Barbados may seek reparations from Benedict Cumberbatch’s family for owning slaves, as the actor’s ancestors owned a slave plantation on the island during the 18th and 19th centuries.
“Any descendants of white plantation owners who have benefitted from the slave trade should be asked to pay reparations, including the Cumberbatch family,” David Denny, general secretary of the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration, told the Telegraph.
If Barbados wins its legal battle, the country will set a precedent by letting its government seek reparations from wealthy descendants of slave owners, like Cumberbatch, whose seventh great-grandfather bought the Cleland plantation in 1728.
The Cleland plantation in Barbados was home to 250 slaves until the British Empire abolished slavery in 1834.
When slavery was abolished, Cumberbatch’s ancestors were reportedly paid thousands of pounds in compensation, which equates to roughly $1.2 million today. At the time, the British government had taken out a loan to pay off slave owners. That loan was finally paid off in 2015.
It remains unclear if Cumberbatch has ever benefitted from the money his family received in the early 1800s.
When asked if descendants of the Cumberbatch family would be pursued, David Comissiong, Barbados’ ambassador to the Caribbean community and deputy chairman of the island’s national commission on reparations, said, “This is at the earliest stages.”
“We are just beginning,” Comissiong added. “A lot of this history is only really now coming to light.”
Cumberbatch is also the son of the actress Wanda Ventham, who had reportedly urged him to change his name before embarking on his acting career, as she feared he could face demands for reparations due to their family’s past connection to slavery.
Richard Drax, a British Conservative politician who inherited his family’s ancestral sugar plantation, is also facing calls for reparations — in the form of giving up hundreds of acres of prime real estate on the island.
If Drax declines to do so, Barbados might then apply for payment from an international arbitration court, the Telegraph noted, adding that any court ruling in Barbados’ favor could set a precedent for the island to begin pursuing other wealthy descendants of slave owners.
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