But this sentiment of regret hasn\u2019t always been the monarchy\u2019s prevailing attitude. Recent research by Suzanne Schwarz, Professor of History at the University of Worcester, shows that members of the 18th and 19th century royal family held different views about the transatlantic slave trade<\/a>, the practice of slavery, and abolition. For an episode of the HistoryExtra podcast<\/a> Dr David Musgrove spoke with Professor Schwarz about what we know (and what we don\u2019t) regarding the complicated truth.<\/p>\n Enmeshed within the sprawling institution of the British Empire, the royal family of the late 18th and early 19th century is described by Professor Schwarz as: \u201cpersonifying the existence of a pro-slavery culture\u201d.<\/p>\n Professor Schwarz argues that the royal family was directly and intrinsically involved in the slave trade, using its power and influence to \u201cdefend the wealth and property rights of Caribbean planters, as well as the commercial freedom of British slave merchants to profit from the forced transportation of enslaved Africans.\u201d<\/p>\n She continues, \u201cBased on [the royal family\u2019s] ideological support for slavery and their commitment to defending Britain\u2019s geopolitical interests, they used their individual and collective influence to oppose measures they thought would weaken the colonies, and by extension the British Empire.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere were some differences of opinion on this topic within the royal family,\u201d says Professor Schwarz, setting out the context for an internal struggle within the monarchy.<\/p>\n On one side was the Duke of Clarence, who would later become King William IV<\/a> in 1830, and who was the uncle of the later Queen Victoria<\/a>. Professor Schwarz explains that the Duke of Clarence was \u201cencouraged\u201d (via expensive gifts) by the influential Jamaica Assembly to maintain his \u201ccontinued advocacy of their cause in the ongoing debate on abolition,\u201d and hold fast with his position of \u201csupport for the continuance of the Atlantic slave trade.\u201d<\/p>\n Professor Schwarz notes in her 2023 article Royal Attitudes to the Atlantic Slave Trade and Abolition in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries that Clarence used his position in Parliament to, \u201coppose measures for the regulation and abolition of the trade, bolstering the pro-slavery campaign through his powerful oratory and the authority and patronage he was able to deploy.\u201d<\/p>\n On the other side was Prince William Frederick, the second Duke of Gloucester, who Professor Schwarz says, \u201cchampioned the abolitionist cause.\u201d She continues, \u201c[The Duke of Gloucester\u2019s stance] was acknowledged by an honourable mention in Thomas Clarkson\u2019s History of the Rise, Progress, and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade by the British Parliament<\/em>, published in 1808. Clarkson\u2019s History<\/em> praised the Duke of Gloucester for \u2018having opposed the example of his royal relations on this subject in behalf of a helpless and oppressed people\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\nHow was the royal family involved in the transatlantic slave trade?<\/h2>\n
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\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>What did the royal family think about the slave trade?<\/h2>\n
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