Drax of Drax Hall: How One British Family Got Rich (and Stayed Rich) from Sugar and Slavery

by Paul Lashmar, David Olusoga (Foreword)

While the British landed gentry were to profit from chattel slavery in the West Indies, the Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax family of Dorset pioneered it.



Spanning 400 years and 18 generations, Drax of Drax Hall is a story that has never been told. It all started when James Drax, one of the first settlers in Barbados in 1627, effectively founded the British sugar industry. His descendants went on to write the book on how to run a slave plantation. For more than two hundred years, the family enslaved up to 330 people at any time and became enormously rich.



Today, the bloodline is unbroken, and former Tory MP Richard Drax heads the family from his vast Charborough Estate in Dorset. With physical assets worth at least £150m—not to mention the 621-acre sugar plantation in Barbados, the Drax Hall Estate—he was the wealthiest landowner in the House of Commons. Unseated in 2024, he remains a hero amongst hard-right culture warriors for his refusal to make any reparations for his family's role in slavery.



Drax of Drax Hall is a history that lifts the lid on this grotesque family. Through enclosure at home and enslavement abroad, their exploits expose the ugly realities of colonialism and empire—the legacies of which we have yet to fully confront today.

Genres: History

448 pages, Paperback

Published January 20, 2026

Reviews

[Christopher M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly readable and well researched history of the ancestors of that nice former politician Richard Drax as they pretty much invent chattel slavery, interfere in the Civil War, steal common land, demolish historic buildings, and generally choose greed and immorality until one of them is immortalised as a Bond villain. I kind of wanted to hate them as a Dorset resident, but had no idea how much this book would pay off on that promise.

[Leesa Harwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Drax family of Dorset have the unique responsibility of establishing ‘Sugar Plantation One’ in Barbados and (literally) writing the manual on how to run a plantation using slavery to amass great wealth. In fact they wrote two manuals. Today Richard Drax sits atop the wealth that has its roots in slavery. Paul Lashmar has meticulously researched and reported the facts of the Drax lineage. If (like me) you didn’t get this version of British history at school, this book is essential reading. Will it make you feel ashamed? Yes. Will it make you question your own values and behaviours? Yes. Will it make you angry? It should. We all have a duty to understand where we came from and stare history (no matter how appalling) in the face. The human beings abused by white men and women could not look away from their atrocious lives and nor should we. And nor should Richard Drax.

[Andrew Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating and well-researched dive into the lineage of a family at the heart of the slave plantation system in Barbados, as well as landed wealth in Britain (and Dorset, in particular).
The family's links with the powerful, and their intersection with key events in British (and British colonial) history going back to Tudor times makes this more than just a piece of parochial Dorset history.
A powerful critique of the establishment and maintenance of chattel slavery in the Caribbean and a strong case made for reparation and justice today.

[wade · Rating 4 out of 5]

This non fiction book looks at one families rise to wealth and power over the centuries anchored in slavery and property ownership primarily on the island Barbados. It is interesting how advantages from long ago can be parlayed into numerous generations of power which I think shows the opposite scenario which show why families in difficulty digging their way out of their negative lot in life. The book is written by a British author and subject and would be more interesting to English readers.

[Jbondandrews]

I'm not exactly sure how to rate this book. Certainly there was a lot of information on the Drax family history but there was little about Barbados itself. I also didn't think the question of what the psychological damage to the overseers was a necessay one to ask. They weren't forced to do what they did to the enslaved peoples, I didn't see the need to include it in the book.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and informative narrative on the enduring impact of chattel slavery and the British Empire through one family's historical involvement with the slave trade.