Jersey and the slave trade

Purpose

Museums have a central role in creating a more equal, diverse and inclusive society.

Through the objects that represent us, the stories we share and the historic places we look after, we hold the collective memory of our community. As the heritage guardians for the Island, Jersey Heritage (JH) has a responsibility to educate, to give people the knowledge and factual information to make informed choices, and to build an understanding of respect and tolerance. It is therefore necessary to better understand those previously absent histories – this report sets out some of this knowledge.

First of series

This report details current knowledge of Jersey’s links to the transatlantic slave trade. It is the first of a series which will share research about previously excluded voices from our history.

The international outcry and protest in response to the killing of George Floyd in the US and closer to home, the abuse received by three black footballers playing for England, their country, has shown that members of our community are treated differently because of the colour of their skin and demonstrated the profound importance of all of us playing a part in combatting racism, social injustice and discrimination.

Diversity group

This report is written in collaboration with the Jersey Heritage Diversity Group. The purpose of this group is to consider the equality, diversity and inclusivity of the interpretation that JH and its community partners create and present.

The Group is made up of members of our community who have been absolutely essential in providing balanced, thoughtful and personal contributions throughout this process. The group are keen to stress that they have no wish to change the past or exclude people or stories. Their wish is to ensure that the whole story is told and that everyone has a voice.

This desire very much reflects JH’s remit to research and share our Island’s history. Whilst the past never changes, history is constantly evolving and developing as we research and learn more.

Museum collections

Museums across Britain and around the world are looking at their collections and their interpretation, are working with community partners, in an effort to acquire more knowledge to help educate and share that knowledge and promote understanding of the communities in which they exist. Exercises similar to that undertaken by JH are going on across the heritage world.

The effects of history are still felt today. Members of our community are often treated differently and to their disadvantage because of the colour of their skin, their gender or their abilities. How we view, share and educate about the past can inadvertently reinforce those inequities. As a mirror of the society in which it exists, JH has a role to play in educating about our shared past in a way which promotes previously excluded voices. It can play an active role in being an ally with our diverse community.

Further research

This report establishes current knowledge of Jersey’s legacy of the transatlantic slavery, and considers how JH might share that knowledge in the future. No doubt there is much more to research, learn and share and so this report should therefore be considered as representative of the knowledge held at this moment.

Whilst at this stage the work of the Group is largely focused on the transatlantic slave trade, JH also seeks to consider the representation of other voices excluded from our history because of their class, gender or ability.

In summary and with reference to JH interpretation only, the purpose of this report is to:

• Establish current knowledge of Jersey’s links to the transatlantic slave trade;
• Consider how Jersey’s past is currently represented by JH and whether this reflects current knowledge;
• Set out next steps to improve knowledge and presentation of our Island’s history

Talking about diversity and why it matters

Talking about diversity and inclusion is challenging for everyone, but it is an absolutely necessary conversation to have. It is important that we approach it with a sense of openness and clarity of purpose.

History is hugely complex with all of the contradictions and impulses of humanity. The year 2020 was cataclysmic in more ways than one – it brought to the fore a global protest movement for equality and a reckoning with history which recognises that telling history from a narrow point of view ignores either through deliberate or unknowing narrative, the human consequences of actions, both historically and on today’s communities.

Some might question whether museums have a part to play in addressing and redressing these inequities. By researching exploring and sharing the history of ALL of Jersey’s people, we can present a fuller picture, give everyone a voice and a place in our history. Not doing so risks creating a selective, biased memory. Museums should reflect the society in which they operate if they are to continue to be relevant to both an Island and worldwide context, and to play an active part in addressing the issues which concern Islanders today.

Diversity Group Members

The Jersey Heritage Diversity Group was set up in August 2020 in response to recent events and to museums around the world responding to those events. Many museum and heritage organisations issued statements at that time and this was followed by calls to follow up those words with actions.

The group is made up of members representing differing areas of the community. Their contribution has been absolutely essential in understanding the importance and relevance to today’s community of improving JH’s representation of our Island story:

• Kate Wright – HR Consultant. Co-founder of The Diversity Network which promotes diversity and inclusion in the workplace. She is a trustee and ViceChair of the Jersey Community Relations Trust.
• Jade Ecobichon-Gray – Has worked in social care, mental health and corporate wellbeing for many years. She is an active member of the Black Lives Matter Jersey movement and is an advocate for social justice and social impact.
• Lesley Katsande – From Zimbabwe, descended from African Royalty. She has a passion for history and research. She is Chair of charity Jersey 263, works closely with Friends of Africa and works to mobilise the Black community.
• Vic Tanner-Davy – CEO of Liberate Jersey. Liberate works towards equality for and inclusion of all minority groups in the Channel Islands through providing support to individuals, education and the arts, campaigning for reform, questioning social attitudes, and working with government and law enforcement agencies to stop hate crime. Liberate also organises CI Pride.
• Cindy Marques – Recently completed a Social Sciences Degree achieving a First. Part of her degree was a dissertation on Jersey’s links to slavery.
• Nancy Thomas - Vice Chair of JH, proactive diversity advocate, consultant in change management and leadership.
• Lisa Mansell – JH Board Apprentice and a Senior Youth Worker with Jersey’s Youth Parliament. She is especially experienced in providing educational programmes for young and vulnerable adults.
• Louise Downie – Curation and Experience Director with JH with overall responsibility for public facing projects including exhibitions, events, displays, outreach, education, marketing and the visitor experience, working with the JH team.
• Lucy Layton – Outreach Curator for JH, working towards enabling the community to connect with the Islands heritage. Most recently Lucy has curated the People! Power! Protest! exhibition looking at Jersey’s history of protest and previously the People Make Jersey exhibition which looked at the different communities which create the Island community today.
• Chris Addy – Sites Curator for JH, which includes working on projects to update displays across the six visitor sites. He has curated the Day to Remember Liberation 75 exhibition which features multi-generational interviews on Liberation and the meaning of freedom today.
• Helen Otterwell – JH Learning and Engagement Manager and spends most of her time working with schools.

Slavery audit research sources

The first task of the JH Diversity Group was to audit current JH interpretation relevant to legacies of transatlantic slavery. The purpose of the audit of interpretation was to increase knowledge of slave ownership and trading, the material consequences of this trade and the mechanics of the trade in terms of what enabled it to happen.

By understanding this, we can all understand better the human consequences both in the past and how those past events continue to affect people today. The audit and JH’s approach to it was not about apportioning blame or making judgements, but is about gathering facts through documented research, presenting these facts, educating people and allowing people to come to their own conclusions.

JH is about sharing Jersey’s stories whether they are amazing, intriguing, difficult to hear, good, bad or traumatic.

Research sources

The principle research sources were:

• The UCL Legacies of British Slave-Ownership website with the database of the 1834 Compensation Register which lists all people who claimed compensation when slavery was abolished - https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/ -
• The website which lists all slave journeys - https://www.slavevoyages.org/.
• Teacher and photographer Martin Toft has carried out research into the beginnings of Jersey’s finance industry which has revealed detail about some Jersey families, notably the Gabourels and Gibauts, who owned plantations and enslaved people in South America. His research has uncovered documentary proof of slave ownership by these two families in South America.
• Jersey historian Doug Ford carried out much historical research in 2006 as part of the efforts to mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade.

Further research

Further research is required into States Minutes, Court Records, Chamber of Commerce Archive and private archives. There are very few documents related to slavery in Jersey Archive.

Whilst this report documents current knowledge, it is by no means a finished article in that regard, but is a work in progress, growing as we acquire more information.

No doubt there is much research still to be carried out in archives around the world, which may reveal more connections.

Audit criteria

Whilst not defined at the start of the process, during the audit several criteria emerged and were considered by the JH Diversity Group when looking at current JH interpretation:

• People, companies and trades that generated wealth from trading in enslaved people
• People, places and companies whose foundations were built on wealth generated by slavery and industries that used enslaved people
• Ships, ship masters and owners who profited from slavery, either directly or indirectly
• People and companies that were recorded as considering enslaved people to be part of their material wealth
• People active in jurisdictions which used enslaved people as a significant part of its economic base

Links revealed

People, companies and trades that generated wealth from trading in enslaved people

• Josué (Joshua) Mauger – from St John. Set up as merchant and ship owner in Halifax, Nova Scotia, from where he traded in enslaved people. Later MP for Poole. Left his wealth to his nephew Philippe Winter Nicolle, who set up his own merchant business in Jersey and built 9 Pier Road
• Sir George Carteret (c1610-1680) – Founder of The Company of Royal Adventurers into Africa which traded in enslaved people, ivory and gold.
• James Carteret (1643-1682) – George’s son who commanded the Speedwell slave ship. James owned a plantation in Carolina.
• Captain François Messervy – captain of the Ferrers, of London, who in 1772 bought and transported over 300 enslaved people. During the voyage the enslaved mutinied three times because of the lack of food, resulting in the deaths of 43 enslaved and eight crew, including Captain Messervy and his brother Jean.
• Mahogany was harvested using enslaved people. Many Jersey merchants either owned or traded in mahogany. Some Jersey families had mahogany plantations in British Honduras (now Honduras and Belize).

People, places and companies which generated wealth by slavery and industries that used enslaved people

• 9 Pier Road – built by Philippe Nicolle in 1818. In 1788, aged 19 Philippe inherited money from his uncle [great-uncle] Joshua Mauger (see above) – Philippe was the main beneficiary. The inheritance of money generated partly from the transatlantic slave trade was part of Philippe’s wealth when he set himself up as a merchant and built 9 Pier Road in 1818.
• Richard Richardson of St Martin, and his nephews Nicolas and Abraham, who owned or ran a sugar plantation in Jamaica from the 1660s into the next century.
• John Frederick Gibaut who owned a tobacco and medicinal plants plantation in Brazil in the 1840s and 1850s. Judicial records in Salvador confirm that Gibaut was one of the largest plantation owners in the area using enslaved people. The plantation went bankrupt around the same time as the end of slavery in 1888.
• Aaron de Ste Croix and brothers, James and Clement Hemery ^[1] and Co, George Mauger, Francis Valpy, Francis Alexandre Bradley and George Le Geyt have all been identified through Martin Toft’s research as part of the mahogany industry.
• Thomas Pickstock – associate of Joshua Gabourel and merchant. Shipped mahogany to the Poingdestres.
• Charles Robin and Co – part of the triangular trade in cod and mahogany that was harvested by enslaved people. ^[2]
• John and James Poingdestre, London merchants dealing in mahogany and captains of ships transporting mahogany. Letter from James Poingdestre, Honduras to John Fiott, London regarding the shipment of wood 1768 (Jersey Archives L/C/88/A/101).

Ships, ship masters and owners who profited from slavery, either directly or indirectly

• Speedwell – commanded by James Carteret. Left London 1663, picked up 302 enslaved people at Offra, Benin. By March 1664 had sold 155 men, 105 women and 22 boys to plantations in Barbados and St Kitts.
• Ferrers, of London, captained by Messervy.
• Neptune of Jersey which delivered 165 enslaved people to the West Indies in May 1762. Owned by James Lempriere and captained by Philip Mauger.
• Hope built in Jersey in 1747. April 1759 left Bristol, commanded by Robert Chambers, picked up 230 enslaved people, disembarking 199 enslaved people in Jamaica. Same ship owned by James Campbell, Hugh Pringle, Thomas Smith and captained by John Gilman in 1761, picked up 200 enslaved people from the Windward Coast, landed 150 enslaved people at Charleston.
• Trevor built in Jersey in 1747. Owned by John Gilman (captain), Hill Thomas and Thomas Smith. Left Whydah in 1763 with 222 enslaved people, landed Jamaica with 190 enslaved people.
• Defiance owned by Peter (Pierre) and Thomas Mallet of Jersey and Parry, under Captain John Kimber, in 1797 sailed from Gold Coast with 409 enslaved people and arrived in Barbados with 408. Whilst captain of Recovery, John Kimber was accused by Wilberforce of causing the death of a girl by inflicting injuries because she refused to dance naked. He was tried and acquitted.
• Newport owned by F Le Sueur, P Le Sueur and J F Le Sueur and captained by Charles Philippe Hocquard of Rozel, stopped in June 1854 by the Royal Navy and arrested for involvement in supplying materials for the transatlantic slave trade. Crew included TF de la Mare, Mathew Gallichan and Charles Gallien, John Le Rossignol and Thomas Gallichan, Daniel Hacquoil and an African boy, Joseph. Captain Charles Philippe Hocquard of Les Fiefs, Rozel, was described as ‘the last of the Jersey slavers’ by his great grandson Charles E Whitley in a letter dated 24 December 1974 to Dr John Renouf of La Société Jersiaise. Further research now being carried out to establish how involved the captain and his crew were, or whether they were scapegoats.
• John Theodore and John Carter suppliers to the Royal Africa Company.
• Ex-slave carrying vessel Clara owned by George Ingouville 1826-28.
• Ex-slave carrying vessel Telegraph owned by Charles Robin 1846-1856.
• Ships owned or part owned by Philippe Nicolle, who received his inheritance from slave trader Joshua Mauger at the age of 19 - Ant, Ariadne, Ariel, Augia, Bride, Brothers, Brutus, Ceres, Curlew, Dandy, Dolphin, Dragon, Eliza, Esther, Exchange, Express, Fish Hawk, Fisherman, Frances, Gampus, Greyhound, Gulliver, Hare, Harmony, Hero, Herring, Hind, Iris, Jersey, Juno, Kingfisher, Lord Nelson, Maria, Mountaineer, Nameless, Nautilus, Nimrod, Ocean, Pallas, Pelican, Pilgrim, Ramble, Snowdrop, Speedy Packet, Tidy, Traveller, Unicorn, Venus, Vestal. ^[3]

People and companies that were recorded as considering enslaved people to be part of their material wealth

As listed in the 1834 Compensation Register, these people were resident in Jersey in 1834 when compensation paid out:

• Elizabeth Brasnell, Egyptian House, claimed compensation for 150 enslaved people in Tobago
• James Lee Brodbelt, St Helier, claimed compensation for 250 enslaved people in Jamaica
• John Robert Budgen, Gorey, claimed compensation for 171 enslaved people in St Kitts
• Eliza Burke, Richmond Villa, Clarendon Road, claimed compensation for 30 enslaved people in Grenada
• William Burke, Richmond Villa, Clarendon Road, claimed compensation for 161 enslaved people in Grenada
• (Hortense Watson is listed on the Register – she was a freed enslaved person owned by William Burke and living with the family in Jersey).
• John Cameron, 8 St Mark’s Terrace, claimed compensation for 574 enslaved people in British Guiana
• John Wilson Carmichael, Jersey, claimed compensation for 22 enslaved people in Trinidad
• Adam Cliff, Granville, claimed compensation for 1114 enslaved people in Jamaica
• Adam Wallace Elmslie, Bocage, Lebain, St Brelade claim unknown
• Edward Welch Eversley Havre des Pas, claimed compensation for nine enslaved people in Barbados
• Lieut Robert Forbes, Jersey, claimed compensation for 232 enslaved people in Jamaica
• Moses Franco, claimed compensation for one enslaved person in Jamaica
• Rev William Garnett, Portland Place, St Helier, claimed compensation for ten enslaved people in St Lucia
• Joseph Gordon, Meadowbank, St Lawrence, claimed compensation for 1043 enslaved people in Jamaica
• Catherine Campbell Griffith (née Shakespear), St Helier, claimed compensation for 37 enslaved people in Jamaica
• John William Spencer Griffith, St Helier, claimed compensation for 227 enslaved people in Jamaica
• William Stephen Harker, claimed compensation for 69 enslaved people in Jamaica
• Richard Humber, Bouley Bay, claimed compensation for 106 enslaved people in Jamaica
• Michael Jackson, 4 Portland Place, claimed compensation for 151 enslaved people in Barbados
• Francis Janvrin, Jersey, claimed compensation for 205 enslaved people in Jamaica
• Abraham Alexander Lindo address and claim unknown, left Jersey 1835
• Ann Mitchell Lovell later Isaacson (nee Rodon), Bute Cottage, Beaumont and Constantia Lodge, Jersey, claim unknown
• Olive Mackeson (née McKeand), Jersey, claimed compensation for 132 enslaved people in Jamaica
• Edmund Howard Pace, Jersey, claimed compensation for ten enslaved people in Jamaica
• Rebecca Padmore, claimed compensation for seven enslaved people in Barbados
• Thomas Scott Reignolds, St Helier, claimed compensation for 147 enslaved people in Jamaica
• Anne Mary Sterling, Jersey, claimed compensation for 49 enslaved people in Jamaica
• Caroline Atkinson Swaby, 4 Salvandy Terrace, St Saviour, claimed compensation for 453 enslaved people in Jamaica
• Brooke Taylor Otley, St Helier Jersey, claim unknown
• General Sir Tomkyns Hilgrove Turner, Gouray Lodge, claimed compensation for 485 enslaved people in Jamaica
• Richard Goodwin Bowen Wilson, St Helier, claimed compensation for 17 enslaved people in Jamaica
• John Wright, Jersey, claimed compensation for 174 enslaved people in St Kitts

Also these people had Jersey connections:

• Joshua Gabourel (born Jersey 1761, died Honduras 1800) who owned a mahogany plantation in British Honduras in the late 18th century. Martin Toft’s research has revealed that Gabourel’s Jersey-born wife Elizabeth lived with him in his town house whilst his mixed race wife Catherine White lived with him on his plantation. His daughter Ann and sons William and Joshua (mother Catherine) inherited his enslaved people and plantation.
• William Gabourel owned eight enslaved people in Honduras. Member of the Legislative Meeting of Honduras, Quartermaster in Honduras Militia ^[4] Joshua Gabourel’s son with Catherine White.
• Ann Gabourel owned 17 enslaved people in Honduras. Joshua Gabourel’s daughter with Catherine White.
• Joshua Gabourel jnr owned ten enslaved people in Honduras. Joshua Gabourel’s son with Catherine White. He was a Member of the Legislative Meeting of Honduras ^[5]
• Catherine White (Joshua Gabourel’s partner) owned ten enslaved people in Honduras. ^[6]
• Brothers Philip, John and Francis De Ste Croix (born in Jersey 1798, 1799 and 1801) who owned one enslaved person in Honduras (1834) and ships D’Auvergne, Ceres, Ste Croix, Calista and Crusader carrying mahogany from British Honduras to Jersey. Still trading as mahogany cutters and had land in British Honduras in 1861.
• George Le Geyt owned three enslaved people in Honduras. Member of the Legislative Meeting of Honduras ^[7]
• Thomas Pickstock owned seven enslaved people in Honduras.

People active in jurisdictions which used enslaved people as a significant part of their economic base ^[8]

• General Don (1756-1832) – after being Lieutenant Governor of Jersey, General Don was Acting Governor of Gibraltar, a position he held when, in 1828, a Spanish ship carrying 535 enslaved people left the port of Gibraltar. It landed at Matanzas with 440 enslaved people. By 1828 the slave trade had been outlawed in both Britain and Spain.
• Sir Tomkyns Hilgrove Turner (1764-1843) General, Governor of the Bermudas 1826-32 and listed in the Compensation Register. There were approximately 4,000 enslaved people living in Bermuda during Turner’s tenure. He wrote many letters and reports to the Colonial office about their emancipation. In October 1826 he wrote to the Colonial Office giving options on stages of emancipation. In November 1828 he oversaw an act which enabled enslaved people and people of colour to give evidence in Court. In December 1828 he wrote that he hoped a bill would soon be passed ‘for the freedom of all children born of a coloured female slave and a white man.’
• Lieut-General John Le Couteur (1760-1835) – Lieut-Governor of Curaçao 1813-1815. His memorial stone in St Brelade’s Church includes the words ‘The negroes and the slaves shed bitter tears on the departure of the “massa father”’.
• Marie Le Couteur née Dumaresq – married to John Le Couteur. Marie wrote a letter with detail of her time in Curaçao (Jersey Archives L/C68/B1/1). Extracts of the letter refer to enslaved people in the Island.

Audit results

Maritime Museum and harbour trail

Jersey’s maritime history of trade and especially the cod triangle links with South America, Newfoundland and Gaspe, trading mahogany and cod reveal the ties between Jersey and the transatlantic slave trade. Many ships took part in this trading triangle.

The slave voyages database (https://www.slavevoyages.org/) was consulted to check whether any ships mentioned in the Maritime Museum were included in the database. None were.

A deeper level of research is now required to check the ownership and captaincy of ships. Specific objects which have an association with slavery are:

• Thomas Pickstock’s sword and reproductions of the ship Herald. Pickstock had close ties with the British Honduras mahogany plantation owner and enslaved person owner Joshua Gabourel. Pickstock’s son, also Thomas, was a British Honduras magistrate and merchant who received compensation for seven freed enslaved people in the 1834 Compensation Register. He was a Member of the Legislative Meeting of Honduras, Captain in the Honduran Militia ^[9]
• The Ship Master’s Assistant. This book from 1803 details how enslaved people should be transported.
• Mahogany longcase clocks. The clocks are made from mahogany harvested at a time when mahogany was often harvested using enslaved labour.

Island signage

A review of the approximately 100 JH interpretation signs revealed no references to the transatlantic slave trade. Future development of signage may provide an opportunity to include previous excluded voices.

JH blue plaques

Over the years JH has installed 15 Blue Plaques around the Island. Some of these fall into the audit criteria. The words on the plaques are transcribed below in italics:

• Sir Tomkyns Hilgrove Turner (1764-1843) General, Governor of the Bermudas, and Lieutenant-Governor of Jersey lived here. Delivered the Rosetta Stone from Egypt to the British Museum. Turner appears in the 1834 Compensation Register. He claimed for 485 enslaved people in Jamaica. He was also Governor of Bermuda from 1826-32.
• Sir George Carteret (1610-1680), Treasurer of the Navy, Bailiff and Lieut-Governor of Jersey built this house. Traded in enslaved people.
• Charles Robin (1743-1824) Merchant and entrepreneur in the Newfoundland cod trade, lived here. Founder of a commercial empire in the Gaspé Peninsula, Canada. The Jersey ‘cod triangle’ involved trade in mahogany from Honduras that was harvested by enslaved people.

Future development of blue plaques may provide an opportunity to include previously excluded voices.

Jersey Museum and Art Gallery

9 Pier Road was built by Philippe Nicolle in the early 19th century. Aged 19, Nicolle inherited much of his wealth from his uncle, Joshua Mauger, a documented slave trader. Therefore No 9 was built using the proceeds of the slave trade.

Mahogany is used throughout Number 9 in stairs, handrails etc and the house is filled with mahogany furniture. Mahogany was harvested by enslaved people.

Sir George Carteret is mentioned and a reproduction portrait used in the Civil War section of the Story of Jersey. Additional text could be added to talk about one of the sources of his wealth – slavery. It would also be an opportunity to acknowledge the indigenous people of New Jersey.

The visit of Black Methodist preacher John Jea could be added to the Methodism panel in the Story of Jersey which details the visit of John Wesley.

Elizabeth Castle

George Carteret is one of the characters on the EC app.

La Hougue Bie, Mont Orgueil and Hamptonne

No references or relevance to the transatlantic slave trade.

Next steps

Whilst we should continue to listen and learn, to work with community partners, to gather historical research, we have enough information now to be able to begin to start creating a project(s) to address these issues, to enable challenging conversations and play a part in combatting racism, social injustice and discrimination. The following are the key actions JH will be taking:

• A project addressing and communicating Jersey’s connections with slavery. It is clear that the main place within the JH portfolio with links to transatlantic slavery is No 9 Pier Road. Working with Jade Ecobichon-Grey as a guest curator and the JH Diversity Group to peer review, we have started working on an exhibition which will provide information on Jersey’s links with transatlantic slavery. The exhibition will be based in the dining room of No 9 and will be based around the mahogany trade. The project will include talks, panel discussion and podcasts, enabling the project to be brought up to date with discussions around race and equality. Importantly, the planned project on Jersey’s links to slavery will include a section giving visitors information on how to be an effective ally. This project will be the main JH action for diversity in 2021 and 2022.
• Carry out further audits and gather research in areas including: people who opposed the abolition of slavery; people who opposed the rights of other disadvantaged groups, expressed discriminatory views or carried out discriminatory activities; collections of human remains or items of religious or cultural significance from outside of Jersey; people or companies which promote the cause of equality, diversity and inclusivity either now or historically.
• Work with Dr Richard Benjamin, University of Liverpool and Jean Francois Manicom, Lead Curator of International Slavery Museum, Liverpool to create a terminology guide so that JH is equipped to use the most appropriate language throughout its interpretation.
• Engage with established academics to research and peer review JH’s work in this area.
• Create a new plan for the JH blue plaque scheme.
• Continue to research Jersey’s links to the transatlantic slave trade.
• Continue to research Jersey’s disadvantaged communities.
• Continue to share stories about Jersey people from all communities through social media.
• JH Collections Team to continue to audit JH collections (as opposed to interpretation).
• Support the Island community to institute and mark International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade (23 August).

Conclusion

With input and support from the community in the form of the JH Diversity Group, this report sets out current knowledge on Jersey’s links to transatlantic slavery, an audit of current JH interpretation and next steps to improve JH’s ability to share multiple voices. We are now better equipped to understand Jersey’s connections to the transatlantic slave trade being chiefly through the mahogany industry and that JH’s main place of connection is Number 9 Pier Road.

It is the first in series of projects and reports to research previously excluded voices. JH has a responsibility to ensure its interpretation is equal, inclusive and accessible, to give a voice and be an ally to those who have been ignored, marginalised or disenfranchised either wilfully or unconsciously. JH should play a part with our community partners in educating about our shared past for the benefit of our Island community now and in the future.

Louise Downie

Curation and Experience Director

October 2021

Notes and references

1. ↑ Shown as Henry in the report but likely to be Hemery
2. ↑ Ed: This is a generalisation regarding Charles Robin`s alleged mahogany trade. It is not supported by the definitive study of his family`s commercial history: David Lee, The Robins in Gaspé, 1766-1825, (Ontario: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1984).
3. ↑ There were numerous voyages shipping mahogany from Honduras
4. ↑ 1829 Honduras almanac
5. ↑ 1829 Honduras almanac
6. ↑ Ann, William and Joshua are an example of the complexities of history – they were the mixed race children of Joshua Gabourel and Catherine White. They all owned enslaved people.
7. ↑ 1829 Honduras almanac
8. ↑ This is the information known today. JH will continue to research and add further information as it emerges
9. ↑ 1829 Honduras almanac