In a brave move to whiten her face, the owner of the British Guardian newspaper, the Scott Trust, admitted the involvement of its founders in the slavery trade, especially in transatlantic slavery, in which kidnapped slaves were transported from Africa to the United States of America, and the newspaper made an extensive apology about this involvement, and devoted a number From the pages of the newspaper to criticize the position of its founders, pledging to adopt a program it announced to promote what it called “restorative justice”, which will be implemented through a financial fund, and will continue for extended years, according to a report recently published by the same newspaper.
The Trust confirmed that it intends to allocate approximately 12 million pounds sterling in a fund for the benefit of the descendants of those who were subjected to slavery practices in which the founders of the Guardian were involved. Others, from Manchester, funded the newspaper when it was created.
The Scott Trust report on the legacy of slavery revealed that Taylor and about nine of the 11 people who supported the Guardian had a connection to the slave trade. into nonwovens using slave labor in the United States.
Reports from the Universities of Nottingham and Hill succeeded in revealing farms in the “Sealand” along the coast of South Carolina and Georgia, in which one of Taylor’s companies received cotton from the region that used slaves as part of its labor. These scientific reports documented their conclusions by obtaining scientific documents loaded with the names of owners. Lands and enslaved slaves in detail. The Guardian also revealed that one of its early financiers, Sir George Philip of West India, tried to seek compensation for what he called his human loss from the British government in 1835, which was the loss of 108 slaves he was enslaving, but he was unsuccessful, while his partner got Compensation amounted to 200 thousand pounds sterling, the value of that time.
The Guardian said in its latest report that it not only apologizes to the communities affected by slavery because of its owners and their descendants, but also apologizes for the editorials and editorial materials it published and supported the cotton industries based on the exploitation of slaves.
It is expected that the “restorative justice fund” announced by the Guardian will support projects in the Gola Aini region and Jamaica, and a director will be appointed for the fund’s program and an advisory board for it, and it will also cover areas of work. And sponsoring more academic research on the issue of slavery. The Guardian said that it will expand its press coverage of black communities in the United States, Britain, the Caribbean, South America and Africa, and will establish 12 new professional sites within the newspaper, and will launch various editorial “formats” to serve the black audience.
An article published by The Guardian, as part of its comprehensive coverage of this issue, said that the newspaper at that time supported the abolition of slavery, but at the same time supported the principle of paying compensatory money to those in charge of slavery, and criticized the radical voices rejecting slavery, as it refused to support the North during the American Civil War.
The article noted an editorial article published by The Guardian in 1835, in which she summarized her position on slavery, as she said: Whatever the calculations, we must support the creation of wealth. The newspaper also verbally supported the campaign against slavery in Britain, and went the extra mile to the extent that it called on readers to collect signatures against it, i.e. the campaign, but its position on the ground was against the project to abolish slavery in 1833, and its insistence on “justice” paid 20 million pounds in compensation. Slave owners, in the billions in today’s numbers, went parallel.
The Guardian editor-in-chief, Katherine Viner, said in an article in the newspaper: It is not easy to know that the founder of the Guardian, John Edward Taylor, made most of his wealth from the Manchester cotton industry, which relies on American farms that enslaved millions of blacks who were kidnapped by force from Africa. She added, “We must apologize that our founder and those who funded him derived their wealth from practices against humanity. This story should strengthen our resolve to use journalism to expose racism and injustice.” She said that the report on the legacy of slavery, which was published, is terrifying, and there is no excuse for slavery, no matter how many times it has been apologized for, it is a crime against humanity.
• The Scott Trust report on the legacy of slavery revealed that Taylor and about 9 out of 11 people who supported the Guardian had links to the slave trade.
• Reports from the Universities of “Tottingham” and “Hull” succeeded in revealing plantations in the “Sealand” along the coast of South Carolina and Georgia, in which one of Taylor’s companies received cotton from the area that used slaves as part of its labor.