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King Charles has given his support to research that will examine the British monarchy’s links to slavery, Buckingham Palace said on Thursday, after a newspaper report said a document showed a historical connection with a transatlantic slave trader.
The Guardian said an archive document discovered by historian Brooke Newman showed that in 1689 King William III had been given 1,000 pounds of shares in the Royal African Company (RAC) which was involved in the transportation of thousands of slaves from Africa to the Americas
The recently discovered document was signed by Edward Colston, a slave trade magnate whose history became widely known after protesters pulled down a statue to him in Bristol, southwest England, and threw it in the harbour during 2020 Black Lives Matter protests.
“This is an issue that His Majesty takes profoundly seriously,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement.
The issue of the British Empire’s slavery links and calls for possible reparations from the monarchy has been growing in the Caribbean where Charles remains head of state of a number of countries including Jamaica and the Bahamas.
SOURCE:REUTERS
