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Oct 2021

Last Updated: 20/10/2021

David Harewood confronts Earl of Harewood House over slavery past

by Connor Creaghan

| 20 Oct, 2021

The extraordinary moment was captured for a new Channel 5 documentary series 1000 Years A Slave, which aired for the first time last night.

David Harewood in conversation with David Lascelles, the Earl of Harewood.

Actor David Harewood sat down for a difficult conversation with the current Earl of Harewood House, whose family kept his four times grandparents as slaves.

The extraordinary moment was captured for a new Channel 5 documentary series 1000 Years A Slave, which aired for the first time last night.

Harewood House, an 18th century stately home near Harrogate, has been trying to take on the estate's colonial past for more than 25 years.

In the TV programme Mr Harewood travelled to Barbados where he discovered the names of his ancestors, Richard and Betty.

He also discovered that they were slaves on a plantation owned by the Harewood Estate so set up a meeting with David Lascelles, the eighth Earl of Harewood.

The pair looked through the second Earl of Harewood's account of slaves where Mr Harewood's ancestors Richard and Betty were listed.

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David Harewood, who was the star of Homeland and Blood Diamond, told Mr Lascelles:

"So my great-great-great-great grandparents were slaves on your family plantation. This is a fine house on beautiful grounds but it was built on the proceeds of slavery.

"Do you feel any guilt or shame about that?"

In reply Mr Lascelles explained that he does not feel guilty for the actions of his ancestors but added that he is accountable:

"I don't feel that feeling guilty for something that you have no involvement with is a helpful emotion. I think we need to take responsibility for our own actions.

"Although I do feel accountable. There is nothing you can do to change the past but you can be active in the present.

"What I am responsible for is what I try to do about that legacy. To try in a small way to make that a force for good today."

In a statement after the programme aired a spokesperson for Harewood House said:

"The Trust and the Lascelles family have been at the forefront of acknowledging the estate’s colonial past for over 25 years.

"Being transparent about colonial history and ensuring the Trust hosts much-needed, and sometimes difficult conversations is vital to calling out racism, and to forging new connections with visitors and the communities of the cities and countryside around."

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David Harewood confronts Earl of Harewood House over slavery past

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