0:00:02 > 0:00:061,000 of history under one roof.
0:00:06 > 0:00:10The National Archives - a treasure house of secrets.
0:00:11 > 0:00:15The records of extraordinary times and people.
0:00:15 > 0:00:20These files are this nation's story, our shared past.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24Documents housed here were highly classified,
0:00:24 > 0:00:28intended for the eyes of only the privileged few,
0:00:28 > 0:00:31protected from your sight for decades...
0:00:31 > 0:00:33but not now.
0:00:38 > 0:00:44I've been granted special access to files once kept hush-hush.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48I'll unearth amazing tales from our hidden history.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51Forget what you've been told,
0:00:51 > 0:00:54these documents tell the truth.
0:01:06 > 0:01:07Coming up in this programme...
0:01:07 > 0:01:10On trial, the magazine that found itself in the dock
0:01:10 > 0:01:13and the moral campaigner who put it there.
0:01:14 > 0:01:16Last Thursday evening, we sat as a family
0:01:16 > 0:01:20and we saw a programme that was the dirtiest programme
0:01:20 > 0:01:23that I have seen for a very long time.
0:01:23 > 0:01:25Psychic or fraudster?
0:01:25 > 0:01:29The last woman to be jailed under the witchcraft laws.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31People came forward and said that
0:01:31 > 0:01:33they had shaken hands with the spirits
0:01:33 > 0:01:36and described exactly what they had seen.
0:01:36 > 0:01:39It was quite extraordinary and, in a way, impressive.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42And the Church of England's shameful secret,
0:01:42 > 0:01:45the files that reveal its role in slavery.
0:01:47 > 0:01:51These pages bear the musty smell of their 200 years
0:01:51 > 0:01:54and, also, the stench of hypocrisy.
0:01:59 > 0:02:03In matters of the law, one question has been asked
0:02:03 > 0:02:05since biblical times -
0:02:05 > 0:02:08does God need our protection?
0:02:08 > 0:02:12Do I have the right to be offensive about your religion?
0:02:12 > 0:02:15During most of our history, laws forbade blasphemy.
0:02:15 > 0:02:17But, as our society became more secular,
0:02:17 > 0:02:19most of those fell by the wayside.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23So, it seemed astonishing and anachronistic
0:02:23 > 0:02:26when the veteran campaigner Mrs Mary Whitehouse
0:02:26 > 0:02:28brought a private prosecution
0:02:28 > 0:02:31for the common law offence of blasphemous libel
0:02:31 > 0:02:37against the magazine Gay News for a poem that it published in 1976.
0:02:39 > 0:02:44# It's fun to stay at the YMCA, it's fun to stay at... #
0:02:44 > 0:02:47Mrs Whitehouse made a formidable enemy.
0:02:47 > 0:02:49The teacher from Warwickshire
0:02:49 > 0:02:51had come to prominence a decade earlier
0:02:51 > 0:02:54with her moral crusade against the BBC,
0:02:54 > 0:02:56which she accused of broadcasting filth.
0:02:56 > 0:03:01Her Clean Up TV petition attracted half a million signatures.
0:03:02 > 0:03:06We recognise that the period between six and 9:15
0:03:06 > 0:03:08is a period for family viewing.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11Well, I think we're being palmed off.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13Because, last Thursday evening,
0:03:13 > 0:03:18we sat as a family and we saw a programme that started at 6:35
0:03:18 > 0:03:21and it was the dirtiest programme
0:03:21 > 0:03:24that I have seen for a very long time.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28But the founder of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association
0:03:28 > 0:03:31had concerns beyond broadcasting standards,
0:03:31 > 0:03:34including the fall in religious observance.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37All of them, I think, are objecting to the blasphemy.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40The reason why God and the Virgin Mary hadn't had any more children,
0:03:40 > 0:03:43except Jesus Christ, was perhaps because they were on the pill.
0:03:43 > 0:03:47And there was the rise of the so-called permissive society.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50As a teacher responsible for sex education,
0:03:50 > 0:03:54I had it laid upon me to give children sex education
0:03:54 > 0:03:58based on chastity before marriage and fidelity within it.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02But this poem outraged her most.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05It also presented her with her greatest challenge...
0:04:05 > 0:04:08to defend God in a court of law.
0:04:09 > 0:04:14It was called The Love That Dares To Speak Its Name.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18It is an erotic fantasy about a gay centurion,
0:04:18 > 0:04:21who takes Christ's body down from the cross
0:04:21 > 0:04:24and it's about what he does with the body next,
0:04:24 > 0:04:28and it is accompanied by an illustration.
0:04:29 > 0:04:34Even by 21st century standards, it is pretty strong stuff.
0:04:35 > 0:04:37So strong that, even today,
0:04:37 > 0:04:39I couldn't read it on television.
0:04:39 > 0:04:43But, back in 1977, Mary Whitehouse wanted to go further
0:04:43 > 0:04:45than merely getting it banned.
0:04:45 > 0:04:49She launched a private prosecution against Gay News
0:04:49 > 0:04:51for blasphemous libel.
0:04:51 > 0:04:56It would be the first trial of its kind for 50 years.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00In his summing up, the judge laid out the terms of the debate.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04"There are some who may think that permissiveness has gone far enough
0:05:04 > 0:05:08"and that this poem has gone beyond what is permissive.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12"There are others who may think that there should be no limit whatsoever
0:05:12 > 0:05:14"to what may be published."
0:05:14 > 0:05:16The trial lasted six days.
0:05:16 > 0:05:21Inside, high-profile witnesses gave evidence for the defence
0:05:21 > 0:05:25and outside, there were protests from both sides.
0:05:25 > 0:05:26Press freedom!
0:05:26 > 0:05:28Please take a copy of the offending poem
0:05:28 > 0:05:30for why the Gay News is in court!
0:05:30 > 0:05:33You have blasphemed my Lord Jesus Christ in that court! You have!
0:05:35 > 0:05:37The decision was for the jury...
0:05:39 > 0:05:43..but the judge made it pretty clear on which side he came down,
0:05:43 > 0:05:45as the documents reveal...
0:05:45 > 0:05:48"If you were asked to read it aloud to an audience of fellow Christians,
0:05:48 > 0:05:49"would you do it?
0:05:49 > 0:05:54"And if you did, could you do it without blushing?"
0:05:55 > 0:05:58Well, perhaps not surprisingly with a summing up like that,
0:05:58 > 0:06:01the prosecution was successful.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05The editor Denis Lemon and Gay News were found guilty
0:06:05 > 0:06:09and Lemon was given a nine-month prison sentence,
0:06:09 > 0:06:10suspended for 18 months.
0:06:12 > 0:06:14Mary Whitehouse viewed this verdict
0:06:14 > 0:06:18as a watershed victory for Christian values.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20After the trial, she declared,
0:06:20 > 0:06:23"I'm rejoicing because I saw the possibility
0:06:23 > 0:06:25"of Our Lord being vilified.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28"Now it's been shown that it won't be."
0:06:28 > 0:06:31For those on the other side, it was a clear defeat.
0:06:31 > 0:06:36Gay News was a rallying point for a community that, in the 1970s,
0:06:36 > 0:06:38was still marginalised.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41Among them was a young man,
0:06:41 > 0:06:45who'd become, first, a keyboardist in the band The Communards
0:06:45 > 0:06:48and later a Church of England vicar.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50# I can't survive
0:06:50 > 0:06:55# I can't stay alive without your love, no, baby... #
0:06:55 > 0:06:58My first contact with the gay scene,
0:06:58 > 0:07:02I was a 16-year-old gay teenager in Stratford-upon-Avon.
0:07:02 > 0:07:04As you can imagine, the opportunities to range widely
0:07:04 > 0:07:06across gay culture were rather limited.
0:07:06 > 0:07:08But I could get Gay News - and I did.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11It used to arrive in a plain, brown envelope at my digs
0:07:11 > 0:07:14and I would read it and follow the trial there.
0:07:14 > 0:07:16And so, Gay News was my sort of point of contact
0:07:16 > 0:07:19with a wider community of people, where it wasn't simply about sex,
0:07:19 > 0:07:23often sex obtained by slightly unattractive means,
0:07:23 > 0:07:25it was about a community of people with a set of beliefs,
0:07:25 > 0:07:29who had a certain investment in an idea of personal freedom
0:07:29 > 0:07:32and a vision of a society that would be, in some ways, liberated.
0:07:32 > 0:07:34Part of a wider programme, you know,
0:07:34 > 0:07:37to do with sexual equality, racial equality and so on.
0:07:37 > 0:07:39And so...that was something I rallied to.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56As a leading figure in the Nationwide Festival of Light group,
0:07:56 > 0:08:01Mary Whitehouse held mass gatherings in Hyde Park and Trafalgar Square...
0:08:02 > 0:08:05..always capable of making a rousing speech.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10The whole world has a problem of moral pollution
0:08:10 > 0:08:13and, once again, Britain has the chance today
0:08:13 > 0:08:16to give leadership to the whole world.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20Often her addresses focused on the rise of the gay movement
0:08:20 > 0:08:23but, despite enjoying obvious support,
0:08:23 > 0:08:25she didn't speak for all Christians.
0:08:26 > 0:08:31I think she gave voice to a particularly poisonous and nasty
0:08:31 > 0:08:34and also illegitimate set of beliefs,
0:08:34 > 0:08:37a sort of set of prejudices against gay people, in particular,
0:08:37 > 0:08:39which I found very objectionable
0:08:39 > 0:08:42and something worth fighting against.
0:08:42 > 0:08:44So, I think Mary Whitehouse was a sort of figurehead
0:08:44 > 0:08:48for a set of feelings and beliefs and opinions,
0:08:48 > 0:08:51and also ways of intervening in the public's fear,
0:08:51 > 0:08:55that represented a challenge to people like me.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59The judge at one point says that the jury should, as one of their tests,
0:08:59 > 0:09:02think about whether they'd be willing to read it aloud
0:09:02 > 0:09:03to a Christian audience.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07If they did read it aloud, could they do so without blushing?
0:09:07 > 0:09:09Did that strike you as a reasonable summing up
0:09:09 > 0:09:11on the charge of blasphemous libel?
0:09:11 > 0:09:13I'm just trying to imagine reading it
0:09:13 > 0:09:15to my mother's union meeting on a Thursday afternoon!
0:09:15 > 0:09:17I don't think they're quite ready for that,
0:09:17 > 0:09:19although they are, in fact, more broad-minded
0:09:19 > 0:09:20than I give them credit for.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23But it's a different sort of thing. I think anything can be said...
0:09:23 > 0:09:25We may need to brace ourselves to hear it.
0:09:25 > 0:09:26It may be something we don't want to hear
0:09:26 > 0:09:28and it may, indeed, outrage us fundamentally,
0:09:28 > 0:09:31but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be said and shouldn't be heard.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35Mary Whitehouse won a battle but not a war.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40The crime of blasphemous libel has been abolished.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45People marched to defend the right to give offence.
0:09:49 > 0:09:52But, as a campaigner, she earned a place in history.
0:09:53 > 0:09:55It was an era of powerful figures
0:09:55 > 0:09:57and Mary Whitehouse was such a figure, I think.
0:09:57 > 0:09:59In a way, she wasn't that dissimilar
0:09:59 > 0:10:01to Margaret Thatcher in the political world.
0:10:01 > 0:10:03She was this kind of iron lady, if you like,
0:10:03 > 0:10:06and she was someone against whom we could rail
0:10:06 > 0:10:10and against whom we could direct our vituperation and our anger.
0:10:10 > 0:10:12And, having said that now,
0:10:12 > 0:10:15I always thought there was a certain pathos to her, too,
0:10:15 > 0:10:19and that feeling of pathos increased as history went its way.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33For centuries, kings and queens in the British Isles
0:10:33 > 0:10:37asserted that they derived their authority from God.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39So, those who practised witchcraft
0:10:39 > 0:10:43could be seen as not only heretical, but also subversive,
0:10:43 > 0:10:46guilty of a capital offence.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49On occasion, fear of what they could do
0:10:49 > 0:10:53would provoke a mass routing out or witch hunt.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00Laws against witches...
0:11:00 > 0:11:03That sounds like a throwback to our primitive past.
0:11:05 > 0:11:09But here, in the archives, I've a document that raises a question
0:11:09 > 0:11:11with a surprising answer.
0:11:12 > 0:11:17When was a woman last imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act of 1735?
0:11:18 > 0:11:21In the 18th century? In the 19th century?
0:11:21 > 0:11:23I was astonished to learn from these files
0:11:23 > 0:11:25that it was during the Second World War.
0:11:28 > 0:11:30Her name was Helen Duncan
0:11:30 > 0:11:33and she was known for a rather unusual talent,
0:11:33 > 0:11:36to produce ectoplasm from her mouth.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42Some observers thought it took the form of dead loved ones.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45Others were merely reminded of a white sheet.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50Like many other mediums, she travelled the country,
0:11:50 > 0:11:53holding seances and claiming to talk to the dead.
0:11:56 > 0:11:58But, during the Second World War,
0:11:58 > 0:12:01her supposed skill to see what others couldn't
0:12:01 > 0:12:04brought her into conflict with the state.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15In 1941, Helen Duncan held a seance in Portsmouth.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19Here, she conjured the spirit of a dead sailor,
0:12:19 > 0:12:23who had, apparently, served on the battleship HMS Barham,
0:12:23 > 0:12:26which had been sunk by a German U-boat.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31But news of that sinking was, at that point,
0:12:31 > 0:12:33still a highly classified state secret,
0:12:33 > 0:12:37not to be released for fear of damaging British morale.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51The authorities were alarmed and took action to silence her.
0:12:54 > 0:12:56She was arrested during one of her seances
0:12:56 > 0:13:00by Royal Naval volunteer reservists.
0:13:00 > 0:13:02One of them here, Stanley Raymond Worth,
0:13:02 > 0:13:04he says that,
0:13:04 > 0:13:08"Another reservist, Cross, gave the chair in front of him
0:13:08 > 0:13:11"a violent push forward and leapt forward.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14"I switched on my torch and illuminated the scene.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17"I saw him grasping the prisoner,
0:13:17 > 0:13:21"who seemed to be trying to get rid of a piece of white material,
0:13:21 > 0:13:23"which she was pushing away from her,
0:13:23 > 0:13:24"but it fell to the floor."
0:13:25 > 0:13:29"The seances were conducted with a dim, red light.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31"But almost immediately,
0:13:31 > 0:13:34"the white bulb was replaced by a member of the audience,
0:13:34 > 0:13:35"which illuminated the room.
0:13:35 > 0:13:39"When the light came on, Cross said to me,
0:13:39 > 0:13:40"'Did you get the sheet?'
0:13:40 > 0:13:44"I replied, 'No. It's gone into the audience.'
0:13:44 > 0:13:48"Mrs Duncan said, 'Of course it's gone. It had to go somewhere.'
0:13:48 > 0:13:52"At no time did she deny that it was a sheet."
0:13:53 > 0:13:57And so, maybe in an attempt to shut her up,
0:13:57 > 0:14:01she was taken to the Old Bailey and tried for witchcraft.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06The authorities had considered charging her with vagrancy
0:14:06 > 0:14:10but, fearful that she might blurt out other military secrets,
0:14:10 > 0:14:13they sought a way of putting her in prison.
0:14:14 > 0:14:18Better to use the Witchcraft Act of 1735,
0:14:18 > 0:14:21which provided for custodial sentences
0:14:21 > 0:14:25against those who fraudulently claimed to have witches' powers.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29It's a paradox that she had to be shut up
0:14:29 > 0:14:32for fear that she could sense national secrets,
0:14:32 > 0:14:35but was tried as an obvious fraud.
0:14:36 > 0:14:41It was a circus, which privately appalled even Winston Churchill.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45The sensational trial came to the attention of the Prime Minister,
0:14:45 > 0:14:48who was moved to write a minute...
0:14:49 > 0:14:52"What was the cost of this trial to the state?
0:14:52 > 0:14:55"Observing that witnesses were bought from Portsmouth
0:14:55 > 0:14:59"and maintained here in this crowded London for a fortnight
0:14:59 > 0:15:05"and the recorder kept busy with all this obsolete tomfoolery
0:15:05 > 0:15:08"to the detriment of necessary work in the courts."
0:15:08 > 0:15:12Signed WSC, Winston Churchill.
0:15:19 > 0:15:23The trial took place over 70 years ago,
0:15:23 > 0:15:26but I've found someone who witnessed it.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32Professor Donald West was a young psychic researcher,
0:15:32 > 0:15:35who attended the courtroom day after day.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42Did you attend with any preconception
0:15:42 > 0:15:44as to whether Helen Duncan
0:15:44 > 0:15:47was genuinely possessed of spiritual powers
0:15:47 > 0:15:49or whether, perhaps, she was a fraud?
0:15:49 > 0:15:51Well, at that time, erm...
0:15:52 > 0:15:54..I had no really fixed opinion.
0:15:54 > 0:15:58Certainly, listening to all those people who came forward
0:15:58 > 0:16:01and said that they had shaken hands with the spirits
0:16:01 > 0:16:04and described exactly what they had seen and so forth,
0:16:04 > 0:16:08it was quite extraordinary and, in a way, impressive.
0:16:08 > 0:16:10Do you have a memory, an image in your mind
0:16:10 > 0:16:13of Helen Duncan, the defendant, appearing in the dock?
0:16:14 > 0:16:16Oh, yes.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19She was certainly not a pretty woman -
0:16:19 > 0:16:21plump and very dour-looking -
0:16:21 > 0:16:23and that's about it, I think.
0:16:23 > 0:16:25And, of course...
0:16:26 > 0:16:27..she didn't give evidence,
0:16:27 > 0:16:31so one didn't hear her arguing the case.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35Despite a string of witnesses saying that Helen Duncan was genuine,
0:16:35 > 0:16:39the jury found her guilty of fraud under the Witchcraft Act.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42Her sentence - nine months in jail.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48Did you have a feeling about the verdict and the sentence?
0:16:48 > 0:16:50Did it cause any emotion in you?
0:16:50 > 0:16:52I was, really, at the time...
0:16:52 > 0:16:56I didn't quite know what the jury would decide.
0:16:56 > 0:17:00It wasn't surprising but...
0:17:00 > 0:17:02you know, if it had gone the other way,
0:17:02 > 0:17:04in view of all those witnesses,
0:17:04 > 0:17:06I wouldn't have been surprised, either.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09But now, of course, I can see that
0:17:09 > 0:17:13the jury naturally believed the policeman,
0:17:13 > 0:17:17rather than all these crazy people who described impossible things.
0:17:17 > 0:17:21And is it your conclusion, then, that people were so deceived?
0:17:21 > 0:17:23Oh, I'm sure of that, yes.
0:17:23 > 0:17:25And I am also sure that...
0:17:26 > 0:17:30..Mrs Duncan did commit many frauds.
0:17:31 > 0:17:35So, Helen Duncan was legally determined to be a trickster
0:17:35 > 0:17:40and imprisoned at a time when keeping secrets was vital to winning the war.
0:17:42 > 0:17:46And yet, a big question remains...
0:17:46 > 0:17:47if she was a fraud,
0:17:47 > 0:17:52how did she know about the secret of HMS Barham sinking?
0:17:58 > 0:18:03An historian of witchcraft may provide an un-mystical answer.
0:18:03 > 0:18:08She arouses suspicion because she mentions the fate of HMS Barham,
0:18:08 > 0:18:11a battleship that has been sunk, but that is a secret.
0:18:11 > 0:18:13How on earth could she have known?
0:18:13 > 0:18:16Well, the Spiritualist movement sometimes say that
0:18:16 > 0:18:18the only way she could have possibly known,
0:18:18 > 0:18:20because it was a secret, the only way she could have known
0:18:20 > 0:18:23is because she had contacted the spirits of the dead.
0:18:23 > 0:18:25Well, who knows?
0:18:25 > 0:18:27But there is a more prosaic story behind it,
0:18:27 > 0:18:31which is that the government did actually inform the families
0:18:31 > 0:18:34of those who had died on the Barham that it had gone down,
0:18:34 > 0:18:36but they were told not to say anything.
0:18:36 > 0:18:37Well, this is a Portsmouth ship
0:18:37 > 0:18:41and we're talking about nearly 900 men, that's 900 families,
0:18:41 > 0:18:44say ten people in a family and their friends
0:18:44 > 0:18:45and you multiply it up.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48It's plausible that, maybe, almost immediately,
0:18:48 > 0:18:5120 to 30,000 people in England knew that Barham had been sunk.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54So, given that Helen Duncan is a sensitive medium,
0:18:54 > 0:18:59by which I mean she's listening out for information all around her,
0:18:59 > 0:19:00she's in Portsmouth at that time,
0:19:00 > 0:19:04I think it starts to seem quite, not just plausible, but even likely
0:19:04 > 0:19:07that she would have heard that the Barham had been sunk.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11The date of Mrs Duncan's arrest is significant...
0:19:11 > 0:19:131944 -
0:19:13 > 0:19:16the year in which the D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France
0:19:16 > 0:19:18would be launched.
0:19:18 > 0:19:19When the motto was -
0:19:19 > 0:19:21"Loose lips might sink ships."
0:19:23 > 0:19:25Do you think that plays a part in Helen Duncan's fate?
0:19:25 > 0:19:27I think it does.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31Obviously, this is a matter of intense sensitivity,
0:19:31 > 0:19:34the greatest seaborne invasion in the history of the world
0:19:34 > 0:19:38and, obviously, the turning point in the war to open up the second front.
0:19:38 > 0:19:39So...
0:19:39 > 0:19:42But around this planning for D-Day,
0:19:42 > 0:19:48inevitably, there is going to be intelligence work that might be,
0:19:48 > 0:19:50you know, very high-level against German spies
0:19:50 > 0:19:51but also low-level, too,
0:19:51 > 0:19:54and just against people who were shooting their mouths off.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57- And she's an intelligent woman with extraordinary antennae.- Yeah.
0:19:57 > 0:19:59She's a blotting paper that absorbs information
0:19:59 > 0:20:02and she's wandering around the South of England,
0:20:02 > 0:20:05- which is where most of the activity is.- I think that's it in a nutshell.
0:20:08 > 0:20:13Mrs Duncan was the last woman to be imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18In 1951, Churchill's government made sure
0:20:18 > 0:20:20that there would be no more "tomfoolery"
0:20:20 > 0:20:22when it repealed the laws.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26And in 1956,
0:20:26 > 0:20:29Helen Duncan passed over to the other side.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42The courts of law give us the chance to judge innocence and guilt.
0:20:43 > 0:20:47But is guilt reduced or removed by the passage of time?
0:20:48 > 0:20:51That's the question raised by our next document.
0:20:57 > 0:21:00For more than 300 years,
0:21:00 > 0:21:03European merchants forced Africans onto slave ships
0:21:03 > 0:21:07and transported them across the Atlantic Ocean,
0:21:07 > 0:21:10and Britain played a huge part in this human trade.
0:21:11 > 0:21:13British ships carried around three million slaves
0:21:13 > 0:21:16to America and the Caribbean
0:21:16 > 0:21:18where they worked on plantations,
0:21:18 > 0:21:21helping to build the wealth of the city of London.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27The trade made many organisations rich
0:21:27 > 0:21:29and I've discovered in the archives
0:21:29 > 0:21:33that that includes a very surprising name.
0:21:33 > 0:21:38"God Almighty has set before me the abolition of the slave trade."
0:21:39 > 0:21:41So wrote the great reformer William Wilberforce.
0:21:41 > 0:21:43And yet, during the 18th century,
0:21:43 > 0:21:47there were slaves in the Caribbean who bore, branded on their chest,
0:21:47 > 0:21:49the word "society".
0:21:49 > 0:21:54This 1817 register of slaves in Barbados
0:21:54 > 0:21:57reveals that society means
0:21:57 > 0:21:59the honourable and reverent
0:21:59 > 0:22:03Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts -
0:22:03 > 0:22:07the missionary arm of the Church of England -
0:22:07 > 0:22:13and here is that society listed as owning some 400 slaves.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17HYMN: All People That On Earth Do Dwell
0:22:21 > 0:22:27Listed here, then, is every man, woman and child owned by the society.
0:22:28 > 0:22:32We see that their ages range very considerably.
0:22:32 > 0:22:39Kudjoe is 70 years old and he's working as a domestic.
0:22:39 > 0:22:43It seems that Ben George can be set to work as a grass gatherer,
0:22:43 > 0:22:46even though he's only ten years old.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51Some slaves are still alive at a very grand age.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54Here's Rita, who's 90 years old.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57She's infirm. She's no longer working.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01But, on the other hand, Orkoa and Quasheba,
0:23:01 > 0:23:03who are both 80 years old,
0:23:03 > 0:23:06are both still working as nurses.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11The documents don't reveal the conditions
0:23:11 > 0:23:13that some of the slaves would have endured.
0:23:14 > 0:23:1712-hour working days in intense heat.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21Punishments, such as the lash, or being put in leg irons.
0:23:23 > 0:23:25For the slave owners, like the church,
0:23:25 > 0:23:28it was the profit of the plantation that mattered.
0:23:30 > 0:23:35These pages bear the musty smell of their 200 years...
0:23:36 > 0:23:38..and, also, the stench of hypocrisy.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43MUSIC: Djembe by Salif Keita
0:23:45 > 0:23:49Today, we can still see the wealth in our capital
0:23:49 > 0:23:52constructed on the foundations of slavery.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57The Corporation of London had its seat in the magnificent Guildhall.
0:23:58 > 0:24:03Sir William Beckford made a fortune from slave plantations in Jamaica
0:24:03 > 0:24:05and was twice Lord Mayor.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13Robert Beckford's ancestors worked under him.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17Robert, what do you know of your own slave origins within your family?
0:24:17 > 0:24:23The name was given as a brand to slaves on the west of the island,
0:24:23 > 0:24:24where the Beckford family,
0:24:24 > 0:24:26who were a slave-owning family based in England,
0:24:26 > 0:24:28had most of their slaves.
0:24:28 > 0:24:30So, although my name is Robert Beckford,
0:24:30 > 0:24:32my real name would be an African name.
0:24:32 > 0:24:34So, Beckford is, in essence, a slave name.
0:24:39 > 0:24:41William Beckford, the Lord Mayor,
0:24:41 > 0:24:44might have been focused on profit,
0:24:44 > 0:24:48but the church added a moral purpose to slavery.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52They recognised that slavery is problematic,
0:24:52 > 0:24:55but they also recognised that these slaves,
0:24:55 > 0:24:57the Africans come from this dark continent,
0:24:57 > 0:24:59and therefore they need to be civilised.
0:24:59 > 0:25:01And slavery, while not perfect,
0:25:01 > 0:25:06provides an opportunity for bringing Africans into the body of humanity.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08Does the Church of England
0:25:08 > 0:25:11succeed with this mission of civilising the slaves?
0:25:11 > 0:25:13It's a complete failure.
0:25:13 > 0:25:15They failed to convert the numbers that they'd hoped to,
0:25:15 > 0:25:20partly because Christianity provides a point of resistance for slaves.
0:25:20 > 0:25:21How do you resist this terror?
0:25:21 > 0:25:24Well, you refuse to take on their religion.
0:25:24 > 0:25:28They'd brand slaves with hot irons as a sign of ownership
0:25:28 > 0:25:29and they flogged them to death,
0:25:29 > 0:25:32and they also sell them off when they can't work any more.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36So they don't treat them any better than slaves on any other plantation?
0:25:36 > 0:25:38That's what the historical documents suggest,
0:25:38 > 0:25:39that the Church of England plantation
0:25:39 > 0:25:42is no different to any other plantation.
0:25:42 > 0:25:44# Glory, glory
0:25:44 > 0:25:47# Hallelujah
0:25:47 > 0:25:51# When I lay my burden down... #
0:25:51 > 0:25:55The international slave trade was abolished in 1807...
0:25:57 > 0:25:59..but it wasn't until 1833
0:25:59 > 0:26:03that parliament outlawed slavery as an institution.
0:26:07 > 0:26:09Compensation was paid,
0:26:09 > 0:26:11not to the slaves
0:26:11 > 0:26:13but to their owners.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16Documents show that for freeing its slaves,
0:26:16 > 0:26:19the church received nearly £9,000,
0:26:19 > 0:26:21a fortune at that time.
0:26:21 > 0:26:23We have, in Britain today,
0:26:23 > 0:26:27a history of churches, of church buildings
0:26:27 > 0:26:29that are built on the blood and sweat
0:26:29 > 0:26:32and brutalisation of Africans.
0:26:32 > 0:26:34It's irreconcilable, I would think,
0:26:34 > 0:26:36with the heart of the Christian gospel,
0:26:36 > 0:26:38a gospel of freedom and justice.
0:26:38 > 0:26:43# Old pirates, yes, they rob I
0:26:43 > 0:26:46# Sold I to the merchant ships... #
0:26:48 > 0:26:52In 2006, the then Archbishop of Canterbury
0:26:52 > 0:26:55apologised for the Church of England's role...
0:26:57 > 0:27:02..but neither it nor the state has met calls to pay reparations.
0:27:04 > 0:27:06How do we compensate fully for this past?
0:27:06 > 0:27:08The argument is this.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11Britain benefited historically, structurally, economically
0:27:11 > 0:27:12from the slave trade
0:27:12 > 0:27:14and many of the benefits are still with us,
0:27:14 > 0:27:17in terms of the enrichment of the economy.
0:27:17 > 0:27:19Caribbean nations and Caribbean people
0:27:19 > 0:27:21were net losers from slavery,
0:27:21 > 0:27:23so they now feel they should be compensated.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27The Reparations Movement is not only about financial compensation,
0:27:27 > 0:27:30it's also about a psycho-social healing.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33The brutality and injustice of slavery
0:27:33 > 0:27:37and the idea of white racial supremacy that underpinned it
0:27:37 > 0:27:39are now hard to understand.
0:27:39 > 0:27:41Whether this generation
0:27:41 > 0:27:45is bound to pay recompense for past abuses is hotly debated.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49# Redemption songs, all I ever have... #
0:27:50 > 0:27:53Its historic actions clearly weigh
0:27:53 > 0:27:55on the conscience of the Church of England.
0:27:55 > 0:27:57# These songs of freedom... #
0:27:57 > 0:27:59In the documents that I've studied today,
0:27:59 > 0:28:03I was struck by Winston Churchill's exasperation
0:28:03 > 0:28:10that Helen Duncan was imprisoned under a witchcraft law 200 years old.
0:28:10 > 0:28:15Gay News magazine was, doubtless, astonished to be convicted in 1977
0:28:15 > 0:28:19of the ancient offence of blasphemous libel.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23It's nearly two centuries since the Church of England owned slaves,
0:28:23 > 0:28:26but some campaigners would argue
0:28:26 > 0:28:28that the passage of time is irrelevant
0:28:28 > 0:28:33and that the former colonial powers should be atoning today
0:28:33 > 0:28:36for the racist crimes of yesteryear.