The Powis Gates

Very old building in the University grounds

Nice to walk past if you’re in the area!

Just a lovely site to see in the old area of town but theres a lot of dark history here with the gate built from the profits from slavery in the 18th century

Interesting plaque explains gates were built using reparation money compensating for loss of slaves. No compensation for the people enslaved. Provides a thought provoking edge to the towers.

The history of the Powis Gate is very interesting. It looks like a fairytale but has a dark story. The Powis gate, Old Aberdeen, was built in 1834 with gains from the work of enslaved people on Jamaican plantations. Among them was Quasheba. 7 children are also listed as having Quasheba as a mother: Patsy, James, Junes, Edlin, Habbie, Samuel, and Bessie Jones. These names are taken from registries, between 1817 and 1832, of the enslaved on Castile Fort Pen Estate  “in the possession” of Hugh Fraser Leslie. The Powis Leslie family built this gate in 1833/34, partly with compensation money for the Abolition of slavery. The enslaved were not compensated.On 22nd May 2021 an event was held at the gate to mark its links to slavery. A poem, “The Violence of Identity” was performed and two ceramic panels were hung back to back on the iron gate with rope. One had the poem embossed on it and one an imagined portrait of Quasheba and the quote from a classical African playwright, Publius Terentius Afer: “Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto, I am human, I consider nothing human alien to me”.

The gatehouse of the Leslie family entrance to Powis House.

A standout historical monument on campus. Hard to miss!