British Crown symbol was branded on enslaved Africans, research finds

Enslaved African people were branded with an identifying mark that included an emblem of the British Crown, according to new research by a project documenting British involvement in the slave trade.

Prof William Pettigrew, who led the Register of British Slave Traders research, described the imprinting as a “dramatic and harrowing” symbol of the monarchy’s relationship to slavery.

The register, external lists 13,000 individuals and hundreds of institutions known to have invested in Britain’s role in slavery between 1563 and 1807, when the trade was abolished across the British Empire.

Researchers say it is the most comprehensive examination of a national community of slave traders ever undertaken.

Dr Nicholas Radburn, historian at Lancaster University and co-investigator in the project, told the BBC he first found the identifying mark – which is an image of the Crown, with the South Sea Company logo below it – while looking through the company’s archives at the British Library in 2022.

Founded in 1711, the South Sea Company was set up as a public and private British company and trafficked thousands of enslaved Africans.

Radburn said it was “remarkable” to find records of the branding “buried in a very nondescript sounding volume: ‘The Register of Instruments'”.

In 2024, he found letters that helped piece the story together. They were from the company’s director to their “factors” (slave traders) in the Spanish Americas, Radburn explained.

“The letters were full of very detailed instructions on how to conduct the slave trade,” he recalled.

One letter from February 1714 was “exceptional because it laid bare so clearly the ways in which the London-based directors were personally involved in the violence that was committed against the enslaved in the Americas”.

The directors sent irons made in England for slave traders to use to mark enslaved African people on their left shoulder with the emblem.

The purpose, the letter outlined, was to distinguish the company’s slaves from others.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Pettigrew – from King’s College London – said there were all sorts of connections between the monarchy and slavery, not just this “brutal imprint”.

“If you think about the history of the monarchy when it was at its absolute lowest ebb, when King Charles I was executed, members of the royal family relaunched the monarchy, its finances and its reputation, by investing in the transatlantic slave trade,” he said.

He said it was important to draw a distinction between the monarchy as an institution, and the individuals who led it.

“The institution is the same as it was hundreds of years ago.

“So when we talk about the role of the slave trade in rehabilitating the monarchy or improving its position, we’re talking about an institution that is still very much a part of British life today.

“In a court of law, the monarchy is the same institution today as it was in the 17th Century.”

In a statement, Buckingham Palace said King Charles “has on many occasions expressed his personal and wholehearted commitment to promoting greater understanding around the issue of slavery and finding ways to address historic wrongs for the benefit of communities today”.

The King is “grateful to all those undertaking academic work in this area and thus contributing to the debate about how such issues might best be addressed”.