The King and Queen saw slavery artefacts from shackles to infamous ship diagrams packed with enslaved people, as they learned about Antigua and Barbuda’s past.
Charles and Camilla toured the museum at Antigua’s Government House, once a symbol of British colonial oppression for Antiguans but now seen as a living testament to overcoming the adversity of slavery.
The issue of slavery, an apology from Britain and the payment of reparations will dominate a Commonwealth summit the King will open in the Antiguan capital on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham, in Antigua for the conference, has said he is open to “listening to calls for a formal apology” from those nations affected by the transatlantic slave trade, but has ruled out considering financial reparations.
In his keynote address to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), the King is expected to speak about the issue of slavery with “unflinching honesty” and “sincere sorrow”.
During their museum tour Charles peered into a display case that contained ceramic medallions depicting slaves, made in support of abolition, shackles, and a conch shell used by enslaved people to call meetings and summon them to work.
As they left, the couple walked past former slave quarters believed to be the oldest of their kind in the East Caribbean.
Cuthbert Forbes, senior assistant to Lady Williams, the wife of the Governor-General Sir Rodney Williams, showed the King and Queen three paintings of enslaved people plotting an escape before being caught.
He said about the King and Queen’s visit: “It’s not about confronting them (King and Queen) with slavery, (but) telling that story for us as black Caribbean people, this story of how far we have come and battles we have fought.”
