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ANTI-RACIST groups called on Tory MP Richard Drax today to restore his family’s sugar plantation in Barbados to the people of the island.
They wrote to the South Dorset MP after leading public figures in the Caribbean called on him to relinquish the Drax Hall estate.
The Drax family have held land in Barbados since the 17th century. Generations of African slaves worked on the estate. Mr Drax inherited it from his father.
Reparations Commission in the Caribbean chairman professor Sir Hilary Beckles said: “The Drax family has done more harm and violence to the black people of Barbados than any other family.”
Sir Hilary has estimated that around 30,000 slaves died on Drax family plantations in Barbados and Jamaica over 200 years.
The commission’s call for Mr Drax to relinquish the estate was supported in a joint open letter by Dorset, and Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole groups of Stand Up to Racism.
In the letter sent to the MP, they said: “The time to effect reparatory justice is now, starting with the return of Drax Hall Estate in Barbados to the people of that nation, for the benefit of Barbadians and the people of the Caribbean region.”
The Morning Star contacted Mr Drax for comment.
