He transformed London – thanks to exploitation
ROBERT Milligan was a wealthy merchant and a man of vision – but also a fierce proponent of slavery in Jamaica.
His statue, pulled down yesterday, commemorated his key role in building the West India Docks in East London. Milligan’s legacy is tarnished by his history as a slave owner, trader – and his fervent support for the brutal practice.
Views on slavery changed massively during the latter part of the 18th century, with great British abolitionist William Wilberforce leading a campaign to change the mind of a nation that had grown rich from unpaid labour.
But Milligan, pictured, was unrepentant as the tide of public opinion turned against him. Born in 17 6 to a wealthy Scottish family of merchants, he grew up on his father’s
Jamaican sugar plantations, which were maintained by slaves.
Milligan left Jamaica in 1779 to seek his fortune. Frustrated by delays and thefts at London wharves, he lobbied Parliament to let him build a wet dock with a high, secure wall. By 1800, Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger was laying the foundation stone for London’s first commercial wet docks.
When Milligan died in 1809 – six years after slavery in Britain was abolished, but still remained in the Caribbean – he owned 526 people on plantations. He had even advised the Government on how to quash a rebellion by escaped slaves.
The Milligan statue was put up in 1813 by directors of the West India Dock Company, with a plaque highlighting his role in developing the area that is now a financial hub.