Revealed: The father of modern Edinburgh and his role in the slave trade
City institutions urged to address celebrated Lord Provost's links to "evil" of slavery
There is a marble bust in the entrance hall of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.
If you have lived in the Capital for any length of time, you have probably walked past it more than once. It sits in a glass case on a stone plinth, but most people visiting a hospital are too busy or preoccupied to give it a second glance.
It is of George Drummond, a six-times Lord Provost of Edinburgh and one of the most significant figures in the Capital’s history. A bold and visionary civic leader, perhaps he did more than any other individual to shape the city we know today.
Not only was he instrumental in establishing the first Royal Infirmary to tend to the city’s “sick poor”, he was the driving force behind the construction of the New Town and a key figure in the growth of the University of Edinburgh, establishing five chairs of medicine.
He is also the deal broker who helped secure ownership of 39 enslaved people and the Jamaican plantation on which they were forced to work for the Royal Infirmary, and subsequently played a key role in dealing with the plantation.
The fledgling hospital would profit from the labours of these slaves and their descendants for 143 years, collecting the modern equivalent of around £39 million in income from the estate and gifts from its former owner.
Drummond’s key role in this shameful history has been uncovered by research into the hospital’s links to slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries carried out for the NHS Lothian Charity. The findings are forcing a reassessment of one of Edinburgh’s most feted civic leaders which has ramifications for many of the city’s major institutions.
An “uncomfortable” legacy
Not surprisingly for a man who had such an impact on the city’s life, Drummond and his achievements are marked in countless ways across the Capital. At least two streets are named after him - Drummond Place in the New Town and Drummond Street by the original Infirmary site - and the bust at the Royal Infirmary is far from the only celebratory portrait.
The health board is taking steps to deal with the “uncomfortable” legacy of the bust and a painted portrait as part of wider work to address its historic links to slavery. That will include adding an explanation of his work involving the slave plantation alongside the portraits of him.
The leading human rights campaigner Sir Geoff Palmer has urged other city institutions which celebrate Drummond to follow suit and include acknowledgement of his role in perpetuating the “evil” of slavery in their narratives of his life.
Such is Drummond’s huge influence on 18th century Edinburgh, it is almost easier to find institutions which do not have significant connections to him than ones which do.
The Nat West Group dedicates a page on its website to a glowing biography of him as one of the founding directors of the Royal Bank of Scotland, while he is celebrated by the University of Edinburgh for his significant role in its growth.
The National Portrait Gallery of Scotland and The Signet Library own portraits of Drummond and he laid the foundation stone for what is now the City Chambers where the city council meets.
The Royal Infirmary slaves
Dr Simon Buck’s report into the history of the Royal Infirmary and its connections with slavery makes for powerful reading. It manages to be both accessible and meticulous at the same time, with the humanity of the historic individuals involved and the researcher himself shining through on every page.
The full 96-page report takes a couple of hours to read in its entirety but would reward anyone with a serious interest in the subject. The opening paragraphs reproduced below offer a searing introduction to the careful historic documentation which follows.
Aimee. Robin. Jack. Simon. Plato. Frank. Jamaica. Essex. Hercules. Roger. Cato. Peter. Friday. Edinburgh. Jeffery. Bob. Thom. Archie. Oxford. Jack. Cesar. Dick. Thom. Will. Scotland. Berwick. Lucy. Toucham. Nancy. Kingston Amelia. Ebo Amelia. Venus. Maria. Diana. Hannah. Calia. Chloe. Rachel. Pheba.
Very little is known about the lives of the 39 people who went by the above names. Some were children. Some were related to one another. Some were tradesmen. All were African or of African descent. All were enslaved by a white Scottish surgeon on a 420-acre estate called Red Hill pen in the Parish of St Thomas-in-the-East in Jamaica in 1749.
Most were probably given these names… by their white Scottish enslaver…. These human chattels were compelled to labour for their white ‘owner’. A principal activity on Red Hill… involved rearing and herding cattle… Many would also have been involved in the felling of the estate’s timber... Others, including, children, older and disabled people, would have worked domestic jobs on the estate’s single ‘Pen House’ or in their own ‘slave houses’. Some will have spent long days under the scorching Caribbean sun at Red Hill digging, hoeing, weeding, planting, and fertilising soil for the growing of sugar cane, and later cutting it down with machetes. Others would have then crushed and boiled the raw sugar cane into molasses and rum on the estate’s ‘sugar work’. Their long days of labour would have been conducted under the watchful eyes of white overseers who most likely used violence – and certainly the threat of violence – to ensure their compliance.
A city steeped in slavery
In a city whose wealth was significantly tied up with the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the involvement of Drummond and the Royal Infirmary should not come as a shock. Street names such as Jamaica Street testify to our connections with the Caribbean, and countless New Town addresses appear in the ledgers recording the households who received compensation following the abolition of slavery.
When the Royal Infirmary was established in 1729, it was a pioneering venture, designed to care for the “sick poor” of the city. The first voluntary hospital in Scotland, and later claimed to be the largest institution of its kind in the British Empire, it relied for most of its history on philanthropy to pay for its construction, expansion and considerable running costs.
Dr Buck’s research details how a number of donors drew their wealth from the slave trade either directly or indirectly. Donors included physicians, surgeons, politicians, colonial officials, bankers, and a range of merchants, both in Britain and its colonies, who were connected to the enslavement of people of African descent in the British West Indies and Americas.
The Red Hill estate in Jamaica and the enslaved people who worked there were bequeathed to the Royal Infirmary by Scottish surgeon Archibald Kerr in his will in 1750. After Drummond helped secure the transfer of ownership, the infirmary rented out the estate and enslaved people, using the funds to pay for doctors, medicine and a new hospital building.
As Lord Provost, and a prominent banker, Drummond played a key role in raising funds for the Infirmary, acting as agent in dealing with Kerr’s bequest and the business of the estate.
In his research, Dr Buck notes: “As Drummond’s name is so intimately attached to the history of both the RIE and Edinburgh, it is worth pausing here to ask: What was Drummond’s role in all of this? It was he, after all, who signed off (on behalf of the Managers) much of the correspondence about Red Hill and the enslaved people upon it from this first period (1750-51) right up until his death in 1766; letters from Jamaica concerning Red Hill rents continued to be addressed to him for a few years after his death.
“Decisions concerning to Red Hill were made collectively at Managers’ meetings; but Drummond’s position within the organisation and the city more widely meant his opinion came with a certain weight. It was It was Drummond who wrote the following on behalf of the Managers to representatives in Jamaica: ‘I am directed by the Managers to Pray that you will be pleased to let the said 24 negroes on a short lease and let us know the terms on which you sell them’.”
Addressing the legacy
If Drummond had no qualms about discussing enslaved people as if they were nothing more than inhuman objects, then he reflected the values and thinking of many of his contemporaries. He lived at the same time as the philosopher David Hume who infamously recorded his view that he believed “negroes… to be naturally inferior to the whites.”
Sir Geoff Palmer, the prominent human rights activist and Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University, was born and grew up in Jamaica before his family emigrated to the UK as part of the Windrush generation.
He welcomes Dr Buck’s research and NHS Lothian’s work to address its terrible legacy.
“People are convinced more readily of the iniquity if they know the horror of the truth. They are much more likely to respond to this history and deal with inequalities” he says.
“I've given many lectures all over Scotland on this history. The general public’s response has been consistent. ‘Why hasn't anybody told us this before?’ They are saying it has been insulting that all these things about their history were not in the curriculum.”
Acknowledging the impact that slavery had on the underdevelopment of countries in Africa and the Caribbean and the establishment of racist ideas, NHS Lothian is looking at non-financial reparations it can make and consulting widely on the precise forms it could take. This will include work to help tackle persistent health inequalities based on race and partnership working with health service providers in Jamaica and Africa.
Sir Geoff urged other city institutions to follow NHS Lothian’s lead and consider altering their texts relating to Drummond. He pointed out that the Royal Bank of Scotland had previously supported the placing of a plaque on the Melville Monument in St Andrew Square, explaining Henry Dundas’s links to slavery.
“If they have a text relating to Drummond, then I think it's quite reasonable to say that text should be altered, because it's not true, if you don't include that.
“Some people are probably not aware or they may not have thought it significant. It is significant that he is now being mentioned in this way in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh report.”
‘We must face our collective past’
At the time of the publication of the health board research last year, Calum Campbell, chief executive of NHS Lothian, said it was vital to address the past in this way.
"Tackling racism helps us reduce health inequalities and improve outcomes for our diverse population and ensures a better experience for everyone,” he said.
"This important work was carried out to help give us a greater understanding of the history that has shaped our society and institutions."
Depute Council Leader Councillor Mandy Watt said: “It’s right that as a city we are examining and working through our historical links with slavery and colonialism, and we will not shy away from this work.
“We completed an independent review chaired by Sir Geoff Palmer and its recommendations were approved by the Council in August 2022. The Lord Provost also gave an official apology on behalf of the city for its past role in sustaining slavery and colonialism in October 2022. Since then we’ve seen the establishment of the Edinburgh Slavery and Colonialism Legacy Review Implementation Group (ESCLRIG) under chair Irene Mosota, and recognised the UNESCO International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition in August 2023.
“The ESCLRIG held its inaugural meeting in October 2023 and will now take forward the remaining recommendations. I look forward to seeing their work as we strive to create a better city for all. It is crucial that we come to terms with our collective past in order to create a better present and future.”
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