The Codrington Project

The Renewal and Reconciliation: The Codrington Project was announced in partnership with The
Codrington Trust (CT) and USPG in September 2023. The project aims to take reparative action in
response to USPG’s shameful links to slavery on the Codrington Estate, Barbados.
At present USPG has committed to a programme of work in partnership with Codrington Trust, in
Barbados, in response to proposals that the Trust has advanced. USPG has pledged 18M Barbadian
Dollars (BDS) (£7M GBP) – to be spent in Barbados over the next 10-15 years to support this work.
Both CT and USPG look forward to the start of this project which will be launching in Autumn 2024,
in Barbados. The work will include five key areas:

1. Burial Places and Memorialisation
2. Family Research
3. Historical Research
4. Community infrastructure and enterprise
5. Theology and Spiritual Repair

In 1712, SPG was bequeathed Codrington – two adjacent estates totalling 700 acres along with a
population of enslaved African men, women, and children. From then until 1838 SPG owned and ran
the estates through local managers. (U)SPG’s stewardship of the Codrington Estate ended in 1983,
when all land and financial assets were passed onto the Codrington Trust.

During the period between 1712 to 1838, enslaved persons were routinely subjected to physical
abuse and severe punishment, as part of the everyday management of the plantation. At any one
time there were between 190 and 440 such persons working in the fields or other occupations as
part of the industrial process of sugar production from which SPG realised profits. These profits
supported its activities as a mission agency within Barbados and beyond. It is likely that between 600
and 1,200 individuals lived and died as enslaved persons.

Please visit our history page for more details.

USPG has been engaging in a process of understanding its own responsibility as a colonial actor more
fully through an intentional exploration of its archives, and in its dialogue with the CPWI (The Church
in the Province of the West Indies), especially since the transfer of the Estate in 1983.

USPG continues to engage in dialogue around issues of justice across the global church. USPG
believes this is a unique opportunity to own up to historic truths and use this moment to support
renewal and reconciliation for all parties involved.

USPG is being intentional in listening and acknowledges that now more than ever is the time to act.
USPG recognises the impact of its history and the effect it has had; it accepts and understand the
generational trauma this has caused over the years and unreservedly apologise for this.

Whilst emancipation finally came in 1838, the legacies of the enslaved are extensive and continue to
cause harm today to individuals and communities. USPG recognises this and sees this work as a
contribution to the wider work of reparative action.

There is significant international debate about the meaning of reparations. For many, formal
Reparations involves commitments and payments between nation states and has a clear focus on
financial compensation owed and paid by one nation state to another to make amends for the
damage of the past.

We understand reparatory justice to be complex and multi-dimensional, speaking to issues of human
identity and social and cultural history, as well as politics and economics. At its heart, reparatory justice
seeks to make amends for past wrongs and to provide redress for the physical, material and moral
damage inflicted on individuals, groups and nations. Programmes of reparatory justice have been
initiated by a number of independent institutions, most commonly universities and churches. Such
programmes seek to address the material and moral injustices of the past in ways that reflect the
historic harms inflicted by those institutions with the intention of building a better future.

The executive group and board of trustees have recognised the importance of including a theological
component to this project in its own right, given the history of Codrington Trust and Codrington
College. It is impossible to have renewal and reconciliation as an anchor of this project without
acknowledging its Christian and theological heritage.

The Steering Group exists to receive and scrutinise proposals from the Executive Group and make key
recommendations to the Governing Body of the Codrington Trust (the CT) and the Board of Trustees
of United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG); and to provide direction, oversight, advice and
scrutiny for the operation of the project.

• The Most Revd Howard Gregory, Archbishop of Church in the Province of West Indies,
• The Revd Canon Dr. Michael Clarke, Principal of Codrington College,
• Ms. Marva Howell, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour, Social Security and Third Sector,
  Government of Barbados
• The Right Revd Dr David Walker, Bishop of Manchester, Chair of USPG Trustees,
• The Revd Canon Dr. Carlton Turner, Anglican Tutor/Theologian, Queens University
  Birmingham / Codrington College,
• Mr. Peter Weinard, USPG Trustee,
• Prof. Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, Chair of Caricom
  Reparations Commission,
• Dr. Annalee Babb, Barbados Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates / Digital Industries &
  Journalism,
• Dr. Deborah L. Mack, Associate Director for Strategic Partnerships at Smithsonian’s National
  Museum of African American History and Culture,
• Mr. Antonio Roberts, Community Representative
• Ms. Rosanna Springer, a registered nurse and a local resident of the Codrington tenantry
  area.

In addition there will be a ten person Community Council (2 reps per Codrington Estate District,
reporting up to Community Representatives).

The project will be delivered in partnership with The Codrington Trust and USPG over the next 10-
15years. Further updates on the project will be announced periodically.

USPG has pledged 18M Barbadian Dollars (BDS) – equivalent to £7M – to be spent in Barbados over
the next 10-15 years to support this work.

Project scoping and preparation has now been undertaken and the project begins this Autumn
2024.

PRAY: Please do keep this work, the project team, and the communities at Codrington in your prayers
– your support is invaluable to this work.

ACT: Funds have already been set aside for this project. However, USPG is keen to support churches
across Britain and Ireland who wish to actively engage with this history. Please contact the supporter
care team on info@uspg.org.uk or 020 7921 2200.

GIVE: You may also want to support some of the other work and projects USPG is doing in
partnership with churches and communities here.

It is the intention of The Codrington Trust and USPG that the Barbadian community will be engaged
as an integral part of this journey and will help inform on the work. CT and USPG will work in close
collaboration with a range of groups in Barbados, including the local community at Codrington as
well as the descendants of those enslaved at Codrington who reside within Barbados and across the
diaspora to ensure that those who will be directly impacted are consulted.

They will also work closely with representatives of a number of key bodies including – the
Government, the University of the West Indies and the Church of the Province of the West Indies.

Both USPG and CT see this project as an opportunity to take concrete steps to carry out reparative
justice and remain committed to the delivery of this in partnership with The Codrington Trust. We
are aware that is one of the first projects of its kind and seek to undertake this work in a spirit of
openness learning from others. In this regard we are especially grateful to the independent members
of the steering committee for their commitment and expertise.

Keep updated via our website here.

You can also follow us on social media @USPGglobal and @codringtoncollege

The Codrington Trust will be leading this project in partnership with USPG. The allocation of funds
will be on the recommendation of the steering committee. Further project updates will be available
on the project website.

No amount of funding could ever repair the loss and damage and effect this has had on the legacy of
the enslaved. The amount we have pledged has been directly proposed by the Codrington Trust to
carry out this work. A staff team has been appointed and will manage the budget and costs
accordingly.

The funding for the work at Codrington and within the Caribbean will be drawn from USPG sources
of income including its reserves.

USPG will continue to fund projects around the world to rethink mission, re-energise church and
champion justice. USPG will honour all its commitments and will continue to share financial
resources with a wide range of partner churches. All funds specifically raised for the work of partner
churches will continue to go to programmes run by those churches.

We will provide periodic updates on how the project is progressing in addition to making information
regularly available on the dedicated website.

It is important for USPG to acknowledge and accept its history, apologising for the wrongdoings of
the past and commit to this reparative action. An apology without committed action is not
reparative justice.

We are coming into this process with open hearts and minds – this is not about “us” as we are being
guided by Codrington Trust and its community. USPG would like to support their flourishing and
growth in the ways that they recommend to us.

The project is developing a number of workstreams to create a sustainable and stable portfolio of
initiatives which seek to address the injustices inherited from the past.

It is expected that the work will cover the following areas:

• Burial Places and Memorialisation
• Family Research
• Historical Research
• Community infrastructure and enterprise
• Theology and Spiritual Repair

Alongside all slaveholders, USPG received financial compensation from the British Government. It
received the sum of £8,823. That fund no longer exists with USPG’s finances, the capital having been
transferred to Barbados a number of years ago. For many years income from that fund also
supported the Church in Barbados. Further research is being undertaken to provide a detailed
account of the history of this fund.

In 1835, SPG established an Education Fund which totalled £171,777. The majority of which was
invested in the Caribbean. This money was used from 1835 to 1850 to pay the salaries of clergy,
catechists, and schoolmasters and to build churches and schools.

Whilst this was clearly a substantial sum of money, decisions relating to how the money was spent
were not made by the those who had been recently emancipated, but by SPG and other actors in the
context of colonial occupation by the British. The improvements in infrastructure and provision were
part of a programme of ongoing Christianisation. Assessments will vary, but this programme of
activities should be seen as, at best, a way to support and improve the situation rather than as
reparatory in nature.