Painful history. Visit of Lord Chief Justice Kenwood House

Seeing history is always more painful than reading about it.

I have always been fond of history. At the mere age of 10, I was interested in European aristocrats. Why? I do not know myself. One figure that stood out to me was Dido Elizabeth Belle, the niece of the Lord Chief Justice Mansfield. She was an illegitimate niece, and she was black,  but was loved as her rank would have allowed her.

In london, I impulsively went on the northern line with the destination of the Kenwood House. By then, I had forgotten about Dido.

As I step into the grounds of the House, I feel emotions. The house has been gifted to the national heritage by a Guinness Heir and turned to a museum. I stumbled into a room and saw a poster saying “meet the people who lived here : Dido Elizabeth  Belle”. My heart dropped, I could not believe it that I was currently standing in the past residence of Miss Belle. To say I was happy was an understatement. As I went around, I tried to imagine how Miss Dido used the rooms.

I found the library which was her favorite place. There, I saw Lord Chief Justice Mansfield’s notes and journals. I also saw court documents he was working on. The Zong ship. Oh dear. This was the case of a ship who carried slaves as merchandise. Due to lack of water, the sailors drowned 150 black people into the sea. They claimed their insurance to get money back for the lives they killed. This case was dismissed as it would have proven that a black life was worth more dead than alive during these times. What really happened was that due to the inhumane conditions of the boat, the black people started getting sick and contaminating the each other, since the sailors would not get the best price when selling them, they knew they would get more as an insurance payout if they had passed.

I needed to take a seat after reading this court case. History like this, as blatantly graphic as reality was, is never disclosed to the public.

Many atrocities were left to be untold and what we know is truly the tip of the iceberg.

This visit opened my eye and matured me. Kenwood house will always be a place I will go back to.