New research project exploring the legacy of slavery in modern Britain and reparative justice

28 July 2022

The SOAS School of Law, Gender and Media (SLGM) and Transatlantic Trafficked Enslaved African Corrective Historical (TTEACH) Plaques will embark on a collaborative research and knowledge exchange project to draw together research on the legacy of slavery.

The collaboration will connect the contemplation and production of objects as sources of knowledge, as evidence and as a corrective process, through research, dialogue and the record of the awards granted for the compensation of slavery of Caribbean and African people.

Professor Gina Heathcote, Professor of Gender Studies and International Law and Director of Research, SLGM, said:

“Academic research provides important interrogation of the plantation owners, merchants and their descendants who financially benefitted from the abolition of slavery, however the TTEACH Plaques research shows, and seeks to challenge, community resistance and silence on the privilege and harm inflicted across generations. We look forward to working with TTEACH Plaques going forward.”

TTEACH was founded by Gloria Daniel in 2020. Gloria Daniel is one of 18 living descendants in the United Kingdom of John Isaac Daniel, who was born on a Barbadian plantation owned by Thomas Daniel & Sons. Thomas Daniel and his brother John claimed compensation for at least  4,424 enslaved people under the 1833 Abolition Act. Thomas Daniel & Sons in Bristol and Thomas Daniel & Co in London, received one of the largest payouts awarded to British Slave owners with the London arm being the third largest mercantile receivers of compensation.

Commenting on the collaborating with SOAS, Gloria Daniel said:

"I believe an important milestone has been reached for TTEACH PLAQUES with this support from SOAS School of Law Gender and Media. The roles and responsibilities of the British establishment will be exhumed and challenged. Working with academic institutions such as SOAS will assist with furthering our campaign for accountability. We are grateful for this endorsement."

TTEACH Plaques is campaigning for permanent memorialisation in the built environment and seeks to:

  • Educate the wider public on the extent to which the slave economy was the foundation of much of modern Britain including many of its largest cities.
  • Identify plantation owners and merchants by name, enabling descendants to conduct research into their own family history and to seek their own reparative justice.
  • And to finally commemorate the African and Caribbean peoples who were enslaved.