The Rowntree Society has pledged to continue its research into the Rowntree company history.

It said: “The philanthropic work of the Rowntree family — in education, welfare, democracy and humanitarianism — continues to inform and inspire our work. In addition, we know from our engagement with local communities that the Rowntree family’s investments in industrial welfare for employees at its factory in York hold deep meaning for people in the city who have personal connections to this heritage.

"However, it is important to recognise that the Rowntree story also includes histories and legacies of racial exploitation.

"Our initial findings show that the company was an active agent in colonial economies in Africa and the Caribbean across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

"They indicate that the Rowntree businesses benefited from unfree labour systems which caused harm to people of colour.

"If we are to continue to be inspired by Joseph Rowntree’s belief that religious, political and social work should seek to address the ‘underlying causes’ of problems and not merely their ‘superficial manifestations’, then it is clear that we need to confront uncomfortable questions about the Rowntree family and company’s participation in colonialism and racialised exploitative working practices."

The Society says that there are a number of questions that remain to be answered.

• In his founding memorandum for the three charitable trusts in 1904, Joseph Rowntree drew attention to slavery as one of ‘the great scourges of humanity’. Is there any other evidence to indicate what the Rowntree family and their associates at the Rowntree businesses thought about slavery and indentured labour?

• What were the attitudes of the Rowntree family towards race? How did these attitudes relate to other voices at the time?

• To what extent was the Quaker Rowntree family involved in antislavery campaigns? How did they balance concerns about slavery with their commercial interests?

• What impact did the Rowntree company have on the lives of people of colour within the colonial global economy and in its aftermath?

• Who were the people of Black and Asian heritage working for Rowntree’s, directly and indirectly? What were their experiences, and how can their stories be told?

"We recognise the lasting damage inflicted by the colonial global economy in countries where the Rowntree businesses operated and the effects of historic slavery and colonialism for people and communities of colour in Britain today," the Society said.

"History is not closed. Its legacies, and our understanding of those legacies, continue to shape the present, and it is only by reflecting critically on the past that we can learn and inform the future

"We will continue to work closely with our colleagues at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust to explore global historical perspectives on Rowntree commercial and philanthropic activities.

"With funding from the Trusts, and in collaboration with academic partners, we will develop options for further academic research arising from our preliminary findings.

"In addition to this work, we will continue to pursue and support projects locally, regionally and nationally which explore the legacies of welfare and social justice achieved by the Rowntree family."