The Bank of England Museum unveiled two plaques on compensation for the slave trade | United Kingdom

The Bank of England Museum is to display two plaques showing compensation for the slave trade to the public.

Black Lives Matter signs highlight the Bank’s commitment to paying multi-million-dollar compensation to slave owners after the practice was abolished in 1833. They also commemorate the 760,000 Africans who were taken.

The second panel concerns former director Sir Gilbert Heathcote, who was deeply involved in selling people as slaves.

The museum, located in the same building that housed the bank founded in the 17th century, made this decision as part of the legacy of the exhibition Slavery & the Bank, which ended earlier this year.

The historical plaques on the transatlantic trade in enslaved African slaves are the brainchild of Gloria Daniels, whose great-great-grandfather was a slave in Barbados.

They identify plantation owners, merchants, and institutions, and also indicate the number of people they enslaved.

A blog post written by curator Jennifer Adam and exhibitions manager Kirsty Parsons says: “The Bank of England has been nominated by TTEACH to receive this plaque to demonstrate its commitment to the reparations process. The bank, as the government’s banker, was responsible for distributing payments to those who sought compensation for the loss of enslaved labor.

“Although former slave owners received compensation, the former enslaved received nothing. About £20 million was paid, which was added to the national debt. The last repayment of this debt took place in 2015.

“This means that the descendants of the enslaved contributed to repaying the debt that was created to compensate their enslaved people.”