A selective approach to slavery

A sundial has been removed from display at Dunham Massey in Cheshire, where Chinese-made items are sold in the shop

I too object to the National Trust’s obsession with the slave trade. They are trying to make a point about an attitude to race that is in the past, which no one today has participated in. It’s ridiculous. Visiting Dunham Massey recently, I noticed that the gift shop was selling goods manufactured in China. This country has an abysmal record of human rights and has been accused of modern slavery regarding the Uyghur people. I’ve written to the National Trust, pointing out the hypocrisy of being concerned with slavery that was abolished hundreds of years ago whilst selling goods from a country accused of modern slavery!  I didn’t receive what I consider a satisfactory response. 

Why doesn’t the National Trust provide the full story about the slave trade? That fact that African people sold other Africans to the slavers. That white people were also sold into slavery. What about the poor in this country, children sent up chimneys or orphan children made to work in mills such as Quarry Bank? Isn’t that a form of slavery?  

Every right-minded person finds the slave trade abhorrent, but it’s part of our history that we can’t change. However, we can be educated about it without being made to feel guilty. 

Anonymous