# How many of you have slave owners in your family history? **URL:** \ **Category:** Reasonably serious discussion\ **Created:** [15 July 2015 12:28 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/how-many-of-you-have-slave-owners-in-your-family-history/2594 "2015-07-15T12:28:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![PhilippineSaint](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/philippinesaint/32/3978_2.png) [@PhilippineSaint](https://www.sotonians.com/u/PhilippineSaint)\ **Post date:** [15 July 2015 15:43 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/how-many-of-you-have-slave-owners-in-your-family-history/2594/21 "2015-07-15T15:43:08Z")
I am still a slave owner 3 House maids 1 House boy 1 driver 1 gardener and they are happy to get a warm meal and a bed for the night. ---
**Author:** ![Tokyo-Saint](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/tokyo-saint/32/10_2.png) [@Tokyo-Saint](https://www.sotonians.com/u/Tokyo-Saint)\ **Post date:** [15 July 2015 15:52 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/how-many-of-you-have-slave-owners-in-your-family-history/2594/22 "2015-07-15T15:52:22Z")
And a weekly beating? ---
**Author:** ![saintbletch](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/saintbletch/32/618_2.png) [@saintbletch](https://www.sotonians.com/u/saintbletch)\ **Post date:** [15 July 2015 15:52 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/how-many-of-you-have-slave-owners-in-your-family-history/2594/23 "2015-07-15T15:52:25Z")
> Originally posted by @PhilippineSaint > > I am still a slave owner > > 3 House maids > > 1 House boy > > 1 driver > > 1 gardener > > and they are happy to get a meal and a **warm** bed for the night. Corrected that for you Phil. ---
**Author:** ![Goatboy](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/goatboy/32/167_2.png) [@Goatboy](https://www.sotonians.com/u/Goatboy)\ **Post date:** [15 July 2015 16:02 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/how-many-of-you-have-slave-owners-in-your-family-history/2594/24 "2015-07-15T16:02:37Z")
Your bed must be massive. ---
**Author:** ![Halo-Stickman](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/halo-stickman/32/23_2.png) [@Halo-Stickman](https://www.sotonians.com/u/Halo-Stickman)\ **Post date:** [15 July 2015 16:04 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/how-many-of-you-have-slave-owners-in-your-family-history/2594/25 "2015-07-15T16:04:27Z")
> Originally posted by @Goatboy > > > Originally posted by @PhilippineSaint > > > > I am still a slave owner > > > > 3 House maids > > > > 1 House boy > > > > 1 driver > > > > 1 gardener > > > > and they are happy to get a warm meal and a bed for the night. > > Your bed must be massive. Either that or he keeps his slaves grossly underfed ---
**Author:** ![CB-Saint](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/cb-saint/32/95251_2.png) [@CB-Saint](https://www.sotonians.com/u/CB-Saint)\ **Post date:** [15 July 2015 16:09 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/how-many-of-you-have-slave-owners-in-your-family-history/2594/26 "2015-07-15T16:09:26Z")
Meat and two veg daily ---
**Author:** ![Halo-Stickman](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/halo-stickman/32/23_2.png) [@Halo-Stickman](https://www.sotonians.com/u/Halo-Stickman)\ **Post date:** [15 July 2015 16:12 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/how-many-of-you-have-slave-owners-in-your-family-history/2594/27 "2015-07-15T16:12:37Z")
I guess that makes the gardener a giver and a receiver. ---
**Author:** ![pap](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/pap/32/74795_2.png) [@pap](https://www.sotonians.com/u/pap)\ **Post date:** [15 July 2015 16:22 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/how-many-of-you-have-slave-owners-in-your-family-history/2594/28 "2015-07-15T16:22:55Z")
A mate of mine has a South African girlfriend. She’s very nice, but sometimes tells stories from her childhood which involves participants such as “garden boys”. He gives her no end of grief about it. Quotes a lot of Lethal Weapon 2 as well, as I understand. Enquiring “what are you doing?” is just asking for trouble. “Just checking to see if I was standing on plastic” is the likely answer. ---
**Author:** ![Redslo](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/redslo/32/45_2.png) [@Redslo](https://www.sotonians.com/u/Redslo)\ **Post date:** [15 July 2015 17:13 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/how-many-of-you-have-slave-owners-in-your-family-history/2594/29 "2015-07-15T17:13:05Z")
> Originally posted by @Furball > > I bet almost everyone. > > Here’s a search page from University College London, which has been developing a database from copious UK government records of compensation payments made to British owners of slaves in the West Indies. > > [Legacies of British Slavery](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/) It is everyone if you go back to prehistory where slavery was ubiquitous and where we are all descended from larger and larger proportions of the human race as it then existed. We are also all descended from slaves and, most likely, some kind of royalty. On the other hand, relatively few of us are descended from scientists. ---
**Author:** ![Bearsy](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/bearsy/32/6_2.png) [@Bearsy](https://www.sotonians.com/u/Bearsy)\ **Post date:** [15 July 2015 17:16 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/how-many-of-you-have-slave-owners-in-your-family-history/2594/30 "2015-07-15T17:16:38Z")
oi redslo, how can you possibly know what was going on “prehistory”? ---
**Author:** ![Redslo](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/redslo/32/45_2.png) [@Redslo](https://www.sotonians.com/u/Redslo)\ **Post date:** [15 July 2015 17:19 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/how-many-of-you-have-slave-owners-in-your-family-history/2594/31 "2015-07-15T17:19:02Z")
From my persepctive History started on January 1, 1958, so I can read about prehistory. ---
**Author:** ![saintbletch](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/saintbletch/32/618_2.png) [@saintbletch](https://www.sotonians.com/u/saintbletch)\ **Post date:** [15 July 2015 17:21 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/how-many-of-you-have-slave-owners-in-your-family-history/2594/32 "2015-07-15T17:21:36Z")
Sorry, didn’t want to leave this thread with a flippant comment, but laptop ran out of charge at Costa’s before telling me “Consider replacing your battery!”. Anyway, this is the gist of what I was drafting… It seems that my forebears, or at least those with the same family name, were knee-deep in this murky business. I don’t want to give the impression that what I’m about to share is in anyway equivalent to the slave trade, because it isn’t, but when I was young my Mum worked as a cleaner for a wealthy family in Gosport (not an Oxymoron). When I was about 6 or 7, I used to accompany my Mum during the holidays, and even then I felt really uneasy about her doing tasks for someone in their own home that they should do themselves. By a quirk of birth they were able to pay for someone to do their hard work for them. There is something unpalatably exploitative about such a show of wealth/social distance. Anyway, my Mum thought/thinks they were wonderful people, but I still resent the coldness/distance they showed to her whilst in their own house. I’m sure they were lovely people, but it left me with a taste in my mouth. As a postscript to this the grandson of the people my Mum worked for is actually famous in TV news now (in front of the camera). He’s younger than me, and unbelievably considering how wealthy they were, they asked my Mum if the grandson could have my cast-off pyjamas! Surreal, but true, this TV news ‘celeb’ used to wear my old paisley-patterned pyjamas (orange IIRC). Every time he comes on the TV, I tell anyone that will listen that he used to wear my pyjamas **\***. **\*** Not a euphemism. ---
**Author:** ![lifeintheslowlane](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/lifeintheslowlane/32/690_2.png) [@lifeintheslowlane](https://www.sotonians.com/u/lifeintheslowlane)\ **Post date:** [15 July 2015 17:54 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/how-many-of-you-have-slave-owners-in-your-family-history/2594/33 "2015-07-15T17:54:36Z")
My Mother also used to do housework for a retired couple in Upper Shirley in the 1970s. It was poorly paid and I too felt it was exploititive work…I didn’t like it at all. I told my Mum I’d pay her more to stay at home but she said she felt she couldn’t let them down, she liked them and it got her out of her house. Exploitation…obligation? Not to her; she got more than money from it. ---
**Author:** ![PhilippineSaint](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/philippinesaint/32/3978_2.png) [@PhilippineSaint](https://www.sotonians.com/u/PhilippineSaint)\ **Post date:** [15 July 2015 18:47 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/how-many-of-you-have-slave-owners-in-your-family-history/2594/34 "2015-07-15T18:47:45Z")
Its the Philippines there is always food cooking and rice by the potfull but the average Fillipina is only about a quarter of the size of the UK blimps. ---
**Author:** ![Fatso](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/fatso/32/18_2.png) [@Fatso](https://www.sotonians.com/u/Fatso)\ **Post date:** [15 July 2015 19:03 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/how-many-of-you-have-slave-owners-in-your-family-history/2594/35 "2015-07-15T19:03:10Z")
Is it Eamon Holmes? ---
**Author:** ![Intiniki](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/intiniki/32/9_2.png) [@Intiniki](https://www.sotonians.com/u/Intiniki)\ **Post date:** [15 July 2015 19:18 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/how-many-of-you-have-slave-owners-in-your-family-history/2594/36 "2015-07-15T19:18:11Z")
At a recent family gathering my odd uncle imparted two bits of family tree history. 1 that we are vaguely related to Benedict Cumberbatch and 2 that there was some slave ownership. Great family gathering. Not sure if the two things are connected. Quite possibly. I don’t know much before the end of the victorian period of my family although my dad and uncles have much more. ---
**Author:** ![Spudders](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/spudders/32/15_2.png) [@Spudders](https://www.sotonians.com/u/Spudders)\ **Post date:** [15 July 2015 19:22 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/how-many-of-you-have-slave-owners-in-your-family-history/2594/37 "2015-07-15T19:22:36Z")
Why is you uncle odd Intiniki? ---
**Author:** ![saintbletch](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/saintbletch/32/618_2.png) [@saintbletch](https://www.sotonians.com/u/saintbletch)\ **Post date:** [15 July 2015 19:35 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/how-many-of-you-have-slave-owners-in-your-family-history/2594/38 "2015-07-15T19:35:20Z")
> Originally posted by @Fatso > > > Originally posted by @saintbletch > > > > Sorry, didn’t want to leave this thread with a flippant comment, but laptop ran out of charge at Costa’s before telling me “Consider replacing your battery!”. > > > > Anyway, this is the gist of what I was drafting… > > > > It seems that my forebears, or at least those with the same family name, were knee-deep in this murky business. > > > > I don’t want to give the impression that what I’m about to share is in anyway equivalent to the slave trade, because it isn’t, but when I was young my Mum worked as a cleaner for a wealthy family in Gosport (not an Oxymoron). > > > > When I was about 6 or 7, I used to accompany my Mum during the holidays, and even then I felt really uneasy about her doing tasks for someone in their own home that they should do themselves. By a quirk of birth they were able to pay for someone to do their hard work for them. There is something unpalatably exploitative about such a show of wealth/social distance. > > > > Anyway, my Mum thought/thinks they were wonderful people, but I still resent the coldness/distance they showed to her whilst in their own house. I’m sure they were lovely people, but it left me with a taste in my mouth. > > > > As a postscript to this the grandson of the people my Mum worked for is actually famous in TV news now (in front of the camera). He’s younger than me, and unbelievably considering how wealthy they were, they asked my Mum if the grandson could have my cast-off pyjamas! > > > > Surreal, but true, this TV news ‘celeb’ used to wear my old paisley-patterned pyjamas (orange IIRC). Every time he comes on the TV, I tell anyone that will listen that he used to wear my pyjamas **\***. > > > > **\*** Not a euphemism. > > Is it Eamon Holmes? No, but I did grow up with Eamon too, and he did once borrow an item of clothing from my neighbour Billy Smart. My man is on ITV. ---
**Author:** ![Furball](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/furball/32/64_2.png) [@Furball](https://www.sotonians.com/u/Furball)\ **Post date:** [15 July 2015 19:39 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/how-many-of-you-have-slave-owners-in-your-family-history/2594/39 "2015-07-15T19:39:30Z")
> Originally posted by @Fatso > > > Originally posted by @Furball > > > > Damn. So it’s just me then? > > You make me sick. Not sure if serious. ---
**Author:** ![Intiniki](https://www.sotonians.com/user_avatar/www.sotonians.com/intiniki/32/9_2.png) [@Intiniki](https://www.sotonians.com/u/Intiniki)\ **Post date:** [15 July 2015 19:40 UTC](https://www.sotonians.com/t/how-many-of-you-have-slave-owners-in-your-family-history/2594/40 "2015-07-15T19:40:43Z")
> Originally posted by @Spudders > > Why is you uncle odd Intiniki? He just is. [Previous page](https://www.sotonians.com/t/how-many-of-you-have-slave-owners-in-your-family-history/2594.md?page=1) [Next page](https://www.sotonians.com/t/how-many-of-you-have-slave-owners-in-your-family-history/2594.md?page=3)