A new book, The Crown’s Silence, The Hidden History of the British Monarchy and Slavery in the Americas by Brooke Newman (Mariner Books, 2026), challenges the myth that Great Britain and its monarchs championed the abolition of slavery and details the royal family’s complicity with and profit from the slave trade and the sale of slave produced commodities.
It also reminds us that New York is named for the world’s most prolific slave traders.
The Royal African Company was headed by a governor, James Stuart, the Duke of York, who later became King James II. As head of the company, James was also its largest shareholder. Between 1672 and 1688, James made approximately $2 million in today’s currency.
When the British took over the Dutch New Netherland colony and the settlement of New Amsterdam in 1664, they were granted to James as a proprietary colony by his brother King Charles II and they were renamed New York in his honor.
James also held the Scottish title Duke of Albany. The Dutch settlement of Fort Orange, also known as Beverwijck (literally “Beaver District” was also renamed in his honor) – Albany.
Under the auspices of the Royal African Company, British ships sailing from Bristol, Liverpool and London dominated the Triangular and trans-Atlantic slave trades at the end of the 18th century.
They controlled as much as 75% of the commerce in human beings including approximately 100,000 Africans taken from the West African Gold and Slave Coasts.
To facilitate the trade, primarily to sugar plantations on Barbados in the West Indies, the Royal African Company built a series of forts and factories or trading posts on the African coast.
James Stuart was also the Lord High Admiral of the Royal Navy. He used that position to outfit and man ships engaged in the slave trade and he directed the British fleet that seized control over the Dutch colony in 1664.
Enslaved Africans were frequently branded with either “RAC” standing for Royal African Company or “DoY” meaning Duke of York.
Under the mercantilist system, all trade with British colonies in the Americas had to pass through British ports so the British Crown was able to profit from import duties on sugar and tobacco.
“Sugar and tobacco customs revenue comprised one-third of total Crown revenue” by 1687, Newman notes, arguing that profits from the trans-Atlantic slave trade and customs collected on slave produced commodities allowed the Stuarts to avoid appealing to Parliament for additional financing.
These funding streams enabled James to refuse to acquiesce to parliamentary authority, a mistake contributing to the Glorious Revolution in 1688 when Parliament deposed him as King.
James’ connection with the Royal African Company ended when he was deposed in 1688. The company lost its monopoly over the British slave trade in 1698. It ceased slave trading in the 1730s and dissolved as a corporation in 1752.
Between 1672 and 1731, the company transported an estimated 190,000 enslaved people on over 600 voyages with tens of thousands of people dying onboard during the “Middle Passage.”
Today, the net worth of the British Royal family is estimated at £21.3 billion or $28 billion.
They nor the British government have apologized for their role in the transatlantic slave trade. King Charles III expressed his “personal sorrow” and “regret,” but avoided issuing a direct apology.
In March 2026, Great Britain abstained on a U.N. General Assembly resolution condemning the slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity” and urging formal apologies from slave trading nations, reparations, and the return of stolen cultural artifacts.
2027 will mark the 400th anniversary of the beginning of the slavery era in New York and the 200th anniversary of the end of legalized slavery in the state. Read more about those events here.
Read more about slavery in New York.
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Illustration: King James II by Peter Lely.
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