Geoffrey Palmer - Scotland and the slave trade

Professor Sir Geoff Palmer gave a summary of his early life and education, his academic success, his record on human rights, racial equality and on the history of the slave trade particularly with reference to the role of many prominent Scottish families in this.

He was born in Jamaica in an area which has many Scottish place names including Glasgow and New Green ( Greenock) in 1940. His parents separated when he was young and his mother moved to London for work in 1951 leaving him in the care of relatives. His mother paid for him to come to London to work in 1955, but because he was only 14 years and 11 months he was told he had to go to school. The school leaving age at that time was 15. He was classed as educationally subnormal but gained entrance to a grammar school because he was good at cricket. He left school, worked as a lab technician, was given a half day off to study and then gained a place at Leicester University. He went to HWU to do a PhD under Professor Anna Macleod. He then worked at the Brewing Research Foundation where he invented the barley abrasion process. He later returned to HWU after Professor Macleod retired and was given a chair.

Sir Geoff  said that he had had his DNA checked and while it was 80% Nigerian it also showed that he had 3% Viking DNA from Shetland.

Sir Geoff then went on to list the Scottish families who were involved in the slave trade and whose descendants still benefitted from the financial rewards gained at that time. He also described the many mansions that were built and funded by the proceeds from the slave trade including the Gallery of modern Art in Edinburgh. Britain had 800,000 slaves in the Caribbean 300,000 of whom were in Jamaica.

Of particular interest to Sir Geoff was the statue to Henry Dundas, Lord Melville in St Andrew’s Square. He described how Henry Dundas delayed William Wilberforce’s Abolition Act from 1792 until 1807 by inserting the word “gradually” into the Act. During that time 630.000 slaves were transported from Africa to the Caribbean.  The plaque on the statue did not mention slavery until 2017. Sir Geoff described the deliberations that went on in Edinburgh Council about that and how Henry Dundas’ descendants and some historians were opposed to any mention of slavery on the plaque claiming that Henry Dundas was an abolitionist. Sir Geoff assured us that this claim was completely false. The death of George Floyd in the USA caused the Council to overcome these objections.

Sir Geoff described how Robert Burns at one stage had planned to go to Jamaics to work as a “slave driver.” He did not in fact go and later realised the wrongs of the slave trade. He wrote of the wife of a Scottish slave owner, a Mrs Oswald that “she had hands that took but never gave”

On answering questions Sir Geoff described how after abolition slave owners received vast sums of money in compensation which their descendants still benefit from. There was a reluctance on the part of these families to acknowledge any historic wrong possibly through fear of being asked to make reparations. However Glasgow University has acknowledged that it had benefitted from the slave trade and has a plaque in the centre of the campus stating this. It was recently named University of the Year in recognition of its work to redress historic links to slavery.

Another question was about the wisdom or otherwise of removing statues such as the one of Henry Dundas.  Sir Geoff was absolutely clear that the statues should remain with a plaque that accurately records the history of the person represented on the statue including his involvement in the slave trade. He stated that “if you remove the evidence, you remove the deed” and he was sure that Henry Dundas’ descendants would far rather have his statue removed than for it to have its plaque. Furthermore Henry Dundas was impeached ( a word in vogue at present) for stealing money from the Navy for himself.

The club’s vote of thanks for a most interesting, erudite and informative talk was given by Brian Buchanan.