Charles Waterton, the pioneering naturalist, explorer and conservationist of Walton Hall near Wakefield, also spent seven years as a manager of sugar plantations and enslaved people in Guiana in South America.
In 2019 Wakefield Museums & Castles began a research project to learn more about Waterton’s involvement with the practice of slavery. This final post in our Black History Month series outlines what we know so far and our plans for further research and changes to our galleries.
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Charles Waterton by Charles Willson Peale in 1824. By this time Waterton had stopped working on plantations and returned to Europe, never to return to South America. |
The Waterton family and slavery
Waterton’s father and uncle each
owned a plantation in Guiana:
•
La Jalousie & Fellowship bought by Charles’
uncle, Christopher in 1797. In 1835 it had 292 enslaved persons.
•
Walton Hall plantation bought by Charles’ father
in 1805. It was sold in 1817 with 287 enslaved persons.
In his book, Essays on Natural History, Charles Waterton writes about how his
family became involved in sugar and slavery:
Our family found its way to the New
World in the following manner: - My father's sister [Anne] was remarkably
handsome. As she was one day walking in the streets of Wakefield, a gentleman,
by name [Michael] Daly, from Demerara, met her accidentally, and fell
desperately in love with her: they were married in due course of time, although
the family was very much averse to the match. Soon after this, my father's
younger brother [Christopher], who had no hopes at home on account of the penal
laws, followed his sister to Demerara, and settled there.
Source:
Waterton, Charles; Natural History Essays
The penal laws restricted
Catholic involvement in government and business. Waterton and his family were
Catholics. Despite his aristocratic home and heritage, Waterton was unable to
use his title as a Lord. He also couldn’t work as a judge, officer in the army,
or become an MP.
Charles Waterton’s involvement with slavery
Aged 22, Waterton was sent to
administer the plantations and the enslaved workforce on behalf of his family.
He did this job for seven years (1805 – 1812). He might have received a salary
for this work, but it is likely he was sent out in order to avoid paying someone
outside of the family.
Charles’ father died in 1805, shortly after his arrival in Guiana, and Christopher died in 1809. Waterton then managed the plantations on behalf of his brothers and cousins. He didn’t actually own the plantations, which went to his brother after their father and uncle’s deaths. Instead, Charles inherited the family home, Walton Hall in Wakefield.
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Walton Hall near Wakefield in 1830. Waterton’s father remodelled the house in the 1760s, long before he invested in slavery and sugar. |
In 1833 Waterton was challenged over his family’s involvement with slavery. He wrote:
I never possessed a slave in my life, or any
part of a plantation. From 1807 to 1812, at intervals, I administered the
estate of an uncle, and others; during the period, the yellow fever and tertian
ague kept giving me frequent hints that there was not much pleasure to be
expected from being ‘surrounded by slaves and attendants’
Waterton,
Charles; Mag of Nat Hist. July 7 1833.
P.394
In the month of April, 1812, my father
(Thomas) and uncle (Christopher) being dead, I delivered over the estates to
those concerned in them, and never more put foot upon them. In my subsequent
visits to Guiana, having no other object in view than that of natural history,
I merely stayed a day or two in the town of Stabroek (now called George Town),
to procure what necessaries I wanted; and then I hastened up into the forest of
the interior, as the Wanderings will show.
Waterton on slavery
Waterton never campaigned to end
slavery but he did speak out against it. In his book, Wanderings in South America, he writes against the practice but
defends the treatment of enslaved people by plantation managers:
slavery can never be defended; he whose
heart is not of iron can never wish to be able to defend it: while he heaves a
sigh for the poor negro in captivity, he wishes from his soul that the traffic
had been stifled in its birth; but unfortunately, the governments of Europe nourished
it, and now that they are exerting themselves to do away with the evil, and
ensure liberty to the sons of Africa, the situation of the plantation slaves is
depicted as truly deplorable, and their condition wretched. It is not so. A
Briton’s heart, proverbially kind and generous, is not changed by climate, or
its streams of compassion dried up by the scorching heat of a Demerara sun; he
cheers his Negroes in labour, comforts them in sickness. Is kind to them in old
age, never forgets that they are fellow creatures.
Source:
Waterton, Charles; Wanderings in South America
In 1807 the transportation of
enslaved people from Africa was abolished in the British Empire after a
nationwide campaign. However, it did not end the practice of slavery in the
colonies and the anti-slavery campaign focused on the treatment of slaves
within the plantations. Waterton did not like this argument and wrote of kind
treatment towards enslaved people. However, we do not know what conditions were
actually like on the plantations he managed.
We do know that he taught
taxidermy to John Edmonstone, who was enslaved to Charles Edmonstone, Waterton’s
friend and future father in law, and that some formerly enslaved people
accompanied Waterton on his famous expeditions in the rainforest.
When Britain finally abolished slavery
in 1833, those that owned enslaved people received compensation from the
government. The loan needed to pay the compensation was so big it was only paid
off in 2015. As Waterton himself had not owned a plantation or any shares in
enslaved people, he did not receive compensation, but some family members on
his uncle’s side did.
Slavery and Wakefield Museum
Wakefield Museum does discuss anti-slavery
and anti-racism campaigns in the Wakefield Stories gallery but does not
currently explore Waterton’s relationship with the practice of slavery.
We believe that this aspect of
Waterton’s life should be discussed within Wakefield Museum. We will be
presenting the known facts about Waterton and slavery on a display panel and will
be adding ‘Plantation Manager’ to the list of descriptive words to describe
Waterton.
Wakefield Museums & Castles
are now speaking to academics at the University of Leeds in order to try and
verify our understanding of Waterton’s involvement with slavery and conduct
further research, particularly into the conditions for the enslaved people on
the Waterton family plantations. We hope to address these topics and start a
deeper conversation in more detail in 2021.
This is the last post in our Black History Month 2020 series, although
we continue to work towards researching and interpreting Wakefield’s links to
slavery and its legacy.
Previous posts
Eliza, Anne and Helen Edmonstone
Sugar nippers not shackles:slavery in local history collections
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