The shameful legacy of slavery is starting to take its revenge on the colonizers. The Cumberbatch family can be one of them.
The Barbados government is currently tracking down the families who profited from slavery and Hollywood actor Benedict Cumberbatch, whose ancestors were slave owners, may be required to pay reparations after it was revealed his ancestors had a sugar plantation in Barbados.
Apparently, the Cumberbatch family had around 250 slaves working on the sugar plantation they bought in Barbados in the 1700s. For this, it is possible that legal action can be taken against the Cumberbatch family, who were paid thousands of pounds in compensation when slavery was abolished and thus made a small fortune.
The Caribbean nation of Barbados became a republic in 2021, breaking its ties with the United Kingdom, and the reparation campaign officials announced makes it likely the Cumberbatch family will face charges.
“Any descendants of white plantation owners who have benefited from the slave trade should be asked to pay reparations, including the Cumberbatch family,” David Denny, General Secretary of the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration, said.
David Commissiong, vice-president of Barbados' national compensation commission said: “This is at the earliest stages. We are just beginning. A lot of this history is only really now coming to light.”
Actor Cumberbatch previously spoke about the slavery issue. Speaking to The Telegraph in 2018, Cumberbatch said: “We have our past – you don’t have to look far to see the slave-owning past. We were part of the whole sugar industry, which is a shocker.”
Cumberbatch portrayed the plantation owner in the 2013 movie "12 Years a Slave." The film tells the story of a slave man trying to regain his freedom.
