In the 1600s, Codrington estate in Barbados belonged to people from Teesside. It was sold to Christopher Codrington in 1660.
It was a sugar growing plantation that enslaved people.
In 1710, Codrington left the estate to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Abroad (SPG), a missionary organisation attached to the Church of England. In effect, this meant that the church was enslaving people.
Connections to Durham
Bishop Thomas Thurlow was the Bishop of Durham from 1787 until he died in 1791.
During this time, he was a member of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Abroad.
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Portrait of Thomas Thurlow
© The Trustees of the British Museum (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Christopher Codrington by R. Clamp, after Sir James Thornhill
stipple engraving, published 1796. Image courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery. Licenced under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 DEED
Codrington Plantation was known to be one of the harshest of all the Barbadian plantations to be sent to. Upon arrival, enslaved people were branded with a hot iron that said 'Society'.
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Branding, was a cruel, painful way to mark enslaved people and to show where they 'belonged'.
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Like other plantations small prizes of money and farming equipment were doled out to encourage enslaved people to not resist and to work hard.
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To Know More about Codrington click here or the link above. Warning: Some content is upsetting.
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How much did Bishop Thurlow know?
We may never know. However, the organisation was fully aware of what was happening at Codrington and profited by it.
Over to You!
How to move forwards.
This is a huge area of debate today.
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As educators, we want you to be part of that debate.
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Paramount in this discussion are the views of the peoples of the Caribbean. We have included the 10 Point Plan put forward by Caricom - an organisation that represents the countries and peoples of the Caribbean. Start here.
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There are some articles from website from the Church of England and the USPG that tell of the work they are doing now to grasp this uncomfortable history.