The Guardian newspaper has apologised for its founder’s role in the transatlantic slave trade.
The Scott Trust, which owns the Guardian Media Group, has pledged 10 million pounds (US$12.3 million) to communities linked to the activities of John Edward Taylor, the journalist who started the paper in 1821.
“The Scott Trust Legacies of Enslavement report, published on Tuesday, revealed that Taylor, and at least nine of his 11 backers, had links to slavery, principally through the textile industry,” according to Aamna Mohdin, the community correspondent for the paper.
“Taylor had multiple links through partnerships in the cotton manufacturing firm Oakden and Taylor, and the cotton merchant company Shuttleworth, Taylor and Co, which imported vast amounts of raw cotton produced by enslaved people in the Americas.”…