Antigua wants reparations from Harvard

Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne has written to Harvard University President Lawrence Bacow, asking it to take responsibilities and pay his country reparations for the school's historical ties to — and profiteering from — the transatlantic slave trade.

This comes three months after the signing of a historic reparations agreement between the University of Glasgow and the University of the West Indies.

Although the $US24 million University of Glasgow agreement was the first major act of making amends to the descendants of people enslaved by the British since full emancipation was declared in 1838, and was seen as a symbolic gesture towards the entire Caribbean region, Prime Minister Browne felt that reparations were owed to Antigua and Barbuda specifically. That’s because Isaac Royall Jr, an American slave trader and landowner who also operated in Antigua, bequeathed money to Harvard to establish its first law professorship, which later led to the creation of the Harvard Law School in 1817.