Britain's King Charles III continued his nine-day tour of the Caribbean Thursday under mounting pressure to issue a formal apology for the U.K. royal family's historic role in the transatlantic slave trade and to support calls for reparations. Charles was to visit Guyana on Thursday before traveling to Antigua and Barbuda for a meeting of heads of state of British Commonwealth nations, where leaders are expected to discuss the legacy of slavery. His tour began Tuesday in the Bahamas, where the king addressed hundreds of young Bahamians and acknowledged Britain's colonial past.
"Some of what is best in Bahamian culture today, the most joyful, the most hopeful, the most bright, was born out of darkness," he said. "It is only right that we should acknowledge the great suffering and injustices of the past in these islands and beyond, even as we rejoice in the successes of the present and build new opportunities for the future." On Wednesday, the king embraced the country's vibrant culture, joining a colorful Junkanoo street parade in Nassau surrounded by performers in elaborate costumes and feathered headdresses. But around the celebrations, protesters held placards declaring: "Pay us what you owe us," demanding compensation for Britain's involvement in centuries of transatlantic slave trade.
Charles' remarks appeared to do little to satisfy campaigners who have long called for a formal apology and reparations. Speaking to The Guardian newspaper on Wednesday, Dr. Niambi Hall Campbell-Dean, chair of the Bahamas National Reparations Committee, dismissed the monarch's remarks as "hollow platitudes" and said, "we deserve so much more than what was offered." Buckingham Palace has said Charles will not offer a formal apology for slavery, saying such decisions are for the British government, not the royal family, but that he will not shy away from broader discussions about the U.K.'s involvement.
Experts say the royals are concerned that issuing a formal apology could open the door to legal claims for reparations, potentially exposing the family, and/or the British government, to substantial financial demands. "The reason why he doesn't go further is that he's aware [of] what it will mean to actually apologize, in terms of the legal obligation to make reparation," Esther Stanford-Xosei, a lawyer and reparations expert, told CBS News in 2023, as Charles' second son Prince Harry's book "Spare" acknowledged the family had profited from the slave trade. Stanford-Xosei said the family feared a formal apology could end up costing the monarchy, "not only money, but status … He will be exposing the criminality of this institution." Between the 15th and 19th centuries, approximately 5 million enslaved Africans were transported to the Caribbean, including more than 2 million to British colonies, where they endured brutal conditions working in sugar, coffee and cotton plantations.
Historians have documented the monarchy's direct involvement in the trade, including investments by King Charles II and his brother James in the Royal African Company, which trafficked enslaved Africans across the Atlantic. When slavery was abolished across most of the British Empire in 1834, the government allocated £20 million ($23 billion in today's money according to one estimate) to compensate slave owners, but not the enslaved. The compensation was part of a political compromise that helped secure abolition's passage by British lawmakers.
Britain subsequently played a significant role in suppressing the international slave trade during the 19th century, deploying the Royal Navy and investing substantial resources in abolition efforts. Its West Africa Squadron seized more than 1,600 slave ships and freed approximately 150,000 Africans between 1808 and 1869. One study estimated that Britain's wider anti-slavery efforts cost the equivalent of 1.8% of its national income annually over that period.
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