The Guardian reports historians found archival evidence that Britain’s monarchy was materially involved in the transatlantic slave trade, including instructions to brand enslaved African people with a crown. Dr Nicholas Radburn, a Lancaster University historian, uncovered a South Sea Company letter instructing agents in Buenos Aires to heat a small silver crown brand and mark people on the left shoulder, noting a doctor warned the mark might endanger those branded but the directors ordered it as “the most effectual” way to distinguish slaves. The Register of British Slave Traders, a new historical record led in part by Radburn, documents how more than 3 million African people were trafficked over nearly 250 years and identifies thousands of investors in the trade, including kings and queens. The Guardian traces royal involvement from Elizabeth I’s backing of early voyages through generations of monarchs and finds the period after the 1660 restoration saw the most intensive royal-powered trafficking. A spokesperson for King Charles said he was “grateful to all those undertaking academic work in this area and thus contributing to the debate about how such issues might best be addressed.” The publication of the register and this archival evidence will further inform calls for King Charles to acknowledge the monarchy’s deep involvement in the slave trade.
