Pub company to educate staff on slave trade history
A PUB firm whose founder argued against the abolition of slavery has announced an education programmes for its employees.
Greene King, which runs a number of pubs in Derbyshire, has revealed a new partnership with the International Slavery Museum to help raise awareness and educate staff about the historic transatlantic slave trade.
Greene King employees will get the opportunity to take part in online workshops on Understanding
Transatlantic Slavery.
The Liverpool museum will also work with the firm on exploring the history of Benjamin Greene, one of the brewery’s founding members, who profited from slavery and argued against its abolition in the 1800s.
Greene King, whose offices are on Burton’s Centrum 100 Business Park, was founded by Greene in 1787. He went on to own cane sugar plantations in the West Indies where he profited from African slave labour.
The slave trade was abolished in 1833, but instead of government compensation going to those treated as slaves, it went to their former owners for their “loss of human property”. Greene was one of those who benefited.
The company was taken over by his son Edward in 1836, who renamed it Greene King in 1887 after merging with rival brewery Frederick King.
Current Greene King chief executive Nick Mackenzie recently slammed the founder’s “inexcusable” link to the slave trade. The firm made a commitment in June, as part of wider discussions about British companies with historic links to slavery, to significantly invest in initiatives to support more young people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds to begin a career in hospitality.
Mr Mackenzie said: “There is no place for racism or discrimination anywhere in society and I am proud to be at the beginning of this exciting partnership. It is inexcusable that one of our founders profited from slavery and while that was nearly 200 years ago we can’t pretend it didn’t happen.
“We want to educate and work with the International Slavery Museum to learn more about the past and better inform our choices for the future.”