memorial, no gestures can fill the void in the hearts they have now, or that you, you have lost someone, feel as well. being here today and hearing the name of your husband, wife, father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, brings it all back, as if you got that phone call ten minutes ago. the american people, we owe you. you know, you sit down in the street, in normalfamilies, all neighbours, and every day you worry and you worry you could get that phone call, and now you are looking at an empty chair. although i didn t personally know your husbands, wives, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, i knew them. they were the first ones to run in to help when everyone else ran away when we were kids, when we were young men and women, even in grade school. that is president biden women, even in grade school. that is president biden speaking, president biden speaking, specifically at an event for police officers killed in the line of duty, and he hasjust gone on officers kill
we begin ourjourney by looking at university college london s database of slave ownership in the british caribbean. so, shall we see what happens if i type in my name? let s have a go at it. all right. let s get in there. trevelya n. 0k. and then let s put grenada. let s see what it s going to come up with. good heavens. we have reverend george trevelyan. harriet trevelyan. john trevelyan. so this is showing us that my ancestors owned what looks like hundreds of slaves on grenada. yes. ..on the tempe estate, the simon estate, the requin estate, la sagesse, five different estates. five different estates, yes. my relatives owned hundreds
of cambridge were when they were in jamaica this march. caribbean governments want more from britain than expressions of sorrow over the slave trade. ..should never have happened. the british government, first of all, must apologise wholeheartedly. and notjust the british government, we cannot leave out the monarchy. the royal family played a critical role in sanctioning and participating in the slave trade and slavery. britain s government has never apologised for slavery. the foreign office told this programme that slavery was and still is abhorrent, expressing deep regret that the slave trade could ever have happened. grenada, meanwhile, is moving forward, taking steps towards reclaiming its past. streets named after english officials who owned slaves will be renamed for prominent grenadians.
of slaves and received thousands of pounds in compensation when slavery was abolished in 183a. yes. the sort of diseases that would have been around. once we knew the names of the plantations where my ancestors owned slaves, nicole showed me the records from those very estates. this one is actually the beausejour estate, and this record is 1817. so that s when my family owned slaves. yes. ..on beausejour? on beausejour estate. so it says these are the annual increase and decrease of the slaves on the beausejour estate in the parish of st george. and then it goes on to show, by deaths, how many died. look how many slaves died. and this one is interesting. this is alexander. he s only one year old. erm, he s black, erm, creole, meaning that he would have been born in the caribbean. he dies of obstruction of the bowels.
now on bbc news, bbc world news correspondent laura trevelyan examines herfamily s historic links to slave ownership in grenada: confronting the past. 250 years ago, this harbour on the caribbean island of grenada was bustling, with slave ships arriving from west africa. after a harrowing journey, the slaves were sold here and put to work on the sugar plantations in brutal conditions. my family in england owned slaves here on grenada, and though we never set foot on the island, we profited from the sale of sugar. and when slavery was finally abolished, we got compensation from the british government. the slaves got nothing. now grenada is debating the idea of reparations for slavery