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The British Royal Family And Historical Tricknology: 5 Things For Black America To Know

The British Royal Family And Historical Tricknology: 5 Things For Black America To Know

Royal
The British Royal Family And Historical Tricknology: 5 Things For Black America To Know Photo: Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, at Buckingham Palace, London on Nov. 20, 1947, with King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary, the groomsman, bridesmaids and other royal guests. At left of the bride, the photo shows the best man, the Marquess of Milford Haven, Princess Margaret, Principal bridesmaid and one of the pages, Prince Michael of Kent. Behind Princess Elizabeth is Queen Mary. Right of the bridegroom, L-R: Princess Alexandra of Kent, King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, Prince Henry, the Duke of Gloucester, with young Prince Richard in front, and Princess Alice, the Duchess of Gloucester. In front of the groom is Prince William of Gloucester who is one of the pages. On the extreme right are the Princesses Beatrix and Victoria, with Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden behind. (AP Photo)

Britain’s Prince William has finally spoken in response to the explosive interview his brother Prince Harry and Meghan Markle did with Oprah Winfrey in which they leveled charges of racism within the ranks of the royal family. 

During the interview, Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, referred to the royal family and its infrastructure as “the firm” and “the institution”.

Asked by a reporter during a visit to a school in east London if the royals were a “racist family, the Duke of Cambridge replied, “We’re very much not a racist family,” according to a CNN report.

Twitter wasn’t buying it.

“He put out statement to condemn racist attacks on footballers but stayed silent when his sister in law was being attacked by tabloids! Why doesn’t he maintain that stiff upper lip,” one person tweeted.

In fact, the royals have used historical tricknology to cover up their racist past. For more than 150 years, the British royal family monopolized the slave trade, The Jamaica Observer reported.

Here are five things for Black America to know.

1. Royals endorsed slavery

While several British institutions, induing universities and finical companies, have acknowledged their historical links to slavery and the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the British monarchy has remained silent. 

The history of the British royal family is intertwined with slavery.

“The slave-trading initiatives endorsed by the English monarchy began with Queen Elizabeth I’s enthusiastic support of John Hawkins’ slaving expeditions in the 1560s,” Slate reported.

Hawkins raided African settlements on the West African coast and sold his cargo of African captives in the Spanish Caribbean. After his profitable second voyage, he was honored by the queen. She bestowed on him a coat of arms and crest featuring a nude African bound and shackled.

“Pirate John Hawkins was not the first Englishman to trade in slaves, but he was the first to run the triangular trade from Africa to the Americas and back to England, making a profit from every stop,” The Jamaica Observer reported. 

As one person noted on Twitter, “Not a racist family… just casually profiting of years of slavery and colonialism.”

2. Profits from slavery boosted England’s economy

The queen of England, who directly sent pirate Hawkins to get slaves “by any means necessary,” knew that her country’s weak economy needed a boost, The Jamaica Observer reported. The slave trade gave it that boost.

3. The royal family invested in slavery

During the reign of King Charles II, from 1660 to 1685, the Crown and members of the royal family invested heavily in the African slave trade, Slate reported. 

Established by the royal Stuart family and city of London in 1660, the Royal African Company of England shipped more enslaved African women, men, and children to the Americas than any other single institution during the entire period of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, according to historian William Pettigrew

Until 1688, the Duke of York (the future King James II), served as the governor of the Royal African Company and was its largest shareholder. 

4. Publicly, slavery was an ‘atrocity’. Privately, it was economic fuel

In 2018,  Prince Charles said that Britain’s role in the slave trade was an atrocity that has left an “indelible stain” on the world. The future king of England acknowledged this in a speech in Ghana, where many Africans were seized and shipped across the Atlantic on ships from Britain and other nations, The Guardian reported.

Yet, Prince Charles didn’t speak of the royal family’s historic ties to slavery.

Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 73: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin makes the case for why this is a multi-factor rebellion vs. just protests about George Floyd. He discusses the Democratic Party’s sneaky relationship with the police in cities and states under Dem control, and why Joe Biden is a cop and the Steve Jobs of mass incarceration.

5. Hidden Shame

British history, according to experts, has been revised to hide ties between the royals and “some of the most shameful acts and crimes committed during the final years of the British empire,” The Guardian reported. Documents were systematically destroyed, an official review concluded.

Some papers survived and were hidden for 50 years in a secret Foreign Office archive. In 2011, the Foreign Office had to release the 8,800 files from 37 former colonies.

But many of the most scandalous papers from Britain’s late colonial era were destroyed. 

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