I saw this article in the observer. I wondered what everyone thought! I think this should only be the start, I just hope they win!

Oops i speltLloyd's name in the topic header!





Slave descendants sue Lloyd's for billions

Americans whose ancestors were taken from Africa in chains have hired a feared New York lawyer to seek compensation for the insurer's support of 'genocide', writes Conal Walsh

Sunday March 28, 2004
The Observer

Centuries after Africans were beaten, chained and transported in their millions across the Atlantic, Britain's role in the slave trade is set to resurface in sensational fashion in a New York courtroom.

Descendants of black American slaves are preparing a multi-billion dollar action against Lloyd's of London, the best-known name in world insurance, for allegedly financing the trading fleets that uprooted them from their homelands and condemned them to generations of slavery in the New World.
The dramatic claim, to be filed tomorrow, is the latest in which 'UK plc' is being forced to confront allegations of a murky past. In recent years a host of British companies have been sued for allegedly collaborating with South Africa's racist apartheid regime.
The claim against Lloyd's could prove far more damaging. Black leaders are using DNA technology to link themselves with recorded slave ships and have enlisted Edward Fagan, the feared New York lawyer who extracted huge Nazi gold settlements from German and Swiss companies, to lead the case.
Lloyd's is expected to deny it is liable for slavery, but news of the case will cause consternation within its gleaming steel-and-glass headquarters in the City of London, where the insurance giant is tipped to make profits of £1 billion this year.
The sharp-suited brokers and cutting-edge technology that now characterise Lloyd's are only the latest incarnation in a long and controversial history. It was founded by Edward Lloyd in a London coffee shop in 1688 to provide cover for merchants whose ships were regularly lost at sea. Just like today, it was the centre of the insurance and shipping world in the 1700s and early 1800s, when many shipowners were making vast fortunes by shipping slaves from Africa to America and Britain's colonies in the Caribbean.
Before slavery was abolished in the British Empire in the 1830s, and three decades later in the United States, more than 10 million people are thought to have been sold to slave traffickers at west African ports before being herded on to boats for the long voyage to America. The ships often stopped for supplies at Bristol, London or Liverpool. The slaves suffered severe mistreatment, malnutrition and overcrowding on the way, with around 20 percent dying at sea; on arrival in America, those who had survived the journey were permanently separated from their families and friends and sold.
Deadria Farmer-Paellman, one of the plaintiffs in the case, has traced her ancestors to the Mende people of Sierra Leone. She told The Observer: 'African Americans today are also the victims of genocide: our ethnic and national groups were destroyed by slavery. This is illegal under US and international law. We still do not know anything about who we are.
'We were referred to as cargo on shipping records, not by our names, nationality or ethnic groups, as other immigrants into America were. This, as well as all the murder and mistreatment our ancestors suffered, is the definition of genocide and Lloyd's of London aided and abetted it.'
Antoinette Harrell-Miller, another of the claimants, said: 'Like any other ethnic group living in America, I have the right to know who I am. Lloyd's of London and others must repair the damage they caused.'
Historical records identify around 30,000 'slaving' expeditions sailing between Africa and the Americas over 300 years, although it is not clear how many of these would have been insured at Lloyd's. But the plaintiffs, 10 black Americans who have traced their ancestors to specific slave-trading episodes, claim that many of these armadas could not have crossed the Atlantic without the financial safety net that Lloyd's provided.
They want the insurer to contribute to a billion-dollar educational fund that would help black Americans to trace their ancestry. They are also demanding up to $1 million each in personal compensation. If their test case is successful, it could open the floodgates for similar lawsuits from any of the estimated 30 million Americans whose forefathers were slaves.
The lawsuit is not aimed exclusively at Lloyd's: among the other defendants is the US Government, a one-time champion of slavery.
Proving that Lloyd's is accountable for the evils of slavery, especially so long after those tragic events, will be extraordinarily difficult.
It will be necessary to establish in court that descendants of slaves are also 'victims'; that the commercial entities which profited from slavery should be punished even though they were not acting illegally at the time; and whether, anyway, they still exist in any meaningful form.
Even if Lloyd's as an institution was judged to be liable, many of its 'members' - the firms and private investors whose money provides insurance cover - would probably argue that they had no involvement in the insurance market three centuries ago.
Lloyd's itself is expected to deny any legal responsibility for slavery and fight the case fiercely, arguing that the claim itself is outlandish even by the standards of America's 'compensation culture'.
A Lloyd's spokeswoman declined to comment yesterday, but pointed out that the insurer had faced slavery lawsuits before, which the courts had rejected. But the plaintiffs believe that this time it will be different because they are alleging the crime of genocide, which is specifically provided for under American law.
Some earlier claims were also rejected on the grounds that the claimants could not provide incontrovertible proof as to when and by whom their ancestors had been enslaved. But the plaintiffs in tomorrow's case against Lloyd's will claim that new DNA testing techniques allow them to trace their ancestry to specific African tribes and, by extension, to identifiable slave-trafficking episodes.
In Fagan, they have enlisted a lawyer who is already unpopular in a number of City boardrooms. As well as famously acting for Holocaust victims, he represents thousands of South Africans who are suing British, European and American firms for allegedly exploiting black workers under the apartheid regime. Among the British blue-chip companies being sued are Barclays Bank and BP. All deny the claims.
'Companies usually resort to the argument that terrible things happened a long time ago, but now it's all in the past,' Fagan said yesterday. 'For the descendants of slaves, however, it is not all in the past. Our case is that Lloyd's of London was heavily involved, and we believe the US court will support us.'
For Lloyd's sake, Fagan had better be wrong. Earthquakes, terror attacks and environmental accidents have forced it to cough up billions in the past. But slavery compensation might be a financial disaster to eclipse any of those.

banana.gifHooray its payback time!banana.gif

I too, hope the slave descendants win. Someone ought to tell them that Lloyds is STILL benefiting from the proceeds of slavery, but they wouldn't claim the profit they make from it as HISTORY.

@MissBrighterDays. Obviously would not want the leaders of this action to lose. But I seriously have doubts and think we may be putting the cart before the donkey, because if we don't have the infrastrucutres and appropirate leadership structues and structures to allow proper representation of people's views, we got plenty problems in the making.

For example, you can have people from the continent making financial claims for things which happend to people in the diaspora, who suffered the brunt of slavery and colonialism, dictators pushing these campaigns for their own benefit and a whole range of negative scenarios. Our great brother Wole Soyinka has written about the importance of these kinds of activities, but also the danger and the kinds of things we need first as a precondition.

We can see money abused and misused and going to things which bare no resemblance to our interests. When the Jews sought reparations, they already had a strong international infrastructure and national structures in every major country. Hence they could come to firm consensus on what the priorities should be, for money obtained in this manner.

Given that these type of claimse are in effect one off claims, any mistake made will damage us no end.


Fredconfused2

@Fredblack - That's really true. I never looked at it in that way. I thought that by this group bringing the claim, it can only be a good thing. But you're right if they fail it could damage us, and any subsequent attempts.

I just hope they win!

I can't see how IF they fail, it would damage us. It would just mean that someone else would try and another after that - until we do win.

Why look for the negative?

@Athaba - its true too!

I am a true believer in folks being compensated for wrongs done against them or their ancestors. It seem everybody can get compensated like the Japanese for imprisonment in WW2 and the Native American too but the government wishes to squeeze their wallets when it comes compensating the biggest wrong it has ever done.

I hope that this start of many lawsuits against organizations and businesses that benefited from slavery and is still around today.

clp)clp)

@Spice

clp)clp)clp)clp)

EXACTLY!!!!

I can see where everyone is coming from on this topic.

My intial thoughts when i read this article, was this is fantastic. The more lawsuits we have like this, the more the affects of slavery are kept on the agenda, and those that profited from it are called to account, the better! That is a massive positive

But I also see what Fred Black is saying about it would begoodif it was an organised push to call these people to account. So that we have strength in unity, like the Jews, and have more chance of success. If this lawsuit fails, then it could damage other attempts to call these big corporations to account.

Sothis is a very positive thing, but i do understand the angle that FB is coming from.

@All the issue is not one of positive or negative, but what mechanisms exist to ensure the right people get the money and use it for proper purposes. Because what is stopping me and my friends to organise do the research get the money and squander it.

So it far more complicated than being negative or positive, but about accountability and representation.

Fredconfused2

@missbrighterdays

IfI read the article correctly - where does it say that they are NOT organised? And if the column makes no reference to that, then whyshould anyone think thatthat its a possibility?

@Athaba, it is not an assumption about what is in the article or not. It is what you know about the whole issue of reparations and black people, which goes far beyond that article, as this is a very old issue which has been deeply discussed in poltical circles long time.

In fact there are books on the issue, and we know why the Jews have been successful and anybody with an ounce of serious knowledge on the matter will know you cannot compare Jewish communal infrastrucucture with black people whether here or in the US. So these are extremely serious issue, as the money is not given on behalf of a group of people.

Fredconfused2