British Firm Trafficked Enslaved Africans to Guyana After Abolition

By Al Mayadeen English

Source: News websites

23 Aug 2026 09:33

A newly uncovered 1847 letter raises reports that a British company continued trafficking enslaved Africans to Guyana years after slavery was abolished.

A British trading company continued trafficking enslaved Africans to Guyana years after slavery had been abolished across most of the British Empire, The Guardian reported, citing a newly uncovered 1847 letter.

The document, examined by author Malik Al Nasir as part of research into his family history, was sent to the Liverpool office of Sandbach, Tinne and Company by Peter Miller Watson, who managed the firm's interests in Demerara, Guyana. The letter describes the arrival of a company vessel carrying what Watson called a "cargo of negroes," including more than 100 adult men, 86 adult women, and 123 children.

The findings are detailed in Al Nasir's book Searching for My Slave Roots and were reported by The Guardian. They have also contributed to a new research initiative examining the financial structures that sustained slavery and its aftermath.

Britain outlawed the transatlantic slave trade in 1807, while the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 prohibited slavery across most of the British Empire. The letter therefore raises questions about how people could have been transported as enslaved people to British-controlled Guyana in 1847.

Letter describes people as company's 'cargo'

The vessel identified in the letter was the "Parker". Watson recorded that it had arrived with "115 adult males, 86 adult females, 82 under 14 years, and 41 under 4 years," while reporting three deaths during the journey.

He attributed the deaths to the "wretched state in which they had lived ashore."

Al Nasir argues that the language used in the document points to the people being trafficked rather than passengers or Africans liberated by the British Royal Navy. He noted that Watson described them as "cargo", a term associated with enslaved people, and treated deaths during the voyage as losses connected to the shipment.

"Slavery had been abolished, so how do we know the people on the Parker weren’t indentured, or Africans liberated by the Royal Navy? Firstly, Watson specifically refers to them as cargo, and not passengers, when liberated Africans were not regarded as cargo, enslaved people were called cargo.

"In referring to the ‘wretched state’ in which they had lived ashore, he’s saying they were shipped from land and are the architects of their own condition – if they had been previously enslaved blame would have been on their former masters, and they would not have been bought if they were sick. When [Watson] talks about casualties, he’s attributing the deaths as a loss of property. By process of deduction, we can see these are people illegally trafficked from Africa."

The evidence comes against the backdrop of continued clandestine trafficking after abolition. Al Nasir pointed to an 1847 missionary account describing illegal slave trading taking place "south of the line," referring to areas below the equator where traffickers attempted to evade the Royal Navy's efforts to suppress the trade.

Company had benefited from slavery compensation

Sandbach, Tinne and Company was closely connected to families that had built substantial fortunes through the Demerara sugar trade. Its shareholders and associates included members of the Sandbach, Tinne and Gladstone families.

By the time the 1847 letter was written, members of the company and related families had already received compensation from the British government following the abolition of slavery for the loss of enslaved people they had owned.

William Robertson Sandbach and his brother-in-law Charles Stuart Parker Jr. were among the company's principal shareholders at the time. The wider network was also connected to John Gladstone, the father of former British Prime Minister William Gladstone, who owned plantations in Guyana and Jamaica.

Al Nasir said John Gladstone received the largest individual compensation payment, while Sandbach Tinne received the second-largest aggregate payment.

British taxpayers ultimately funded the compensation scheme, with the debt incurred through the payments not fully cleared until 2015, according to the Guardian.

New project to examine financial legacy of slavery

The historical evidence is now feeding into a broader research project called Overwriting-Underwriting, which is being launched at the Museum of Liverpool on Sunday, coinciding with UNESCO's International Day of Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.

The initiative will investigate the financial networks that supported transatlantic slavery and examine how those structures continued to shape institutions and wealth after abolition.

The project draws on research by Lucy Moynihan of the University of Liverpool into insurance records connected to John Gladstone, alongside Al Nasir's work on Sandbach Tinne. It forms part of the Connector project led by National Museums Liverpool, which received a £1 million grant from the Lloyd's Register Foundation.

Lloyd's Register apologized last year for its historical role in the trafficking of enslaved Africans. Descendants of both the Sandbach and Gladstone families have also apologized for their ancestors' involvement in slavery.

The Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron, established to intercept slave ships after the 1807 ban, faced significant limitations. Around 1,600 sailors reportedly died during its operations, while historical estimates suggest fewer than 10% of vessels involved in trafficking were intercepted.

Even Africans liberated from intercepted ships could subsequently face military conscription or forced labor through systems including apprenticeship and indentured labor.