parts (SPG). The SPG proceeded to brand its slaves on the chest with the word "society", to remind everyone that these were slaves of the Lord - what cruel irony. In 1740, 30 years after the Church took over, four out of every 10 slaves bought by the plantation died within three years.

 

The Codrington slaves did not become free until 1834, when the Church, like all slave-owners, was forced to release them. One of them was Devonshire Codrington, born in 1776 and he turned out to be the many-times great-grandfather of Lisa Codrington, 28 in 2006, who lives in Canada. Her aunt, Ivy Devenish-Scott, 48 and an educational consultant lives in north-east London. Lisa knew her ancestors were Anglicans like her and slaves for two centuries but she did not realise until recently that they were slaves of the Church of England. Lisa's mother Hughlene said: "Slavery is not something you can say sorry for and then be done with it."

The church at last considers reparations
The Government is terrified at the thought of making reparations for fear of depleting some of the huge wealth accumulated from the blood, seat and tears of the slaves. What of the Church? The Synod uttered a few pious words by way of apology but stopped short of financial or other reparations. The Churches Together project described the horrors of the slave trade an African Holocaust but aren't Africans worthy of reparations? The government remains unyielding but the Archbishop of Canterbury declared on Radio 4 (26 March 2007) that institutions that profited from slavery should make amends and the church itself is 'working at' the issue of reparations.
After all Christ himself endorsed the principle of restitution [See Ref 1, pg 6 on the New Testament story of the tax collector.] and it is only right that the Church of Christ should abide by the founder's ruling on the matter.

References
1. Anti-slavery & Churches Together: Act to end slavery now (2006)
2. Guardian, Church benefited from the slave trade, (9 Feb 2006)
3. Daily Telegraph: Church apology not enough (11 Feb 2006)
4. Archbishop Rowan Williams on Radio 4, 26 March 2007