Charles visits execution site of 1823 uprising against slavery

The King has visited the site where enslaved people were executed in Guyana after British authorities put down one of the largest uprisings of the colonial era.

Charles stood on the edge of Independence Park, in the capital Georgetown, and watched as schoolchildren played sports where 33 of those involved in the Demerara Rebellion of 1823 were hanged.

Caribbean nations have made renewed calls for Britain to apologise for its role in selling enslaved people for profit, and for reparations, in the run-up to the King’s tour of the Caribbean.

Charles began his nine-day trip on Tuesday by acknowledging the “great suffering of the past” in a speech at a youth rally in the Bahamas, and confirmed a Commonwealth leaders’ summit he will open in Antigua next week would discuss the legacy of slavery.

At the park Charles was joined by Guyana’s culture minister Steven Jacobs, to acknowledge the country’s history of slavery and resistance.

The King listened intently as Mr Jacobs talked at the entrance of the former parade ground and showed him a plaque commemorating those who were condemned to death and hanged from gallows erected on site.

The rising began in August 1823 on the plantation of Sir John Gladstone, father of the future prime minister William Gladstone, when Jack Gladstone, an enslaved man named after his owner, rang the plantation bell to signal the start of the rebellion.

His father Quamina, a carpenter on the same estate and a deacon at the local chapel, had urged a peaceful strike but the uprising was crushed with brutal force and hundreds were killed.

Quamina was hunted down and killed the following month and his body was displayed outside the plantation as a warning to others – he is now one of Guyana’s national heroes – while his son was sold and sent to St Lucia.

Guyana’s President Mohamed Irfaan Ali said ahead of the visit Charles has recognised slavery as the darkest days in human history – but moving to the apology is “the next step”.

In 2023, Charles described how he was on a personal journey of discovery and was continuing to “deepen my own understanding of slavery’s enduring impact”, in a speech at the opening of a Commonwealth summit hosted by Rwanda.

Terrence Campbell, an MP from Guyana’s A Partnership for Unity Party, claimed he and a small group of activists were stopped from protesting about reparations in the area by police.

They moved on to stage their demonstration outside a building where Charles met indigenous leaders in the capital, and held placards which read “No apology will return what was stolen reparations now”.

The King follows the guidance of his ministers and it is understood the Government has not advised him to offer an apology or reparations, in keeping with established policy.

Mr Campbell said Charles had “moral persuasion” adding: “If the King comes out a little more boldly in the United Kingdom and also at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference, I think that he can use moral persuasion to move the needle, the needle of the British government, the needle of the other colonial powers, on this important issue of reparations.”