Prince Charles wants history of slavery to be taught in British schools

Prince Charles reportedly wants the history of the transatlantic slave trade to be taught in British schools as widely as the history of the Holocaust.

According to reports, the Prince of Wales feels that children need to learn and know about the history of trafficking of African people by slave traders.

A royal source told The Sunday Telegraph: "The Prince notes that in the UK, at a national level, we now know and learn at school all about the Holocaust. That is not true of the transatlantic slave trade... and there's an acknowledgment that it needs to happen."

However, the person specified that the prince was not trying to "dictate" the national education policy, but only wanted for people to have a better understanding of the matter.

The report comes in the backdrop of Prince Charles expressing his sorrow over slavery in a speech to Commonwealth leaders in Rwanda last week.

"To unlock the power of our common future, we must also acknowledge the wrongs which have shaped our past. Many of those wrongs belong to an earlier age with different, and in some ways lesser, values," he said.

The senior royal further told the gathering of world leaders: "I cannot describe the depths of my personal sorrow at the suffering of so many, as I continue to deepen my own understanding of slavery's enduring impact."

"Quite simply, this is a conversation whose time has come," he told the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

This is not the first time that Prince Charles acknowledged the barbaric transatlantic slave trade. He had called slavery a "dark stain" on British history during his visit to Barbados last year. However, he has not apologised for his family's involvement in the slave trade.

An estimated that 2.3 million Africans were transported to British colonies to work as slaves between 1640 and 1807. Millions perished in the process, as per a report in The Spectator.

Britain abolished slavery in all its territories only in 1833 after the passage of the Abolition of Slavery Act. The British government had then paid £20 million to 44,441 owners for their lost "property." The sum had been equivalent to 40 percent of the national budget then.