The gut punches to descendants of enslaved Africans keep coming. There is no let-up to breathe or just to assess the resulting damages.

Scars of slavery are already etched on our bodies, minds and souls. But new welts are added almost daily. From the killings and deep-rooted bigotry against blacks to the recent discovery that Scotland enslaved Africans in the West Indies, the wounds continue to fester.

If your ancestors are Caribbean, you might not be aware of your connections to the Scots or that your last name is Scottish. Scores of West Indians have only recently begun to learn that Scots enriched themselves on the backs of Africans they enslaved.

In the podcast, “What’s Going On? Eyes on African and the Caribbean,” Dr. Myrtle Peterkin, a retired physician who spent the majority of her life in Glasgow, Scotland, shared her recent discovery of Scotland’s role in the enslavement of Africans on plantations in her native Guyana.

Dr. Peterkin was inspired by her mother, a nurse-midwife, to become a doctor. She won a scholarship to Bishop’s High School, a prestigious girl’s school in Guyana, and studied medicine at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica (UWI). She began her training in Hematology at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary and eventually became a member of the Royal College of Pathologists. She was named a Consultant in Transfusion Medicine in 1989.

Dr. Peterkin, like many Caribbean natives, said she knew nothing of Scotland’s role in oppressing other humans. That history is not included in any school curriculum. Not in Guyana, a South American country that is part of the Caribbean, or Jamaica where Scots also owned dozens of plantations and enslaved thousands.

Dr. Peterkin, the only black female consultant hematologist in Scotland, is doing research to learn more about this history and plans to write a book. What she is finding out is another blow to the psyche. One discovery is the realization that she has been paying taxes in Glasgow to slave owners and their descendants who enslaved her ancestors for profit.

Brutal treatment

In Guyana as well as Jamaica, Scots owned scores of plantations. The money from the plantations fueled industries, schools and churches in Scotland, according to published reports. And scores of Scots reaped great riches and continue to collect on those benefits.

While most of the money the Scots made came from the plantations, they also enslaved Africans on Scottish soil.

On these plantations in the Caribbean, slaves worked in gruesome conditions in sugar, cotton and tobacco fields. The treatments the Scottish slave owners meted out were among the most brutal, and life expectancy was an average of four years.

Although Scotland banned slave ownership in 1778, some Scots continued to own slaves and build their wealth. In 1796, Scots controlled almost 30 percent of the plantation estates in Jamaica, and by 1817, they were responsible for subjugating 32 percent of those enslaved.

Anti-slavery measures

Slave trade in the British Colonies was declared illegal in 1807 ending the use of British ships to transport slaves. Full abolition arrived in 1833.

Some Scots began demanding freedom for slaves before abolition. In 1822, 11 years before abolition, Scots established the Glasgow Anti-Slavery Society. According to published reports, Glasgow was one of the committed abolitionist cities in Britain.

But the slave owners did not suffer any financial loss despite the anti-slavery push. Shortly after abolition, the British government agreed to pay tens of thousands of British slave owners what amounts to 2 billion pounds in today’s currency for taking away their slaves. Scotland is a part of Britain.

The deal also included a total of 10 million pounds for Scottish families who owned slaves in the Caribbean and Africa. James Blair, a MP with homes in London and Scotland, was awarded 65 million pounds in today’s money, for the 1,598 slaves he owned on plantation he inherited in British Guyana, now Guyana.

But here is the staggering fact, the British government is not offering any compensation to the descendants of those enslaved. Leaders in Caribbean countries, including Jamaica and Barbados, however, are calling for reparations and have initiated legal action.

In 2013, Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) sought  legal advise from a dozen Caribbean countries seeking compensation from three European nations involved in the slave trade. They also want an apology.

By Sandra James