LONDON (AP) — For Britain’s royal family, slavery is an issue that won’t go away.
As King Charles III visits the Bahamas, Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda over the next nine days, he will be reminded repeatedly that he is the heir to the throne and that he rules over the millions of enslaved Africans who were shipped to the Caribbean and North America, where they work for their own masters and ultimately for the benefit of the British Empire.
Facing British demands for an apology and reparations, royal officials said Charles would reiterate previous remarks that slavery was an “atrocity that forever stained our history” but would not apologize.
Read more: UN calls for reparations to right historical wrong of trafficking of enslaved Africans
“It is right that we should acknowledge the great suffering and injustice of the past,” the king told a youth rally in the Bahamas capital Nassau on Tuesday.
But Brooke Newman, author of “The Silence of the Crown: The British Monarchy and the Hidden History of Slavery in America,” said the language implied by Buckingham Palace will not silence critics of the monarchy.
“It’s hollow,” Newman said of Charles’ expected comments. “It doesn’t create dialogue. It doesn’t allow for any kind of dialogue with future generations and it definitely doesn’t move the issue forward. So people are frustrated because the government and the king are basically telling them that it’s not up for discussion.”
The connection between the monarchy and slavery dates back to 1563
In 464 pages of footnotes, Newman, a history professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, details the monarchy’s ties to slavery from the late 1500s to the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 and the abolition of slavery in the British Empire 26 years later.
Newman points out in her book that the British monarchs not only ruled an empire, but that African slaves were shipped across the Atlantic to work in the sugar, tobacco, and cotton fields of the New World.
As early as 1563, more than 40 years before England established its first colony in North America, Queen Elizabeth I supported Captain John Hawkins’ plan to raid Portuguese ports on the West African coast and transport captured Africans to Spanish colonies in the Caribbean. In return for lending Hawkins a Royal Navy warship, the Queen received a share of the profits.
“His daring slave-trading adventures enriched the royal coffers and ensured Elizabeth I’s legacy as the first British monarch to profit directly from the transatlantic slave trade,” Newman writes.
African trade begins with gold and ivory, expands to humans
But Elizabeth I was not the last.
Nearly 100 years later, King Charles II granted the Royal Company of African Adventurers (later simply the Royal African Company) exclusive trading rights on the West African coast. The company quickly expanded from commodities such as gold, hides, and ivory to trade in enslaved Africans.
The king and his brother, the Duke of York (who later became King James II), were among the company’s investors.
Pressure has grown in recent years on Britain, as well as the United States, Portugal, Spain and other countries that profited from slavery, to pay reparations as Caribbean and African nations have rallied behind the issue.
On October 28, 2026, King Charles (not pictured) of the United Kingdom watched the Junkanoo parade at Parliament Square in Nassau, Bahamas. A person in the crowd held a sign that read “Pay us what you owe us.” Photograph: Ben Stansall/Pool, Reuters
The United Nations General Assembly in March approved a resolution calling for reparative justice, including a full apology and reparations for the period of slavery and the ongoing harms of reduced economic opportunities, lower income levels and shortened life expectancy for black people in the Caribbean and Americas. Britain abstained from the vote.
The king is constrained by government policy
Craig Prescott, an expert on constitutional law and the monarchy at Royal Holloway, University of London, said Charles would not apologize during the Caribbean trip because he was speaking on behalf of an elected government, not himself.
“In that sense, it’s not the king’s business,” he said. “Yes, it is the government’s long-standing policy to note that slavery occurred and it was a stain on British history, but reparations do not need to be paid.”
Compensation could cost Britain hundreds of billions of pounds, making the issue particularly sensitive for the current government, which is struggling to pay for popular social programs as rising living costs squeeze taxpayers.
But Charles must also consider how his comments will be received in the Caribbean and across the Commonwealth of Nations he leads.
The Commonwealth is an alliance of 56 independent countries, many of which are located in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, and were once part of the British Empire. The British monarch remains the head of state of 14 Commonwealth countries except the United Kingdom
The final four days of King’s Caribbean tour will be spent in Antigua and Barbuda, which is hosting the biannual Commonwealth leaders’ meeting.
Caribbean leaders call on Charles to be a man, not a king
Hilary Beckles, chair of the Caribbean Community Reparations Commission, called on Charles to respond to the demands of Caribbean people as a human being, not as head of the Commonwealth or British monarch.
“I appeal to Charles Windsor as a parent, as a grandparent, as someone who is reflecting on his family’s history today and who can see the richness that slavery brought to his family,” Beckles, vice-chancellor of the University of the West Indies, told a press conference last week ahead of the king’s visit.
Beckles added: “The wealth he passed on to his children and grandchildren played a huge role in the chattelization of the African people.”
Britain and the monarchy have struggled with these issues before.
In 2007, the country marked the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade, celebrating the work of William Wilberforce and his allies, who spent 20 years convincing Parliament to outlaw the human trade.
But as the late Queen Elizabeth II, Prime Minister Tony Blair and other dignitaries gathered at Westminster Abbey for a commemorative service, the ceremony was interrupted by a black man wearing a large sign.
“You, Queen, should be ashamed,” Toyin Agbetu said as guards pushed him toward the exit. “You should say you’re sorry!”
Agbetu later said British leaders were “complacent” about abolishing the slave trade without acknowledging the suffering caused by slavery.
Newman said this is a challenge that Charles and the country still face.
“Even if Charles is discussing, you know, the dark days of the past and all that, it’s just a brief snippet, you’re not really digging into that history and evaluating it…” she said.
“The aftermath of colonialism and slavery is still with us, so it’s not something that can be easily described in one or two sentences and then move on.”
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