Prince Charles ‘wants slave trade to be taught as widely as Holocaust’

The Prince has suggested the UK should create a national day to commemo­rate the victims of slavery
RWANDA-COMMONWEALTH-CHOGM
AFP via Getty Images
Sami Quadri26 June 2022

Prince Charles wants Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade to be taught to the nation in the same way that school­ children learn about the Holocaust.

The heir to the throne believes improved education about the darkest days of Empire will help to heal divisions within the UK and the Commonwealth.

Charles, 73, has suggested the UK should create a national day to commemo­rate the victims of slavery similar to Holocaust Memorial Day.

A royal source told The Telegraph: "The Prince notes that in the UK, at a national level, we now know and learn at school all about the Holocaust.

"That is not true of the transatlantic slave trade and there’s an acknowledgment that it needs to happen."

It comes after claims that the Prince had privately voiced his opposition to Home Secretary Priti Patel’s plan to transport asylum seekers who land in Britain illegally to Rwanda, describing it as "appalling".

The Prince has been talking to slavery experts about his ideas to raise the public’s awareness of the leg­acy of a trade which he has described as a stain on British history.

He has also stepped up his efforts to cele­brate multicultural Britain by commission­ing portraits by black artists of some of the first Caribbean immigrants, who arrived in 1948 aboard Empire Windrush, ahead of the 75th anniversary next year.

The paintings, chosen by a committee led by Baroness Floella Benjamin, are expected to go on show at The Queen’s Gallery on Windrush Day on June 22, 2023.

Charles, who will host a series of events celebrating the Windrush generation, said: "The Windrush vessel arrived at Tilbury in the year I was born, inspiring a generation who made this country home.

"I have always thought of the United Kingdom as a community of communities whose strength is in our diversity, and over the last 75 years this generation has made an immeasurable contribution to the society we share.

"That is why I wanted to pay my own heartfelt tribute to the role they have played in our nation’s story."

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