By Alyssa Kaminski
Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, has been a controversial figure for centuries, from his lifetime to ours. He has been loved and hated, admired and feared. Over time, however, much of his legacy has been forgotten, primarily the bad aspects. For my research project, I examined the historical and contemporary views that people had of him. This came out of the recent debates surrounding Dundas’ legacy, and whether statues of him should be torn down and streets/places named after him be renamed. My research shows how quickly public opinion can change about a person, how easily information is forgotten over time, and how historians can uncover that information again.
Born April 28 1742, died May 28 1811, Henry Dundas was a Scottish politician and lawyer, a British parliamentarian, and an imperial statesman. Throughout his life, he held the offices of Solicitor General for Scotland, Secretary of State for the Home Department, Lord Advocate, Minister for War and Colonies, and First Lord of the Admiralty, among others.[1] Dundas was a key player in British politics and decisions, and was responsible for the expansion of British influence in India. He was a dominant member of the Board of Control of the East India Company, and in 1793, the position of President was created for Dundas, which he held until 1801.[2] He was a vital part of expanding the frontiers of British slavery by taking control of French-controlled colonies.[3] He held several nicknames that illustrated his power, among them were “the uncrowned king of Scotland” and “the great tyrant”.[4] With this power, Dundas committed several atrocities, and made or influenced decisions that negatively impacted the lives of hundreds of thousands of enslaved people.
On April 2, 1792, Dundas added the word ‘gradual’ into William Wilberforce’s abolition bill, and three weeks later he submitted resolutions naming 1800 as the date for the final abolition of the slave trade.[5] He eventually yielded to the majority, who preferred the earlier date of 1796. However, in 1796, Dundas spoke against immediate abolition and refused to put forward his own plans for gradual abolition. This was because he had economic connections to the powerful British West Indian slave-owning lobby.[6] Dundas also made recommendations on how to improve conditions for enslaved people, which were meant to preserve rather than abolish slavery.[7] As a powerful politician, Dundas held much influence and he used that to set back the fight against slavery.[8]
Dundas prioritized seizing France’s Caribbean colonies, sending 40,000 troops to fight and die in the Caribbean between 1793 and 1798.[9] Gaining control of Saint Domingue was his central aim because it was the most profitable slaveholding colony of the time, but he was thwarted there. In 1795, Members of Parliament accused Dundas of allowing British soldiers to commit atrocities against the Jamaican Maroons of Trelawney Town, which was a free black community that had signed a treaty with Britain in 1740. Dundas was defending the interests of Jamaican slave owners.[10] In Grenada, in the same year, Dundas’ forces “brutally supressed an abolitionist uprising”, led by enslaved people and a free man of colour, which lasted eighteen months (1795-1796).[11] Also in 1795, not far away on the island of St. Vincent, after decades of trying to force the Indigenous population – the Garifuna – to sell their land, British forces led by Dundas “hunted down Indigenous Vincentians across the island, massacring entire villages and destroying Garifuna autonomy”.[12] Thousands of Indigenous Vincentians were transported to the nearby Balliceaux Island and held as prisoners for months, with roughly half the people dying and the survivors being sent to Central America.[13]
In 1806, impeachment proceedings were taken against Dundas for misappropriation of public funds while he was treasurer of the British Navy.[14] He was acquitted and held guilty of formal negligence at most (a result of his family name and powerful friends), but he never again held office.[15] This most certainly lingered in the public consciousness at the time, and the stain of corruption was never quite removed from his name. However, simultaneously, his name was often celebrated and revered.[16] Soon after his death, he was praised, but several years after saw his name being dragged through the mud, and then forgotten.[17] Today, his actions and decisions are being brought back into the light, and what is being revealed has led many people to view him with distaste.
In March of 1803, Dundas started burning papers and correspondence that related to his earlier career.[18] That, coupled with the surviving papers being scattered around the world, in archives and private collections, made compiling information on his life difficult.[19] Historians have worked hard together to reveal the truth of Dundas’ life, to piece together his actions so that we can re-examine who he was in the networks of the British Empire and the slave trade, and to re-evaluate the impacts his decisions had. My research immersed me in the current historiographical debate surrounding the ways in which imperial figures from the British Empire are remembered. The role of historians is extremely important in uncovering the information that is lost to us or forgotten over time, and in untangling who people were from the popular memories and family memories of them. I wonder how Henry Dundas will be remembered centuries from now, and if this information will be lost to time as it was before.
Endnotes:
[1] Engineering Timelines, “Melville Monument,” Engineering Timelines, http://www.engineering-timelines.com/scripts/engineeringItem.asp?id=823
[2] Sam Gribble, “’Harry the Ninth (The uncrowned king of Scotland)’”, Bachelor of Arts Honours History Thesis, University of Sydney, 2012, 9.
[3] BBCNews, “Henry Dundas’ private papers bought for Scots archive.” BBCNews, July 3 2012. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-18687274
[4] BBCNews, “Henry Dundas’ private papers”
[5] The History of Parliament, “Dundas, Henry (1742-1811), of Melville Castle, Edinburgh,” The History of Parliament, https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/dundas-henry-1742-1811
[6] Newton, “Henry Dundas, empire and genocide,”; The History of Parliament, “Dundas, Henry”; David Leask, “Descendent fights claims that Henry Dundas prolonged slave trade,” The Time UK, July 18 2020. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/descendant-fights-claims-that-henry-dundas-prolonged-slave-trade-wd2bvbj39
[7] Newton, “Henry Dundas, empire and genocide,”
[8] City of Toronto, “Responding to the Dundas Street Renaming Petition”, September 8 2020, 7. https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2020/ex/bgrd/backgroundfile-156448.pdf
[9] Newton, “Henry Dundas, empire and genocide,”
[10] Newton, “Henry Dundas, empire and genocide,”
[11] Newton, “Henry Dundas, empire and genocide,”
[12] Newton, “Henry Dundas, empire and genocide,”
[13] Newton, “Henry Dundas, empire and genocide,”
[14] Ernest Hartley Coleridge, The Life of Thomas Coutts, banker Vol. II (London: John Lane, 1920), 255. https://archive.org/details/cu31924088024314/page/n7/mode/2up?q=dundas
[15] BBCNews, “Henry Dundas’ private papers”; The History of Parliament, “Dundas, Henry”
[16] Gribble, “Harry the Ninth”, 12-13
[17] Cyril Matheson, The Life of Henry Dundas First Viscount Melville 1742-1811 (London: Constable and Co., 1933), 65.
[18] Gribble, “Harry the Ninth”, 29
[19] Gribble, “Harry the Ninth”, 10
Bibliography:
BBCNews, “Henry Dundas’ private papers bought for Scots archive.” BBCNews, July 3 2012. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-18687274
City of Toronto, “Responding to the Dundas Street Renaming Petition”, September 8 2020. https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2020/ex/bgrd/backgroundfile-156448.pdf
Coleridge, Ernest Hartley. The Life of Thomas Coutts, banker Vol. II, London: John Lane, 1920. https://archive.org/details/cu31924088024314/page/n7/mode/2up?q=dundas
CTVNews Staff. “Henry Dundas, the Scotsman who delayed slavery abolition, under history’s microscope.” CTVNews, August 19 2020. https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/henry-dundas-the-scotsman-who-delayed-slavery-abolition-under-history-s-microscope-1.4059438
Engineering Timelines, “Melville Monument,” Engineering Timelines. http://www.engineering-timelines.com/scripts/engineeringItem.asp?id=823
Gribble, Sam. “’Harry the Ninth (The uncrowned king of Scotland)’”, Bachelor of Arts Honours History Thesis, University of Sydney, 2012.
Ingram, Edward. Two Views of Britihs India: The Private Correspondance of Mr Dundas and Lord Wellesley. Bath: Adams and Dart, 1970.
Leask, David. “Descendent fights claims that Henry Dundas prolonged slave trade,” The Time UK, July 18 2020. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/descendant-fights-claims-that-henry-dundas-prolonged-slave-trade-wd2bvbj39
Matheson, Cyril. The Life of Henry Dundas First Viscount Melville 1742-1811. London: Constable and Co., 1933.
National Post Staff. “Who was Henry Dundas and why do two cities no longer want to honour his memory?” National Post, June 11 2020. https://nationalpost.com/news/world/who-was-henry-dundas-and-why-do-two-cities-no-longer-want-to-honour-his-memory
Newton, Melanie. “Henry Dundas, empire and genocide,” OpenDemocracyUK, July 30 2020. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/henry-dundas-empire-and-genocide/
Paton, Diana. “French power battle frames Henry Dundas’s role in slave trade.” The Times UK, July 30 2020. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/french-power-battle-frames-henry-dundas-s-role-in-slave-trade-0cnvzh9k0
The History of Parliament, “Dundas, Henry (1742-1811), of Melville Castle, Edinburgh,” The History of Parliament. https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/dundas-henry-1742-1811
Link to interesting video of historians discussing Henry Dundas