I think he probably means that they were dodgy because they were slave owners. In fact I recognise that 90%+ of the names on that list were slave traders.

We must get out of this mindset that because Mr. so-and-so was a slave trader he was a brutal and inhumane person. In a hundred years time our descendants may look at us and think that because we let our terminal cancer/alczhiemers patients suffer until death that we are inhumane and brutal. Not the case.



I'm not saying the slave trade wasn't cruel, brutal and inhumane but it would be terrible to judge these people on one aspect of their lives.