To: The UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The National Archives (UK)
Uncover the Truth: Release Every Trans‑Atlantic Slave Trade Record to the Public
A legally binding directive from the UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport ordering The National Archives to release, digitise, and publish all surviving Trans‑Atlantic Slave Trade records.
Why is this important?
The Humanitarian Story:
I grew up watching people carry burdens they did not create.
From childhood, I saw the poor, the overlooked, and the unprotected suffer indignity — not because of who they were, but because of the systems built around them. Those early experiences shaped me. They taught me that injustice is never abstract. It lives in bodies, in families, in communities, in silence.
I grew up watching people carry burdens they did not create.
From childhood, I saw the poor, the overlooked, and the unprotected suffer indignity — not because of who they were, but because of the systems built around them. Those early experiences shaped me. They taught me that injustice is never abstract. It lives in bodies, in families, in communities, in silence.
The Trans‑Atlantic Slave Trade is the deepest silence of all.
Millions of people were taken, traded, insured, shipped, worked, punished, and killed — and yet the world still does not hold the full record of what happened to them. Their names, their origins, their deaths, their stories remain scattered, hidden, or locked away in archives. Entire families across Africa, the Caribbean, and the diaspora still cannot trace their ancestors. Entire nations still live with the consequences of a history that has never been fully told.
I have spent my life trying to understand why society keeps repeating the same patterns of inequality, extraction, and dehumanisation. And the truth is simple:
When you hide the past, you protect the systems that grew from it.
When you hide the past, you protect the systems that grew from it.
This petition is not about blame. It is about dignity.
It is about the right of every human being to know the truth of their own history.
It is about the right of descendants to reclaim what was taken — not wealth, but identity. It is about the right of the world to understand how deeply the slave trade shaped our modern systems, economies, and inequalities.
It is about the right of descendants to reclaim what was taken — not wealth, but identity. It is about the right of the world to understand how deeply the slave trade shaped our modern systems, economies, and inequalities.
If we do not open these records, the silence continues.
If we do not open these records, the descendants remain cut off from their own story. If we do not open these records, the world keeps pretending that the past is “too complicated” to face.
If we do not open these records, the descendants remain cut off from their own story. If we do not open these records, the world keeps pretending that the past is “too complicated” to face.
I believe in a humanitarian future — one built on truth, transparency, and human dignity. Releasing these records is the first step.
It is the moment where we stop looking away and start looking honestly.
It is the moment where we stop looking away and start looking honestly.
This matters to me because I have seen what happens when people are denied their history. And I refuse to let that continue.
