1. Thread: Nottingham university slavery report. Times article below demonstrates why we have impoverished debates about UK slavery history. Like the coverage of the @nationaltrust report, this article actively discourages serious engagement with research findings. 
2. First, the starting point is not "what can we learn from the report"? Instead, the lens being used is one of guilt and shame, so the discussion seems to be framed by unnecessary reputation management by one powerful family, the Dukes of Portland, mentioned in the report.
3. The article states that the family says the report raises "ethical" concerns, not about slavery history itself, but about holding the "descendants accountable for the actions of their ancestors". Note - the report does not do this. It just details the archival research.
4. Then comes an apparent tactic used with the National Trust report. Discredit it. Or try to. The family accuses the university of "reverse engineering" history, foregrounding abolition as though that cancels out real-world legacies & long term gains for slave-owning families.
4b. Note that the report was peer reviewed by leading international scholars of transatlantic slavery. You'd never know that from the tone of this article.
5. Then lawyers are mentioned, with ref. to ensuring the report is "accurate, fair & balanced". Lawyers, for a report by a Russell Gp uni, peer reviewed by leading international experts in the field? So *whose* "essential principles of truth & dialogue" are being compromised?
6. Report findings:
Benefactors of Nottingham’s unis have varied historic connections to the transatlantic slave economy - ownership of enslaved African people, manufacture of cash crops cultivated by enslaved Africans, governorship of British W. Indian colonies in C18th & 19th
Benefactors of Nottingham’s unis have varied historic connections to the transatlantic slave economy - ownership of enslaved African people, manufacture of cash crops cultivated by enslaved Africans, governorship of British W. Indian colonies in C18th & 19th
7. Four of Nottingham’s most prominent industries - textiles, tobacco, banking, and pharmaceuticals - have historical ties to the transatlantic slave economy, with numerous benefactors in each sector providing gifts which benefitted Nottingham’s universities
8. 36%-44% of total donations made by 8 patrons w/historic links to slavery economy - Jesse Boot & Boots Pharmacy; John Player & Sons; Bentinck & Cavendish-Bentincks; Barclays, Lloyds & Midland banks; Nat. Provincial Bank; Ths. Adams Limited, George Brettle & Co; & I & R Morley
9. 43% of the private donations made to UCN’s 1928 endowment campaign derived from the textile, tobacco and banking sectors.
26% of the private donations made to the University of Nottingham’s 1949-50 endowment campaign were from the textile, banking and tobacco sectors.
26% of the private donations made to the University of Nottingham’s 1949-50 endowment campaign were from the textile, banking and tobacco sectors.
10. A number of locations are named after benefactors with links to the transatlantic slave economy, including Portland Building, Portland Hill Road, Trent Building, and the Bentinck Room.
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