The Dark Story of Britain's Most Beautiful Country House: Harewood

The Dark Story of Britain's Most Beautiful Country House: Harewood There is a room in a Yorkshire country house that contains eighteen gilded armchairs. They were made by Thomas Chippendale, the most famous furniture maker in English history, who was born seven miles away. Each chair was invoiced as "very richly carved in the antique manner and gilt in burnished gold." They are exquisite. They were also paid for with money earned by enslaving human beings on sugar plantations in Barbados, Jamaica, Grenada, and Tobago. Harewood House was built between 1759 and 1771 by Edwin Lascelles, one of the wealthiest men in England. His father Henry had made the family fortune in Barbados — as a customs collector (suspended for corruption), a sugar merchant, a money lender who foreclosed on struggling plantations and seized the enslaved workers along with the land, and a slave trader who maintained a floating prison ship off the coast of Guinea where kidnapped Africans were held before being shipped across the Atlantic. Henry bought shares in more than twenty slaving ships. He married the daughter of a Barbadian slave trader. And he died by suicide in 1753. There is no portrait of him anywhere in a house full of portraits. Edwin used the fortune to hire the four greatest craftsmen in Georgian England — architect John Carr, interior designer Robert Adam, furniture maker Thomas Chippendale, and landscape designer Capability Brown — all working on a single house at the same time. Every gilded arm, every painted ceiling, every inch of the thousand-acre parkland was funded by Caribbean sugar and the enslaved people who produced it. By the 1780s, the Lascelles owned nearly 30,000 acres and 24 plantations across four Caribbean islands. Life expectancy for enslaved workers was 20-22 years. More than half the babies born into slavery died before age five. In 1816, enslaved people on the Lascelles plantations rose up in Bussa's Rebellion, the largest revolt in Barbadian history. After abolition, the family received £26,309 in compensation for 1,227 people — £21 per human being. The enslaved received nothing. The loan that funded the compensation was not fully repaid until 2015. In 2007, the actor David Harewood visited the house. His ancestors were enslaved by the Lascelles. He carries their surname. A portrait of him now hangs in the Gallery alongside the Reynolds and Gainsboroughs. 🔔 Subscribe for more investigations into the hidden histories behind Britain's greatest landmarks. 💬 Which property should we investigate next? Tell me in the comments. #HarewoodHouse #DarkHistory #BritishHistory #Slavery #Chippendale #RobertAdam #CapabilityBrown #Yorkshire #TransatlanticSlaveTrade #CountryHouse SOURCE LIST --- 1. Harewood House Trust — "Harewood, Slavery and the Caribbean" (harewood.org) 2. Harewood House Trust — "History" (harewood.org) 3. Harewood House Trust — "Legacy of the Caribbean" (harewood.org) 4. Harewood House Trust — "Study Spot: Transatlantic Slave Trade" (harewood.org) 5. Harewood House Trust — "Explore Harewood House" (harewood.org) 6. Harewood House Trust — "British Furniture / Thomas Chippendale" (harewood.org) 7. Wikipedia — "Harewood House" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harewood_House) 8. Wikipedia — "Thomas Chippendale" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Chippendale) 9. Britannica — "Thomas Chippendale: Biography, Furniture & Facts" (britannica.com) 10. Borthwick Institute, University of York — "Harewood West Indian Archive" (york.ac.uk/borthwick) 11. University of York — "Harewood Slavery Archive" (york.ac.uk/projects/harewoodslavery) 12. MyLearning — "Introducing the Lascelles Family of Harewood House" (mylearning.org) 13. Yorkshire Post — "How Harewood House in Yorkshire Was Built with the Profits of Slavery" (yorkshirepost.co.uk) 14. The Culture Concept Circle — "Robert Adam Architect: Neoclassical Style at Harewood House" (thecultureconcept.com) 15. Peacock's Finest — "Harewood House: Neoclassical Excellence" (peacocksfinest.com) 16. The Decorative Arts Trust — "Yorkshire in the Age of Chippendale" (decorativeartstrust.org) 17. Historic Houses — "Harewood House" (historichouses.org) 18. Harewood House Trust — "Furniture Blog: Chippendale 300" (harewood.org)