General Chat

with ainsley

They used a submitted IGI entry with no checking - tut tut

Yes it was very good and that will teach all those who think they know it all about being coloured ....he was as shock as some of us out here .....

Wasnt it good that so much was still there for him to see .......

Missed it, Son had England match on, saw the last 10 minutes, hope it is repeated. XX..

That was real cracker!

So did I.

Thought it would be a bit boring with a rant about the "slave trade" but was pleasantly surprised.

his family were all so welcoming
that was lovely

and to see that old house at the end
was a little sad , he should do it up and have it as holiday home

POOR AINSLEY WHAT A NICE PERSO0N HE IS

isnt he

its a shame we never saw him with his family at the end, his kids his wife

yeah i had thought why not he buy that house and do it up nicely himself

realy enjoyed it, fely sorry for him at times

I thoroughly enjoyed the programme. What a journey!

So interesting,yet sad for Ainsley to find out,not only that his ancestors were abused slaves but that on his grandfather's line they were white masters! and sickening to hear of the young boy 'learning' how to buy and sell slaves.

......but would he really want to live in the house that had brought sorrow to others' lives?

It's repeated tomorrow on BBC2, I think, or you can watch it on the BBC iplayer (google it).

I found it very interesting, from one extreme to the other. You just wouldn't know what to feel if you found out that your 3XGGrandmother was a slave but your 2XGGrandfather (and his father) were slave owners, would you? I wonder if it would make him rethink how he thought of Briggs (the 4XGreat Grandfather)? You can feel shame for the things your ancestors did, but at the end of the day, they're as much a part of who we are as the great and good ones are. You could almost imagine how impressive that house must have been once upon a time, quite sad but fitting to see it in the state of disrepair. And just goes to show that those stories (Calcutta connection) that are passed down aren't always right.

I thought it strange that he accepted the overseer had 'had his way' with the female slaves, but couldn't accept that Priscilla (who I believe was a free woman) had 'had it off' with a slave owner.
Wasn't quite sure whether Priscilla was black or white either, they didn't explain the colour gradients in Barbados. Was it the same as in Jamaica or did a white father constituted a white child in Barbados nomatter what colour the mother was?

Summer we arent sure if it is on tomorrow coz I cant find it in the listings and Heather pointed out earlier that the paraolympics is on .......

I think they said that Priscilla was black. She would have been a free woman as it was 20something years after emancipation, so of course by then he wouldn't have been a slave owner. I think the difference is that Briggs (the overseer) would have been doing it for financial incentives, that's a little harder to accept, I think. It's one thing if he's just a bit of a lad, but if he's taking advantage of his position for what money he can get extra from his boss...that's hard to swallow. But, like you say, he's as much an ancestor as the slaver and slave were.

Oh, Kemp, you're right, just checked the advance guide on digi box and it's not. Still, will be available on the iplayer. Great resource, they stay on there for a week.

i got a bit confused with some of it, i dont know how he kept track, but that man who was the slave owner in the begining had same name as the mother of the child, so it seemed like it was the owners daughter at first, but ended up the childs father was working for the man as overseer

Do you think he should have chased up the ownership of all that property? the house at the end, which had been left....they did not make clear if it was still in the hands of the'harriet' family..... he may be entitled to claim it... left to many loose ends for me........

Thanks SS - so Priscilla probably 'did it' willingly - a bit harder to accept.