William Ewart Gladstone,
Late nineteenth century Liberal,
Principled opponent of imperialism,
According to some history books;
Serial chancellor of the exchequer,
Serial prime minister,
Son of John Gladstone
(MP for New Woodstock, Oxfordshire,
Courtesy of the Duke of Marlborough),
Found his father looking well, but tired,
When he visited his father in Gloucester.
John Gladstone’s pseudonym was ‘Mercator’.
William Ewart Gladstone’s maiden speech in parliament,
Would be a defence of the owners of enslaved peoples.
John Gladstone arrived in Gloucester in 1825,
Gradgrind wealthy,
Counting his profits:
Shipping interests in Liverpool,
Sugar plantations in the West Indies;
Counting his enslaved people:
2,508 men, women and children
in Jamaica and Demerara;
Rejoicing that revolt against enslavement
(On his plantations)
Had been viciously suppressed by the Stroud Scarlet army.
Slave owners liked to take the waters at spas,
Bristol, Bath, Cheltenham …
Oblivious to the Middle Passage across the Atlantic,
And the crimson wake of the slave ships,
As they enjoyed the balm of saline warmth,
And, so it was with John Gladstone.
A dutiful husband and father,
Christian too,
And shrewd with money,
He moved to the Gloucester spa area in 1825,
His wife and daughter (both by name of Anne)
Were in need of healthful waters,
And where better than the chalybeate waters,
There at the Pump Rooms,
‘at the foot of what is now Brunswick Road’;
The teenage William Ewart Gladstone,
Spent his time carving his initials
into the bark of Gloucester trees;
His father invested in a local bank,
The Gloucester & Cheltenham.
He also spent £80,000 on further plantations,
And property in the West Indies and South America.
He was an implacable opponent of abolition.
And kept an eye on Gloucester,
As it ‘might be of use to himself or one of his sons’.
No one received more in compensation,
When slavery was abolished.
The railways of Britain are witness to that.
Remember that when you visit Gloucester.
Walk to the foot of Brunswick Road.
There’s a hidden heritage there.
Not just chalybeate waters.
But a crimson Atlantic archipelago too.
John Gladstone’s pseudonym was ‘Mercator’.
He received more in compensation than anyone else.
Partly because of his son.
That compensation figure came to 40% of GDP.
British taxpayers only ceased paying interest
On the loan required in 2015.
When John Gladstone died,
His estate would be valued at over £70 million,
In today’s values.
Letter in The Guardian Wednesday 24 June 2020
‘Are readers aware of the slave rebellion that took place in 1823 on the Gladstone sugar estate in Demerara county, British Guiana? It was led by African slaves who had to bear the names of their slave owner. They were father and son, Quamina and Jackie Gladstone, and there is a monument to them in present-day Guyana. A British prime minister four times, William Gladstone’s wealth was built on slavery. It is beneath contempt that he gained a reputation for kindness by bringing into his home the child prostitutes of London to have a meal and a rest for one night, while his plantations were run with brutality and the rebellion was put down with the utmost savagery.’
This was written by a descendant of slavery survivors of Guiana.
