BBC Anchor Laura Trevelyan Quits Job to ‘Atone for Sins of Ancestors’ Who Owned 1,000 Slaves

For 30 years, former BBC journalist and news presenter Laura Trevelyan has traveled the world, reporting on some of the biggest stories of our time. While reporting on the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in 2020, Trevelyan had an epiphany: it was time to confront her family’s role in a horrific period of history — the slave trade.

Trevelyan’s aristocratic ancestors owned more than 1,000 slaves on the Caribbean island of Grenada in the 18th and 19th centuries.

“There were protests every night [after George Floyd’s murder]. And that’s the main story in the program I’m on. Not only as a professional journalist, but also personally, I wondered if the legacy of slavery in America is police brutality against blacks, then what is the situation in Grenada?” Trevelyan, 55, tells PEOPLE.

After Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807 (although slavery itself did not end until 1833), slave owners negotiated compensation for the loss of “ownership”. In 1834, the Trevelyans received the equivalent of what would be $3.6 million today.

Since discovering her family’s past, Trevelyan has quit her prestigious job at the BBC and joined a movement to get reparative justice for the Caribbean. This eventually led to her publicly apologizing at an event in front of Grenada’s prime minister and paying $127,000 in damages, which will be used to fund education programs in the country.

Laura Trevelyan with Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell (left) at an apology ceremony in Grenada in February.

Reynaldo Bernard

The family’s historical ties to slavery were unknown to Trevelyan and her relatives until around 2016 after University College London released a list of families who had received compensation for their ownership of slaves. When her relatives first asked her what they should do, she buried herself in her work, unable to face the problem directly.

“The Trevelyans seemed to own six or seven plantations in Grenada and they were getting all that money as compensation. I thought, you know, this is amazing. And plus, obviously on top of compensation, how much money was made from slavery and sugar cane all those years?” she told PEOPLE from her home in Brooklyn, NYC. “We were pretty shocked. But I couldn’t figure out what to do with that information.”

Laura Trevelyan in New York.

Bill Wadman

Then came the death of George Floyd. Trevelyan went to her editor at the BBC and asked to report on her family and the painful legacy of slavery. “They said, ‘You have to be very hard on yourself. You can’t go without asking, do I have to pay compensation for what happened?'” she recalls.

Trevelyan made the program and in the summer of 2022, she and about 50 family members held a meeting in the Zoom boardroom with Sir Hilary Beckles, vice-chancellor of the University of the West Indies and chairman of the Caribbean Reparations Organization. .

“He spoke really strongly about how an apology would be important and meaningful,” she says.

This came true in February 2023, when she and seven members of her family, including her father George, traveled to the Caribbean for a ceremony where they publicly signed a letter of apology. And she made her own donation – largely drawn from her BBC pension, which she left earlier this year.

Laura Trevelyan and some of her relatives sign a letter of apology in Grenada in February.

Reynaldo Bernard

“To the people of Grenada, we the undersigned write to apologize for the actions of our ancestors who enslaved your ancestors,” read the letter signed by 104 members of her extended family and read aloud by Trevelyan and her cousin John Miraz.

“Its harmful effects continue to this day. We reject the participation of our ancestors in this. We apologize to the surviving descendants of those enslaved on these estates for the continued impact on their daily lives, their health and well-being.”

The letter of apology is read by Laura Trevelyan and her cousin John Dower.

Courtesy of Laura Trevelyan

They also called on “the British government to enter into meaningful negotiations with Caribbean governments to make appropriate reparations”.

She admits she was embarrassed to be confronted with the descendants of slaves in the Caribbean — “definitely quite strenuous” is her understated reaction. Trevelyan says she was sometimes asked some tough questions by skeptical students who wondered why she didn’t know about her family’s ties to slavery and how the size of her donation didn’t reflect the wealth her family had amassed from the proceeds of slavery.

For her earlier documentary, Trevelyan “talked to some of the schoolgirls while I was there, and they were so eloquent about the legacy of slavery,” Trevelyan says. “They thought that their parents were brutally disciplined by their grandparents and that this was a legacy of slavery. And they talked about colorism, which is really widespread, and sexual violence against female slaves. They said that there is a color hierarchy within Grenada and that discrimination stems from that. That this is another legacy.”

Laura Trevelyan with a group of schoolgirls in Grenada in February.

Courtesy of Laura Trevelyan

Early next month, Trevelyan and her colleagues from Heirs of Slavery (an organization that brings together other families who want to do their part in the reparations campaign) will host a conference in London for families with a connection to slavery who have contacted her recently. More than 125 families have contacted them from countries such as the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the US in recent months. (There is also an organization in the US called Coming to the Table that encourages descendants of slave owners to sit down at the table with descendants of slaves.)

“What I’ve learned is that recognition is what matters. People have said this to me in the Caribbean, ‘It’s not the money you gave to Laura, it’s the support you give to our cause that means so much more,’ she says.

“I think it made sense. Sir Hilary Beckles was right when he said: ‘We have only experienced a deafening silence from the descendants of slave owners, and if you come forward it will set an example and it will create momentum.’ I think that had some impact. I’m glad.”

“It is in a way an atonement for the sins of our ancestors. If we could try to spark a movement towards acknowledging and repairing the damage of slavery, then that seems appropriate,” she adds.

Her campaign helped put the argument for reparations back on the international relations agenda. Earlier this fall, Caricom, an organization of Caribbean nations, called on the governments of Britain, Spain, France and Denmark to pay what they estimate is $33 trillion in reparations.

Laura Trevelyan talks to Grenada Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell.

Reynaldo Bernard

“If the family can apologize and pay reparations for slavery, then governments can at least open the debate,” says Trevelyan.

Does that include the royal family and their historical ties to slavery? Before he became king, Charles, as Prince of Wales, said in a speech in Rwanda: “I cannot describe the depth of my personal sadness at the suffering of so many people, as I continue to deepen my own understanding of the lasting impact of slavery.”

King Charles (74) will travel to Kenya next week on an official tour. During her visit, she will seek to deepen her understanding of the impact of colonialism and support ongoing research into the historical links between slavery and the British First Family. A Buckingham Palace spokesperson tells PEOPLE: “This is a matter that His Majesty takes very seriously.”

Referring to the speech in Rwanda, the spokesman added: “That learning process has continued strong and determined since His Majesty’s arrival.”

King Charles and Queen Camilla in Kigali, Rwanda in June 2022 SIMON WOHLFAHRT/AFP via Getty

Trevelyan says, “All this deepening of his understanding and supporting research, I guess leads somewhere, I hope this is a substantive conversation we can have.”

The king would have nothing to fear, she says and adds: “Our family shows that you can do it.”

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Source: HIS Education