The stories of enslaved African people and more than 1,000 British plantation owners who were compensated after abolition have been brought together in a searchable archive for the first time.
The project is backed by a prominent British family who have owned up to their ancestors’ role in slavery. It was created by Stephen Lewis and focuses on his native Grenada where the British Trevelyan family has publicly apologised for its “crimes against humanity” for their ownership of more than 1,000 enslaved Africans.
“I’m the descendant of survivors. We’ve gone through hundreds of years of torture, torment, deprivation, hardships,” said Lewis, 62. “What I want to leave people with is a feeling that this is strength, this is courage, this is determination, this is why I am who I am today.”
Lewis’s interest began with a trove of paperwork left behind by his father. He discovered from the wills, land transactions and letters dating back to 1838, that beyond his Windrush parents who came to the UK in the 50s, seven of his eight great-grandparents were enslaved people.
The one outlier led him to University College London’s Legacies of British Slavery database, which while helpful had gaps of its own. Lewis retired from his job after decades in the pharmaceutical industry and dedicated his time to filling the gaps of more than 1,000 British claimants who received compensation when slavery was abolished in 1834 and the stories of those they enslaved.
The searchable database, Depths of Paradise, provides an opportunity for people to search their family trees. Lewis said it was designed to shed light on Britain’s role in slavery and its legacies, and was also a resource for schools, researchers and anyone interested in reparative justice and Caribbean heritage. He is also behind a Facebook group with more than 12,000 members, focused on sharing Grenada’s collective history.
“There are some really strong stories coming out of it that should make us feel good about who we are and also make us feel that’s a day gone by, we can form a world of communities as we see fit now, in the knowledge of what’s happened before,” said Lewis.
One fascinating story he encountered was that of Rebecca Ahmuty, who was enslaved by a couple, Maria Ahmuty and John Ahmuty, in Grenada in the 1780s. When John died in 1786, Maria returned to England and partially freed Rebecca, her only enslaved worker, who eventually bought the rest of her freedom herself. Despite this, she maintained close ties with Maria, said Lewis, exchanging news and gifts, including three dolls given by her descendants to the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum in Bristol.
The project is backed by the Trevelyan family who, led by the former BBC journalist Laura Trevelyan, have made history for publicly apologising for the family’s ownership of more than 1,000 enslaved African people and paying £100,000 in reparations.
Trevelyan said one of the tragedies of slavery was how little was known about the enslaved, and said Lewis’s work was important reparative work in helping build a portrait.
“It’s important to face the past together, as descendants of the enslaved and descendants of enslavers, because we have all inherited this world – when you go to the Caribbean you realise that slavery is not ancient history at all,” she said.
Trevelyan, an honorary fellow at the PJ Patterson Institute for Africa-Caribbean Advocacy at the University of the West Indies, said more than 150 families who were descended from enslavers had been in contact with her, keen to know what they could do to further reparatory justice for descendants.
Meanwhile, African and Caribbean heads of state, along with the global reparations movement are looking ahead to 2026’s Commonwealth heads of government meeting, where King Charles will be the keynote speaker.
Trevelyan added: “The king has talked about seeking to deepen his understanding of the lasting impact of slavery and the royal family supporting research into their own links. So I would be very interested to see what the king says in the Caribbean next year as head of the Commonwealth about the results of the research and how the king himself will respond to whatever is revealed. This comes off the back of Britain’s government committing its officers to a conversation about reparatory justice for slavery – I would like to see all of that fleshed out.”
Trevelyan also hopes the king’s interest in historical records will inspire.
She added: “Could Britain’s government do more to digitise the Caribbean’s archives from the period of slavery which are held at the National Archives in Kew?
“The special collection on Grenada is one you have to visit in person which makes it virtually impossible for Caribbean scholars, Grenadians and members of the diaspora in the US and Canada to see materials which could provide vital clues about ancestors and this shared past.
“The 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery will be in 2034 – an opportunity for the UK government to make these archives publicly available and accessible to all online.”
