When historians trace the roots of the transatlantic slave economy, they almost always point to European states, colonial planters, and mercantile networks. What is not widely acknowledged, and yet just as true, is that a major Christian institution played a direct, systemic role in that enterprise. The Anglican Church, through its missionary and administrative arms in the 18th and early 19th centuries, was not just a bystander to Caribbean chattel slavery. It owned plantations, profited from human slavery, shaped theological justification for the system, and even received government compensation when slavery was abolished.
At the centre of this story is the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG). Founded in 1701 as the missionary arm of the Church of England, the SPG’s stated purpose was to evangelize colonial subjects, including Indigenous and African populations in the Americas. Yet in 1710, the society received a transformative gift: two sugar plantations on Barbados bequeathed by Sir Christopher Codrington, including the enslaved Africans who worked them.
Codrington’s bequest stipulated that the plantations, about 700 acres in total, be “continued entire… with three hundred negroes at least kept always thereon”. Instead of dismantling the institution of slavery on these estates, SPG operated them like any other sugar concern, using forced labour to fund missionary work throughout the Caribbean and North America.
Life on these estates was not symbolic but brutally coercive. Archival records show that enslaved Africans were branded with the word “Society” on their chest as an assertion of institutional ownership. Many lived short, harsh lives of relentless labour in the cane fields, carrying cut cane to mills, under constant threat of whipping and harsh punishment. Death by exhaustion, disease, or suicide was tragically common.
Ownership of plantations, however, was only part of the picture. Anglican clergy and associated missionaries helped develop and disseminate theological arguments that justified the entire system of slavery, arguments that later became deeply embedded in plantation society.
Around the same period, Anglican ministers and other Christian bodies were involved in producing versions of the Bible intended for use among enslaved people in the British Caribbean. These editions, sometimes called slave Bibles, omitted passages about freedom and emphasized obedience, submission, and the promise of heavenly reward for earthly suffering. Although not always produced directly by SPG, their circulation was supported by missionary leadership that asserted Christianity’s value in teaching enslaved Africans to be compliant and docile under masters.
This message, that suffering in this world was righteous if it was obedient to earthly authority and that true reward lay in heaven, became part of how Christianity socially controlled enslaved African populations. Religious admonitions such as “obey your masters” and “let your reward be in heaven” were not neutral theology. In the context of plantation slavery, they became tools to enforce a system where enslaved Africans had no earthly independence.
Barbados was not the only colony where Anglican interests were tied to slavery. Across the British Caribbean, many clergymen either directly owned plantations, inherited stakes in estates, or acted as trustees for plantation-based estates. This included holdings in Jamaica, Antigua, and other islands where Anglican churches were established.
In fact, research by University College London shows that nearly 100 Anglican clergy received compensation under the British government’s compensation scheme following abolition, compensation that amounted to what would be tens of millions of pounds in today’s money. The Bishop of Exeter, for instance, was involved in compensation payments tied to over 650 enslaved Africans on Jamaican plantations.
These clergymen were not fringe economic players; many were prominent figures who used their position and connections to consolidate economic interest in slavery even as they preached spiritual ideals.
Queen Anne’s Bounty
Even Anglican wealth that did not come directly from plantation ownership was still woven into the financial systems of slavery and colonial exploitation. Queen Anne’s Bounty, established in 1704 to supplement the income of poorer Anglican clergy, became a key part of the Church of England’s long‑term endowment.
Research by the Church Commissioners, who manage the Church’s investments today, shows that the Bounty’s funds were far from neutral. In the 18th century, it invested heavily in the South Sea Company, a trading corporation that held the British monopoly on transporting enslaved Africans to Spanish America and the Caribbean. Between 1714 and 1739, the company’s main activity was the transatlantic movement and sale of enslaved people under brutal conditions.
Investors in the company, including Queen Anne’s Bounty, therefore derived income from profits generated by the slave trade. The Bounty also received gifts from wealthy donors whose fortunes came from plantations and the slave economy. These funds were used to buy land and support clergy, further linking church finances to slavery.
Abolition and Compensation
When the Slavery Abolition Act was passed in 1833, the British government legally freed enslaved people across most of the British Empire, including the Caribbean colonies. However, rather than compensating those who had been enslaved, the Act created a £20 million fund, roughly 40% of the Treasury’s annual budget, to reimburse slave owners for the “loss of their property”.
Over 40,000 compensation payments were issued to planters, clergy, and institutions that had owned enslaved Africans, including the Anglican Church and its missionary societies.
The SPG’s holdings were part of this scheme. Following emancipation, the society received nearly £9,000 in compensation for the loss of enslaved Africans on the Codrington estates, money that went into its treasury and institutional finances.
This compensation was not restricted to the missionary society. Scores of individual Anglican clergy received payouts for formerly enslaved Africans they or their estates “owned” under British law at the time.
There was no equivalent payment to formerly enslaved Africans or their descendants. Unlike the institutions and individuals whose economic interests were reimbursed, the formerly enslaved were emancipated into poverty and labor systems that often forced them into exploitative apprenticeships for years after abolition.
Modern Reckoning and Institutional Apologies
In the 21st century, the Church of England and affiliated bodies have begun to acknowledge this difficult legacy more publicly. In 2006, the General Synod formally apologised for the institution’s role in slavery. More recently, the Anglican missionary agency now known as United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG) has launched reconciliation initiatives, including reparative projects in Barbados focused on supporting descendants of enslaved people and commemorating their history.
The Church Commissioners, responsible for the Church of England’s investment funds, have also unveiled a £100 million reparative justice fund to support communities affected by historical slavery and colonialism.
The fund, structured as long‑term grants and impact investments, acknowledges the Church’s financial ties to slavery through institutions like Queen Anne’s Bounty.
While the initiative has sparked debate over its purpose, supporters see it as a historic acknowledgment of wrongdoing, and critics have called for the fund to be scrapped, expressing concern that it could set a precedent for other organizations to face similar demands for reparations. Regardless, it represents an unprecedented recognition that the Church operated within one of history’s most violent economic systems, fully entangled in the machinery of slavery.
Sources:
https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2020/26-june/news/uk/clergy-gained-compensation-equivalent-to-46-million-today-at-abolition-of-slavery
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/explore-the-collection/explore-by-time-period/georgians/1833-abolition-of-slavery-act-and-compensation-claims/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/25/revealed-how-church-of-englands-ties-to-chattel-slavery-went-to-top-of-hierarchy
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/04/anglican-church-debt-slavery-barbados-reparations-complicity
https://www.anglicannews.org/news/2024/07/%E2%80%9Cwe-are-deeply-deeply-deeply-sorry%E2%80%9D-archbishop-justin-welby.aspx
https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2025/11-july/news/uk/historians-call-for-church-commissioners-to-scrap-100-million-slavery-justice-fund
