Key facts
- 45 Church of England clergymen invested in the Royal African Company (RAC).
- The RAC trafficked more enslaved Africans than any other single organization.
- Archbishop Sarah Mullally visited Cape Coast Castle, a former slave dungeon.
- Project Spire is a £100 million impact investment fund for communities affected by slavery's legacies.
- The 'Slave Bible', a heavily edited version used for social control, was C of E-sanctioned.
- The SPG enslaved people on the Codrington estate in Barbados, generating significant wealth.
New evidence has emerged detailing the significant involvement of Church of England clergy in financing the transatlantic slave trade, intensifying the church's ongoing debate over reparations. Historians working on the newly digitized Register of British Slave Traders have uncovered that 45 Church of England clergymen invested in the Royal African Company (RAC), an organization responsible for trafficking more enslaved Africans than any other.
Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally recently visited Cape Coast Castle in Ghana, a site of immense historical suffering where abolitionist Ottobah Cugoano was enslaved. Following her visit to the dungeons beneath the castle's chapel, Mullally reaffirmed the Church of England's commitment to its "journey of repentance" for its historical role in slavery.
Prof William Pettigrew, who led the project digitizing the slave traders' register, stated that the findings reveal a "truly national picture," with profits from enslavement filtering down to communities across Britain through bequests to parishes. This suggests a history of the C of E "giving slavery its blessing," raising further questions about the adequacy of its current atonement efforts.
In 2023, the church commissioners launched Project Spire, a £100 million impact investment fund aimed at supporting communities affected by slavery's legacies. However, this initiative has caused division within the church and is not considered a reparations fund. Prof Alan Lester, a historical geographer, described the church's historic investments in entities like the South Sea Company, which trafficked approximately 45,000 enslaved Africans, as a "sliver of church complicity."
Lester further explained how this complicity contributed to shaping modern Britain, with plantation profits fueling industrial development, public services, and educational institutions. The Rev Natasha Beckles, dean of racial justice for Willesden, emphasized that confronting this past is central to Christian faith, questioning the purpose of the cross if such discussions are avoided.