Public schools ‘like N Korea’ when teaching slave trade

BRITAIN’S top public schools have a “North Korean” approach to teaching about Empire and slavery, according to an Old Etonian whose family made money in the slave trade.

Alex Renton said students continue to be taught the Victorian “myth” that Britain acted honourably.

“I had one of the most expensive educations you could buy as a Brit. I learnt that Wilberforce freed the slaves and we should be jolly proud.

“That myth-making started early, in the Victorian period. We cast ourselves very quickly as the policeman of the slave trade, stopping the slave trade.

“We are frightened of the truth of our story. It looks a bit North Korean, the education that I got at Britain’s top public schools.”

Renton has written a book, Blood Legacy, in which he comes to terms with his own family history as Scottish plantation owners in Tobago and Jamaica.

They include Charles Dalrymple Fergusson, Renton’s great-great-greatgrandfather and a notable philanthropist.

He described the upper classes – of which he counts himself a member – as “ancestor worshippers”. Renton said he grew up believing “Britain was the most benevolent and best imperial power ever, which is what we were taught and turns out not to be true.

“There is a very strong culture in my class to keep the barriers up against outsiders, not to admit fault, and to cover up facts. That is what keeps the establishment in power.”

Renton, who admitted to feeling “white liberal guilt”, said the “anti-woke brigade” often say it is unfair to judge slave traders by the standards of today. But he pointed out that the anti-slavery movement was very much alive in the 1790s.

He added: “I’ve had a lot of rude remarks from entitled white people, but also a lot of white people in the same situation as my family saying we need to start addressing this.”

Some have hired postgraduate history students to carry out audits and discover how their fortunes were built on the slave trade.