A BBC reporter and her relatives are trying to make amends after learning that their family owned slaves in the 1800s and they were compensated when slavery was abolished. British reporter Laura Trevelyan told the BBC that her family is now giving $120,000 to a community in Grenada, using the donation to establish a fund for economic development in the region.

Trevelyan said her family owned six sugar plantations in Grenada until slavery was abolished in 1833.

“The Trevelyan family is apologizing to the people of Grenada for the role our ancestors played in enslavement on the island, and engaging in reparations,” Trevelyan wrote on Twitter with a link to an article about the matter on The Guardian.

When she visited Grenada in 2022, Trevelyan was shocked to learn that her ancestors were compensated by the UK government when slavery was abolished in 1833 while the freed African slaves remained empty-handed.

“It was really horrific… I saw for myself the plantations where slaves were punished.” Trevelyan told the BBC. “When I saw the instruments of torture that were used to restrain them, I felt ashamed, and I also felt that it was my duty. You can’t repair the past, but you can acknowledge the pain.”

Trevelyan’s family plans to  travel to Grenada later in February to issue a public apology and deliver the funds.

“For me to be giving £100,000 almost 200 years later… maybe that seems like really inadequate,” the reporter said. “But I hope that we’re setting an example by apologising for what our ancestors did.”

GrenadaSlavery-Reparations