Drax Hall, Barbados

That this House acknowledges discussions around the ownership of Drax Hall Estate, a sugarcane plantation in St George, Barbados; notes that the Drax family generated large sums of wealth from the Drax Hall slave plantation, the family were financially compensated for the loss of 189 slaves during the abolition of slavery, and that the plantation is still used to harvest sugar and is estimated to be worth £4.7 million; is aware that Sir James Drax is attributed as being one of the first slave owners to convert from using indentured labour, where the worker can be freed once their debts have been paid, to enslaved labour, where the worker has no rights and may never go free; is saddened that, over 200 years, 30,000 slaves are estimated to have died at the Drax Hall plantation in Barbados and other Drax plantations across the Caribbean; and supports the Barbados Government in their endeavour to have ownership of Drax Hall returned to Barbados.