A Scottish island hotel has been urged to publicly acknowledge its historic links with slavery
Iona Abbey may also have benefitted from funding from the slave trade, according to Reverend Yousouf GooljarySt Columba Hotel on Iona – an island off the south-west tip of Mull in the Inner Hebrides – should commemorate how money gained through slavery funded its construction in the 19th century, according to Reverend Yousouf Gooljary.
The board outlining the hotel’s history states: “It all began as a Free Church Manse constructed in 1846-1847.” In a statement, the St Columba Hotel thanked Gooljary for bringing to its attention a potential link to slavery of which it had been unaware.Management said it had enlisted local historians to help better understand the full story of the manse, and “asked the Free Church of Scotland to do the same”.
Gooljary said that sites which “acknowledge the money” would echo calls made by the great American abolitionist Frederick Douglass during his visit to Scotland in 1846: “Send back the money.”Speaking in Britain in 1846, Douglass said the Free Church had “made itself responsible for slavery” by accepting donations from US plantations relying on slave labour.
Gooljary said: “I am calling on Historic Environment Scotland to take note of the trustees’ version of events and display the facts in their publicity in the abbey on Iona.” “We would like to thank the Rev Yousouf Gooljary for bringing this to our attention. Regardless of what the various investigations reveal, the current owners and management of the St Columba Hotel would like to take this opportunity to express our absolute abhorrence at the slave trade, and all practices associated with it.
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