'Sorry' Hain in slavery muddle
THERE was confusion last night over the Secretary of State's apology for Northern Ireland's alleged role in the slave trade.
While it was reported in the international media yesterday that Peter Hain had "apologised for the role Wales and Northern Ireland played in the slave trade", a spokesman said last night that Mr Hain had actually applauded Belfast's stance against the practice.
The Wales and Northern Ireland Secretary was speaking during a visit to New York to mark the 200th anniversary of the slave trade's abolition.
In an interview with the BBC in New York, it was reported that Mr Hain said: "I am here on behalf of both Northern Ireland and Wales to say that we've had our part to play in the slave trade.
"We acknowledge that, we take responsibility for it and we now are going to try and at least say that historical legacy must be recognised. We say sorry for it." A great many Welshmen had prospered from slavery, he added.
A spokeswoman for the Northern Ireland Office said last night the event had been organised by the Wales Office and a spokesman there said Mr Hain had actually praised Belfast's stance against slavery.
"In his speech he acknowledged that Northern Ireland ports were closed to slavery and the role this played in opposing it," he said. "That was the specific point he raised in relation to Northern Ireland."
Gordon Lucy of the historical and cultural organisation, the Ulster Society, said: "There was no sympathy for slavery in Belfast and I don't think Northern Ireland needs to be apologising for something it was not directly involved in." He pointed out that slavery had been outlawed in Britain long before Northern Ireland was created, in 1921.
A spokesman for Queen's University said last night there was evidence that Belfast, Cork and Dublin merchants were involved "indirectly" in slavery, with some owning plantations.
However it is understood the citizens of Belfast explicitly blocked an attempt to establish a slaveship company in the city's assembly rooms in the 18th century, having heard about the horrors of such vessels from visiting former slave, Olaudah Equiano.
Belfast's leading anti-slavery campaigner, Thomas Russell, raised awareness of the continued practice of slave trading by British entrepreneurs across the globe, despite the fact slavery had been officially banned in Britain in 1772.
Russell claimed the sugary titbits to be found at middle-class social gatherings in 18th Century Belfast were proof that the slave plantations of Barbados were in full operation and wrote many letters to Belfast newspapers campaigning against sugar consumption.
Belfast women practised what we now call fair trade, educating their children about the evils of slavery and its role in sugar production.
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Monday 13 February 2012
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