"Enslaved people were very prominent and in this were. Written in elegant calligraphy in the name of the last King called Charles, King Charles II, de Koning said the charter leaves no doubt about the motivations and desires of the monarch, who reigned as King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1660-85. The Royal African Company shipped nearly 200,000 enslaved people from Africa across the Atlantic to colonies in North, Central and South America over a 60-year period. I mean, all of a sudden, I was in the national news connected to King Charles," de Koning said. "I cannot describe the depths of my personal sorrow at the suffering of many, as I continue to deepen my understanding of slavery's enduring impact," said a statement from Buckingham Palace that quoted the King from a speech he gave in Rwanda last year. He went further last month by openly supporting de Koning's research work, offering access to the Royal Collection and the Royal Archives. King Charles has spoken frequently and emotively about his abhorrence of the slave trade, including during a visit to Ghana in 2018, when he spoke of the "appalling atrocity of slavery." The early answers to both questions, gleaned by examining just a single document, seem "yes" to the first and "no" to the second - and there are collections and libraries filled with hundreds, even thousands, of documents still needing to be pored over.ĬBC News recently visited Britain's National Archives, where University of Manchester PhD student Camilla de Koning carefully opened and scrutinized the faded, yellow pages of the charter of the Royal African Company. Some 360 years ago, did King Charles II regard trafficking in human beings the same as trading in elephant tusks? Did his brother, the future James II, have any moral qualms about running the most notorious slave-trading company in the world? What's less obvious - and of interest to today's highly charged debate over the monarchy's ties to slavery - is what they knew about the practice, how they felt about participating in it and their level of enthusiasm for it. It's not a secret that a succession of British monarchs enriched the former empire - and themselves personally - off the evils of the transatlantic slave trade. A group of former British slave-trading families is demanding that the government atone for its historical role transporting more than three million enslaved African people across the Atlantic Ocean. King Charles supports research into his ancestors' role in the transatlantic slave trade, offering access to royal documents.
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