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The Guardian
28-07-2025
- The Guardian
Jamaicans with Scottish enslaver names; a society still in trauma. Edinburgh University has much to answer for
The most famous enslaver in Jamaica, the island that was one of the most profitable of Britain's Caribbean colonies, is a ghost. One of the tellings of the legend has it that young Annie Palmer, the 'White Witch of Rose Hall', was a sadistic 19th-century killer and torturer who terrorised enslaved people, murdering the grand-niece of her African lover, Takoo, with a curse, before he killed her. Annie's spirit now apparently haunts a golf course in Montego Bay. Even as a kid, touring the beautiful island with Jamaican loved ones on holidays, I noticed the British men who had controlled the island's sugar plantations were largely forgotten. It was the heroes of the 18th- and 19th-century resistance against slavery's violence who were everywhere, such as the guerrilla commander Queen Nanny of the Maroons, who was said to have been able to catch bullets. Or Sam Sharpe, a pioneer of liberation theology whose uprising led to abolition, or the political activist Paul Bogle. Their faces were on the banknotes we used to buy pineapple soda. This is one way descendants process the legacies of enslavement: through the memory of ancestors who resisted their oppressors, the worst of whose crimes were so obscene that they became spectral, like Annie Palmer, or the pirates of Port Royal, swallowed by an earthquake. But the legacy of slavery in Jamaica, and across the Americas, is pervasive in persistent inequality, in generational trauma, and in the elite schools and words plantation owners left behind. Some of those words are Scottish. Scottish surnames, such as Campbell and Gordon, and placenames, including Aberdeen and Dundee, are everywhere in Jamaica. But until fairly recently, in the UK, there was relatively little interrogation of this deep Scottish imprint. Edinburgh University's report into its history, reported in the Guardian this week, is the latest research into this legacy. It illuminates the forgotten mechanics of Scotland's colonial project, exposing the institution's racial ideologies as algorithms of exploitation, from the 18th century onwards. The 2015 book Recovering Scotland's Slavery Past, edited by Prof Tom Devine, detailed how, at the height of transatlantic slavery, 'a fifth of the ship captains and two-fifths of the surgeons' on ships sailing out of Liverpool, which dominated the trade, were Scots. 'Scots owned and managed enslaved people – from Maryland to Trinidad, from St Croix to St Kitts,' comprising, in the late 18th century, a third of Jamaica's white population. The new report complements these histories, revealing that Edinburgh University was a 'haven' for white supremacist thought between 1750 and 1850. It found the institution had an 'outsized role in developing racial pseudo-sciences' that 'habitually positioned Black people at the bottom and white people at the top' – even hoarding Black people's skulls. The report charges moral philosophers of the Enlightenment such as Adam Ferguson, David Hume and Dugald Stewart – men long appreciated as intellectual giants – with leaving a 'damaging' legacy of ideas used to justify enslavement and colonialism, which in turn fuelled Edinburgh University's growth. In an era of 'anti-woke' backlash, this research is bound to invite accusations that the university is putting dead heroes of their time on trial, excavating their bones to shore up a present-day reputation. But the research undoubtedly matters. Building on Eric Williams's seminal 1944 work Capitalism and Slavery, it fights the false, seductive notion that enslavement, critical to sectors from commodities to finance and philanthropy, was a discrete chapter, separate from the wider story of British national development. It throws down the gauntlet to other institutions reluctant to examine their past. But, most importantly, research of this kind, though unsettling, matters to descendants of the millions of enslaved Africans trafficked to the Americas, as the Caribbean's determined genealogists seek answers. 'New World' slavery societies offered lots of opportunities to Scottish settlers, 'sojourners' and landowners. Devine's book describes Scotland, for centuries, as a country in which 'emigration was the norm'. Slaving voyages from Scottish ports were only a fraction of the British total, but 'nomadic' Scots went to the West Indies as professionals and adventurers seeking social mobility, as well as indentured workers, pirates, and transplanted Jacobite prisoners, in smaller numbers, leading to a 'greater per capita Scottish stake' in slavery than any other UK nation. Scotland's claimants accounted for 15% of compensation payouts after abolition, with Glasgow's enslavers representing 'one of the largest regional groups of claimants'. The Caribbean provided markets for Scottish textiles and herring, supplying Scotland in turn with coffee, cotton, rum, sugar and tobacco. Against this backdrop, Edinburgh's thinkers sustained a racial 'ideology that helped to exploit, kill and dominate', says Prof Tommy J Curry, who co-chaired Edinburgh University's report, adding that 'Scotland has a moral debt to pay'. The Enlightenment had a shadow. In the same climate in which the values that underpin liberal democracy developed, so did 'some of the most damaging ideas in human history', says the university. For Peter Mathieson, the university's principal, these revelations align with the Enlightenment's 'enormously important' spirit of inquiry, opposing the comfort of 'selective memory'. The reasons why Edinburgh University assumed this 'outsized' role lie in the modern, unified, secular structure it had by the 18th century, attracting some of Europe's most curious minds. The city was in the vanguard of medicine, which meant it produced doctors for slavers' ships and plantations in countries such as Jamaica, which took these theories of race with them, before funnelling back profits from the plantation economy. The 'great irony' of this, says the university's Ian Stewart, was that while their racial ideas were adopted by the enslavers of the American south, Scottish Enlightenment figures such as Ferguson and Dugald Stewart were 'lifelong, vocal abolitionists'. 'They understood the law of unintended consequences better than anyone,' Ian Stewart says. 'They wouldn't be phased one bit by the fact these ideas took on an awful life of their own.' Edinburgh University didn't invent racism. What it did was provide a thinktank, codifying ideologies – in the yellowing handwritten books examined for the first time in years for the new research – that aligned with the basest interests of capital. But from the Windrush scandal to racial inequalities on maternity wards, to the UK government's refusal to formally apologise and pay reparations for slavery, and on to the far right's 'Dark Enlightenment', the ghosts of Edinburgh's theories still haunt. Chris Osuh is a community affairs correspondent for the Guardian
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
No charges against Columbus police in RNC shooting
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways The crime scene around King Park in Milwaukee, where Sam Sharpe was killed by out-of-state police from Ohio. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner) The Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office announced Monday that five officers from the Columbus, Ohio, police department will not be charged in the fatal shooting of Sam Sharpe, a man who was killed by the out-of-state officers during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 16. Sharpe, 43, returned to Milwaukee's King Park, where he was living in a tent for the last time to gather his belongings and his dog Ices to avoid a man who'd allegedly begun harassing and threatening him, according to Sharpe's family. Sharpe, who was remembered as positive and well-liked by other King Park residents, shared a fragile sense of shelter and community with numerous other unhoused locals. But when he encountered his alleged harasser that summer day, a confrontation ensued which ended in a volley of gunfire from police officers deployed to Milwaukee as part of the security force for the RNC. The Wisconsin Examiner's Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation. The day before the shooting, a group of housing rights activists, who had slept in King Park overnight, marched on the RNC. Law enforcement officials said after the shooting that the prior day's protest had drawn the officers to King Park. Body camera footage showed the officers standing together just before the shooting, then noticing a fight occurring in the distance. The officers immediately unholstered their weapons and sprinted over, yelling commands before unleashing a torrent of gunfire. The district attorney's May 5 letter detailing the decision not to issue charges states that five officers fired a total of 23 times. Each of the officers — identified as Sgt. Adam Groves and officers Nick Mason, Austin Enos, Karl Eiginger, and Canaan Dick — told investigators that they feared that Sharpe, who was armed with knives, was an imminent threat to the other person in the confrontation, identified only as 'AB' in the district attorney's letter. Within hours people gathered at the scene to mourn Sharpe, who was known and beloved by housing outreach advocates and his family. Body camera and surveillance footage leaked online, and people were already beginning to discuss the fact that Sharpe had been the Columbus PD's eighth fatal shooting so far in 2024. Milwaukee police Chief Jeffrey Norman held a press conference, saying that the officers had acted to save a life. The investigation found that the officers' use of deadly force was justified under Wisconsin law, to prevent imminent harm to a civilian, that Sharpe ignored commands to drop the knives he was carrying and that the officers had a reasonable fear for the civilian's safety. Milwaukee PD officials said prior to the convention that their intent was to have out-of-state officers placed in positions 'where they're not necessarily forward facing', and that outside officers were to be accompanied by Milwaukee officers, and were not to make arrests unless in urgent circumstances where local officers weren't available. The investigation of Sharpe's killing was led by the Greenfield PD as part of the Milwaukee Area Investigative Team (MAIT), a local task force which investigates officer-involved deaths. Angelique Sharpe, Sam's sister, recounted the day that detectives came to her mother's home, escorted by Milwaukee officers. The department was already receiving criticism for not having accompanied the Columbus officers at King Park. Police officers stand watch during the March on the RNC 2024 (Photo | Isiah Holmes) 'They didn't really care,' Angelique Sharpe told Wisconsin Examiner. The detectives had few answers to the family's questions, she said. After Sharpe's death, his family said that he had been living in the park doing street preaching for the unhoused community, when he began getting harassed by a man who allegedly threatened to destroy his tent and harm his dog. Sharpe was generally in good spirits, his family said, but he suffered from illness including multiple sclerosis. Sharpe had returned to the park to gather his things and leave that day, his sister said, armed with knives because he was worried about his safety. Angelique Sharpe told Wisconsin Examiner that MAIT detectives seemed uninterested in what she feels is important context. 'I feel like nobody has really investigated this case fully for what it was. The only thing that they cared about was the actual shooting itself. Not anything that led up to it. Not why any of them were in the street, what led up to that, or what happened, or verifying that he was robbed and beat up,' Angelique said. 'Nobody checked any of that stuff or cared about any of that stuff. All they cared about was the police [were] justified in the few seconds … and I just don't feel like they was justified, because they should've never been there.' Angelique blames the Columbus officers, who she feels acted in haste, as well as Milwaukee officials who assured residents ahead of the RNC that out-of-state law enforcement would not patrol neighborhoods unsupervised. 'The whole case was handled poorly,' she said. The fallout from the shooting continues to weigh on the Sharpe family. Sam's dog Ices was taken by animal control, much to the dismay of Sharpe's family. Ices was eventually returned, and later found a new owner. Shortly after Sam died, someone mailed what appeared to be online court records of people with the last name 'Sharpe' to the family, with a mocking letter saying 'another criminal off the street,' Angelique told Wisconsin Examiner. Months passed before the family was able to obtain a death certificate, and organize a proper funeral for Sam, because of the ongoing investigation. Angelique said their mother's health declined as the whole ordeal took a toll. Chalk art near where Sam Sharp was killed by out-of-state police from Ohio in King Park. (Photo | Isiah Holmes) In a press release put out by the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Angelique Sharpe stated that her brother was found to have been shot 23 times, yet sustained 34 wounds. 'The math ain't matching,' she said. 'It's a miscarriage of justice and gross neglect of oversight on the part of MPD, who lied to the public to let killer cops run loose in one of the most vulnerable communities in our city. My brother's blood is on your hands regardless of the law continuing to support murderers behind badges.' After the district attorney received MAIT's investigation for review, prosecutors met with Sharpe's family members and their attorneys at the Greenfield Police Department. It became clear to the family that prosecutors were leaning toward not charging the officers, and that the shooting officers had retained lawyers. All of the involved officers refused to have their interviews recorded. Attorney Nate Cade, who represents the Sharpe family, said that a lack of recorded interviews is a common frustration, as police investigated by MAIT have the option to forego them. 'They don't record, they dictate what they think they hear,' Cade told Wisconsin Examiner. Cade agrees with the Sharpe family that the lack of a Milwaukee police escort for the Columbus officers led to an avoidable escalation. Tents around King Park in Milwaukee. (Photo | Isiah Holmes) The Sharpe family is considering bringing a civil case. Protest actions are planned in the coming days. 'From the moment it was announced that the RNC would be held in Milwaukee, the community was clear,' the Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression said in a press release, 'we do not want outside law enforcement agencies unleashed on our community.' The Alliance blamed local officials, including Mayor Calvalier Johnson and Chief Norman, for welcoming the RNC to Milwaukee. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
