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2007 Glasgow GBPT Thumb.png

“It wisnae us!” Glasgow’s built heritage, tobacco, the slave trade and abolition

By the mid-18th century, Glasgow dominated Britain's tobacco and sugar imports, and the city was also involved in the slave trade. In 2007 Glasgow Built Preservation Trust (GBPT), in partnership with Glasgow Anti Racist Alliance, developed an exhibition linking Glasgow’s built heritage with the slave trade. In September 2007, Glasgow’s Doors Open Day event marked the bicentenary with walks (both guided and by podcast), a pop-up exhibition, and an evening of drama, talks and music. The event was later transformed into a week long ‘built heritage festival’, from which a travelling exhibition and city trail were created by the historian Stephen Mullen.

Abney Park Abolition Voices Trail leaflet.pdf

Abolition Voices from Abney Park

Abney Park is a non-denominational cemetery in Stoke Newington, London. The walking tour Abolition Voices from Abney Park was developed to highlight the individuals connected with the abolition of slavery buried there, including the Baptist missionary Reverend Thomas Burchill (associated with Samuel Sharpe and the 'Baptist War' in Jamaica), Reverend Newman Hall and Reverend James Sherman (both associated with abolition in the USA). The grave of Joanna Vassa, daughter of Olaudah Equiano, was identified and restored. The monument to Joanna Vassa was designated Grade II listing by Historic England in 2008 as part of the bicentenary commemorations. There were accompanying talks and school workshops. Abney Park Cemetery Trust was also responsible for the carving of a new memorial stone for the writer Eric Walrond.

2007 Emancipation of the Dispossessed Deptford Guided Walk.pdf

Emancipation of the Dispossessed: Slavery, Abolition and Us - a South East London angle

Emancipation of the Dispossessed was a local community project exploring the local history of Deptford and the surrounding areas and the connections with the transatlantic slave trade. Community groups and students from Lewisham College worked with theatre educators to research and develop 'Blood Sugar', a promenade performance through the Queen's House, Greenwich. The play, written and directed by John Turner, tells the story of slavery and abolition from a local angle, and the script was built around first-hand and eyewitness accounts, campaign pamphlets and reports to parliament. The project also produced learning resources aimed at Key Stage 3 History and Citizenship.

A guided walk explored Deptford’s links to the history of the transatlantic slave trade, uncovering stories of some of the local people who played an important role in the beginnings of the slave trade or the campaign for its abolition. London was an important slave trading port before Bristol and Liverpool dominated the trade. The trade and British colonies were protected by the Royal Navy, whose ships were built and prepared for voyages at the Royal Dockyards at Deptford.

2007 City of Westminster abolition events.pdf

Events to mark the bicentenary in the City of Westminster

In 2007 Westminster City Council supported a programme of events in the libraries, galleries and archives of the area, including films, walks and exhibitions, designed to provide opportunities to learn about the culture of Westminster's communities. Highlights included guided heritage walks with historian S. I. Martin, exhibitions of images from the Royal Geographical Society in Paddington Library, Maida Vale Library and Westminster Reference Library, and film screenings (in partnership with 100 Black Men of London). A partnership between the City of Westminster Archives Centre, Tate Britain, Parliamentary Archives, National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery produced a heritage trail 'On the Road to Abolition: Ending the British Slave Trade', which takes in key sites, events and individuals in Westminster relating to the slave trade, between Trafalgar Square and Pimlico. In celebration of Black History Month, Westminster City Council produced a booklet, 'Black History in Westminster', detailing some of the borough's influential Black residents.

2007 London Sugar Slavery info pack.pdf

London, Sugar and Slavery

The Museum of London Docklands opened the London, Sugar and Slavery gallery in 2007, and it remains a permanent exhibition. The museum, housed in an old sugar warehouse on London’s West India Dock, retold the narrative of the transatlantic slave trade from the perspective of London, once the fourth largest slaving port in the world. Through personal accounts, film, music, interactive exhibits and over 140 objects, the exhibition looks at the various stages of the transatlantic slave trade, including life and trade on the West India Dock, and conditions for the enslaved on the Middle Passage and the Caribbean plantations. The final section of the gallery focuses on the legacies of the slave trade for British society today. Community collaborations also helped shape the gallery.

The museum also created a walking trail for the local area, highlighting key architectural features and buildings that had a role in the transatlantic slave trade. The Slave Map of London was developed in collaboration with three London museums: the Cuming Museum in Southwark, Bruce Castle Museum in Haringey and Fulham Palace Museum. Users navigated an online map to discover over 100 different locations throughout London which played a part in the transatlantic slave trade and the fight to end it. A schools programme that accompanied the opening of the exhibition included drama performances and workshops. Courses that ran alongside the exhibition in 2007 included ‘Resistance and Achievement: the story of African and Caribbean people in Britain’, in partnership with Middlesex University.

In 2018, the museum reflected on the 10 year anniversary of London, Sugar and Slavery with a workshop to explore the significance of the gallery, with contributions from artists, museum practitioners and emerging artists.

2007 Revealing Histories Peoples History Museum Extract from brochure.png

Revealing Histories: Remembering Slavery (People's History Museum)

Events at the People's History Museum in Manchester included a Revealing Histories trail, which highlighted museum objects with links to slavery, such as 'The Slave' print from the 1820s. A living history performance, 'How do you plead?', featured a representation of the Chartist leader William Cuffay, whose campaign for the right to vote saw him transported to Tasmania for treason.

2007 Southwark Council Walk.pdf

Southwark and Abolition

Southwark Council created two online resources to commemorate the bicentenary. A historic walk, produced in collaboration with the Museum of London Docklands, highlighted locations connected with the slave trade and the early presence of Africans in Southwark. A timeline detailed key dates and events that led to the transatlantic slave trade, including Southwark's local connections to the trade and its abolition. The Cuming Museum in Southwark also held an exhibition, 'Lost and Found'.

2007 Camden booklet front cover.jpg

Struggle, Emancipation and Unity

The year-long programme of commemorative events from Camden Council was put together in consultation with the 1807-2007 Taskforce of local African and Caribbean community leaders. The key to these events was remembering slavery through the resistance of Africans, their celebration in their liberation and their unity in tackling present-day inequalities. Camden’s 18th and 19th Century Slavery Trail was created around the area. In eight stops, it explored the lives of men and women connected to the slave trade who lived and worked in the London Borough of Camden. The Resistance Film Season, in partnership with the British Museum, explored the legacy of the slave trade through a mixture of contemporary and classic films. Other events also included local exhibitions, poetry readings, debates and talks.

2007 The Roots Route Newcastle.jpg

The Roots Initiative

identity on tyne is a group for writers and artists of colour in North-East England. The Roots Initiative was their response to the bicentenary, in partnership with the Literary and Philosophical Society. The writer Sheree Mack examined the region's involvement in the slave trade and the abolition movement through historical documents, creative writing and poetry. A heritage walk around Newcastle highlighted the events, individuals and places involved in the slave trade, slavery and the abolition movement in the North-East.

The Wilberforce Way.pdf

The Wilberforce Way

This sixty-mile walking trail was devised to commemorate the bicentenary by East Riding Local Strategic Partnership's Community Cohesion Forum and the Yorkshire and Humber Faiths Forum. The trail connects some of the important places in the life of the abolitionist William Wilberforce: it starts in Hull (where Wilberforce was born), connects with Pocklington in the East Riding of Yorkshire (where he attended school) and finishes at York (where he was declared MP for the County of Yorkshire).

Wilberforce Trail.pdf

Walking with Wilberforce Heritage Trail

Part of Wilberforce 2007, the Walking with Wilberforce Heritage Trail is a journey through Hull's Old Town, via twelve important landmarks related to William Wilberforce and the theme of freedom. Along the trail is the Humanitarian Wall, at the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation, constructed in 2006 to commemorate worldwide actions for human rights and justice. The ceramic markers, inspired by the Sankofa bird, were designed especially for the trail by three community and art groups from Hull's Africa Forum, from Hull College ceramic students and from local schools working in collaboration with two local ceramic artists. The trail was launched with a celebration of African culture led by students from Hull schools and the local Congolese community.