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A wealthy Conservative MP faces lawsuits to pay reparations for his family’s involvement in the Caribbean slave trade after the Observer revealed that he now controls the plantation where his ancestors created the first enslaved sugar plantation in the British Empire nearly 400 years ago.
South Dorset MP Richard Drax has inherited the 250-hectare Drax Hall plantation in Barbados from his father, Observer investigations have established. His father died in 2017. Drax has not yet declared the land or its properties in the parliamentary register of interests of the members.
Last week, leading figures from the Caribbean Reparations Commission (Caricom) described the Drax Hall plantation as a “death camp” and a “crime scene” for the tens of thousands of African slaves who died there in dire conditions. between 1640 and 1836. The Draxes also owned a slave plantation in Jamaica that they sold in the 18th century.
Sir Hilary Beckles, a leading Barbados historian of slavery, said Drax must acknowledge the wealth that slavery brought to the family. “If Richard Drax were in front of me now, I would say, ‘Mr. Drax, the people of Barbados and Jamaica are entitled to restorative justice.’
Beckles, President of Caricom and Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, said: “Today as I drive through the land of Drax Hall and its surroundings, I feel a great sense of being in a mass death camp with cemeteries. Sugar and Black Death went hand in hand. Black life only mattered to make English enslavers millionaires and the Drax family did so for longer than any other elite family. “
Official sources in Bridgetown, Barbados, confirmed that the MP now cultivates Drax Hall. A document reveals his stake in the estate, showing that in February he registered the plantation as a business with the Barbados Companies House under his full name, Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax.
On Friday, the MP said that he is not yet the legal owner of the Barbados properties “as these are still in the process of legalization and have not yet been transferred to my name. Once that process is complete, I will of course register it according to the rules. “
David Comissiong, Barbados’ ambassador to Caricom, said on Friday: “There have been centuries of looting and diversion of the wealth that should have been left in Barbados.
“This was a crime against humanity and we impose [Mr Drax] and his family the moral responsibility to contribute to the effort to repair the damage ”.
Like many of his ancestors, Drax is an MP from Dorset and probably the richest landowner in the House of Commons, with 5,600 hectares of farmland and woodland. Estate finance is largely opaque to the public eye and involves at least six trusts and other disconnected financial entities.
Harrow-educated Drax, 62, a former Guard officer and BBC journalist, lives in Charborough Park, known for its three-mile-long brick wall that runs along one of Dorset’s main roads .
At the center of the park is the Grade I mansion. Drax also owns some 125 properties in Dorset personally or through family trusts and could be worth up to 150 million pounds. He also owns a £ 4.5 million holiday villa on the nearby sandbanks, which rents for up to £ 6,734 per week in peak season.
In Barbados, the imposing plantation house, Drax Hall, built around 1650, still stands, the oldest house in the Western Hemisphere, and sugar is still grown on the plantation.
Drax rarely comments on his ancestors’ history of slave ownership. When he first appeared in parliament in 2010, the Daily Mirror asked him about his historical responsibility. He replied, “I cannot be responsible for something that happened 300 or 400 years ago.” Drax said it was an attempt to smear him. “They are using the old class and that is not what this election is about. It is not what I defend and I ignore it. “
On Friday, Drax said: “I am well aware of the slave trade in the West Indies, and the role my distant ancestor played in it is deeply, deeply regrettable, but no one can be held responsible today for what happened to many hundreds years ago. This is a part of the nation’s history, from which we must all learn. ”
Barbados historian Beckles, however, told the Observer: “It is not an answer for Richard Drax to say that it has nothing to do with him when he is the owner and the heir. They should pay for repairs. “
