Archbishop Welby - £100m Compensation to Descendants of Black Slaves
The fund follows a Church Commissioners 2022 interim report looking into the origins of its investments. It found that the Queen Anne’s Bounty, a financial scheme established in the 18th century, was linked to transatlantic chattel slavery. The report’s writers found that the Queen Anne’s Bounty fund “invested significant amounts” of its funds in the South Sea Company, a firm founded in 1711 to refinance England’s national debt which was awarded the monopoly on Britain’s trade of enslaved people to the Spanish Americas." They estimate that the South Sea Company transported 34,000 slaves “in crowded, unsanitary, unsafe and inhumane conditions” during its 30 years of operation. A significant portion of the Bounty’s income during the 18th century was derived from sources that may be linked to transatlantic chattel slavery, principally interest and dividends on South Sea Company annuities and benefactions from wealthy individuals,” Justin Welby, apologised for...
