{"id":2253446,"date":"2026-01-27T21:33:59","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T21:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2253446"},"modified":"2026-01-27T21:33:59","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T21:33:59","slug":"slavery-was-foundational-to-the-british-monarchy-vcu-author-brooke-newman-reveals-vcu-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/slavery-was-foundational-to-the-british-monarchy-vcu-author-brooke-newman-reveals-vcu-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Slavery was \u2018foundational\u2019 to the British monarchy, VCU author Brooke Newman reveals – VCU News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n By Sian Wilkerson
\n<\/p>\n

In her latest book, Virginia Commonwealth University historian\u00a0Brooke N. Newman<\/a>\u00a0documents the untold truth behind the British royal family\u2019s centuries-long involvement and investment in slavery.<\/p>\n

Newman, Ph.D., an associate professor in the\u00a0Department of History<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0College of Humanities and Sciences<\/a>, drew on thousands of pages of archival records to write\u00a0\u201cThe Crown\u2019s Silence: The Hidden History of the British Monarchy and Slavery in the Americas.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Her book traces the monarchy\u2019s links to the transatlantic slave trade and colonial slavery, and the ties span from Queen Elizabeth I \u2013 the first British monarch to knowingly invest in and profit from the transatlantic slave trade \u2013 to today\u2019s royals, who still refuse to formally acknowledge the crown\u2019s role in slavery.<\/p>\n

In this year\u2019s\u00a0Elske v.P. Smith Distinguished Lecture<\/a>\u00a0on Feb. 5, Newman will share her findings, examining the historical connection between the British crown and slavery from the 16th through the 19th centuries. The event, sponsored by the College of Humanities and Sciences, begins at 5 p.m. in Room 202 of the STEM Building, and includes a reception and book signing.<\/p>\n

VCU News spoke to Newman about her new work.<\/p>\n

What are the key findings in \u201cThe Crown\u2019s Silence\u201d?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Slavery was not peripheral to royal power; it was foundational.<\/p>\n

English monarchs chartered and backed major slave-trading companies, including the Royal African Company and the South Sea Company, which together trafficked tens of thousands of enslaved Africans to the Americas under royal license. Enslaved women, men and children were literally branded with royal insignia \u2013 initials and crowns \u2013 marking the monarchy\u2019s direct involvement.<\/p>\n

The British state, led by the crown, also used public funds to purchase enslaved people and to defend and expand slave societies, embedding slavery at the core of Britain\u2019s imperial system.<\/p>\n

What has been the general understanding of Britain\u2019s and the royal family\u2019s role in the transatlantic slave trade up until now?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Britain is widely remembered as the nation that led the campaign to end the transatlantic slave trade, with a monarchy now viewed as largely ceremonial. That narrative obscures Britain\u2019s dominant role as a slave-trading empire and the crown\u2019s centuries-long function as a governing authority that authorized, financed, expanded, profited from and defended slavery.<\/p>\n

Abolition did not end the crown\u2019s reliance on coerced labor. Enslaved people remained in bondage in Britain\u2019s colonies for decades. Africans seized from illegal slave ships by the Royal Navy were forced into long-term apprenticeships or military service in the king\u2019s name. And when slavery finally ended, compensation flowed to enslavers, not the formerly enslaved.<\/p>\n

By celebrating abolition while ignoring exploitation, Britain\u2014and the Crown at its center\u2014has avoided reckoning with how deeply its national wealth and global power were built on racial slavery.<\/p>\n

How have Britain and the royal family reckoned \u2013 or not \u2013 with this past?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

King Charles has expressed \u201cpersonal sorrow\u201d for slavery but has neither acknowledged nor apologized for the crown\u2019s role in creating and sustaining Britain\u2019s Atlantic slave empire. There has been no full disclosure of royal archives or collections, no sustained public education and no formal commitment to repair.<\/p>\n

A genuine reckoning would require transparency, unequivocal acknowledgement and long-term engagement with the enduring legacies of slavery and descendent communities.<\/p>\n

\n

Subscribe to VCU News<\/h2>\n

Subscribe to VCU News at newsletter.vcu.edu<\/a> and receive a selection of stories, videos, photos, news clips and event listings in your inbox.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source news.vcu.edu \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sian Wilkerson In her latest book, Virginia Commonwealth University historian\u00a0Brooke N. Newman\u00a0documents the untold truth behind the British royal family\u2019s centuries-long involvement and investment in slavery. Newman, Ph.D., an associate professor in the\u00a0Department of History\u00a0in the\u00a0College of Humanities and Sciences, drew on thousands of pages of archival records to write\u00a0\u201cThe Crown\u2019s Silence: The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2253447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2253446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Slavery-was-\u2018foundational-to-the-British-monarchy-VCU-author-Brooke.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2253446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2253446"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2253446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2253448,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2253446\/revisions\/2253448"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2253447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2253446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2253446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2253446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}