New CLS pamphlet: Christopher Codrington and the Business of Slavery

A response from Caribbean Labour Solidarity to
Renewal and Reconciliation: The Codrington Reparations Project

“Renewal and Reconciliation: The Codrington Reparations Project” was announced in 2023 in partnership with The Codrington Trust (CT) and the United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG). This aims to take reparative action in response to USPG’s shameful links to slavery on the Codrington Estate, Barbados.

  • Are they doing enough to apologise and make restitution?
  • How have they dealt with the record of enslavers?
  • Is the money they are offering adequate?
  • How does all this fit into the modern campaign for Reparations?

In an attempt to answer these questions, Caribbean Labour Solidarity has published a pamphlet examining the history and legacy of the Codrington family, as well as discussing the Codrington Reparations Project.

The pamphlet, Christopher Codrington and the Business of Slavery, can be downloaded free. Click here to download…

Pamphlet author Dr Steve Cushion said:
“Why does Codrington College continue to be named after a man guilty of a crime against humanity?

Christopher Codrington, an enslaver and plantation owner, who died in 1710, bequeathed a profitable sugar estate in Barbados and over three hundred enslaved labourers to the Church of England’s missionary wing. This bequest became the basis for the foundation of Codrington College, a theological college in Barbados associated with the University of the West Indies.

In a recent statement USPG has now pledged 18M Barbadian Dollars (BDS) (£7M GBP) – to be spent in Barbados over the next 10-15 years to support this work.

Let us do the maths: Three hundred enslaved labourers held from 1712 to 1838 (126 years). The average wage for an English agricultural labourer at the time was £20 a year. This give an unpaid wages bill of £750,000, worth £1,700, 000,000 in today’s money.

So £7 million is chickenfeed. But, worse, the Codrington Trust has decided how much they will give. This is philanthropy at its worst. Such charity allows the perpetrator to determine the amount and the manner in which the profits of their crimes are distributed. The Church decides on worthy recipients, not the descendants of the enslaved.

David Comissiong, deputy chair of the national task force on reparations, is quoted as saying that organisations such as USPG should understand “that reparations are not about them unilaterally determining what compensation they are prepared to make”.