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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'.

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Southwark 2007 & Beyond (S2007B)

The Southwark 2007 & Beyond Steering Group was established to correct perceived misinformation about Britain's role in perpetuating slavery, and to promote education and dialogue on anti-slavery resistance and human rights. The Steering Committee was composed of representatives from Southwark's Afrikan, Afrikan Caribbean and Afro-descendant communities, and the year-long programme of events was funded by Southwark Council. August 2007 was a key month of the commemorative programme, focused on 23 August, the United Nations International Day for Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, and the anniversary of the beginning of the Haitian Revolution. A 'Vigil of Remembrance, Resistance and Repairs' included speakers, performances and a libation ceremony. Other events included 'A Bicentennial Dialogue' featuring a keynote address by Dr Joy DeGruy-Leary. The publication 'Abeng Soundings: Abolitionist Landmarks of our Freedom March', co-authored by Esther Stanford of Rendezvous of Victory, provided an overview of the resistance efforts of African freedom fighters against slavery.

2007 NHM Slavery and the Natural World Introduction.pdf

Slavery and the Natural World

In consultation with local community groups, in 2007 the Natural History Museum commissioned new research into its collections that link slavery and the natural world. The research uncovered experiences of enslaved people and the use of plants in their everyday life, as food, medicines and poisons. It also examined the complex relationships between enslaved people and naturalists exploring newly-colonised lands. The museum ran a series of public events, co-hosted by Race on the Agenda, which aimed to bring the historical, scientific and public viewpoints together. It created online educational resources on themes such as Commercial Plants, Everyday Life, Diet and Nutrition, and Resistance. The museum also developed cross-curricular ideas for school lessons in Science using the context of slavery, looking at foods across different cultures, for example.

English Heritage Kenwood House - Slavery and Justice.pdf

Slavery and Justice: The Legacies of Dido Belle and Lord Mansfield

Kenwood House in North London is closely connected to the history of the slave trade through the lives of two of its former inhabitants. Lord Chief Justice Lord Mansfield made a milestone ruling in 1772 towards abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. Dido Elizabeth Belle - born to an enslaved mother - is believed to have been Lord Mansfield's illegitimate great-niece. This exhibition by English Heritage, and sponsored by the Friends of Kenwood, explored their relationship, and the social dimensions of the British slave trade intertwined with the history of Kenwood. Visitors to the exhibition were invited to leave a creative literary response. The Wall of Words, a literary mural in the form of a poem inspired by the recorded responses, was created by Beyonder, a multimedia artist and educator.

Slave Britain.pdf

Slave Britain: The 21st Century Trade in Human Lives

This photographic exhibition focused on human trafficking was produced by a partnership of Panos Pictures, Anti-Slavery International, Amnesty International, Eaves and UNICEF. Photographer Karen Robinson’s portraits and tales of women trafficked into prostitution explore the devastating impact on their lives. Also on display were David Rose's panoramic photographs of the ordinary British streets where the stories of modern-day slavery have been played out. The photographs were mounted on a cage-like structure which was specially designed for the exhibition at St Paul's Cathedral. The exhibition was also shown in Edinburgh, Hull and Warsaw, and in 2008, in York.

2007 Rough Crossings Brochure WY Playhouse.pdf

Rough Crossings

Historian Simon Schama's true story of a plantation slave (Thomas Peters) and a British naval officer (John Clarkson) and their search for freedom at the time of the American War of Independence. Schama's account was adapted for the stage by Caryl Phillips, directed by Rupert Goold and produced by the Headlong Theatre Company. It explores ideas of racial identity, home and freedom, as former slaves who fought for the British army are led across the Atlantic to the newly-created province of Sierra Leone. The play toured West Yorkshire Playhouse, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Liverpool Everyman and Lyric Hammersmith.

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Restoration of the Buxton Memorial Fountain

The Buxton Memorial Fountain was built by Charles Buxton to celebrate the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 and the achievement of his father, the abolitionist Thomas Fowell Buxton, and his associates who led the parliamentary campaign to abolish slavery. The memorial fountain was built in Parliament Square in 1865-6, and re-erected in Victoria Tower Gardens, Westminster, in 1957. Following extensive restoration by The Royal Parks, the memorial was unveiled on 27 March 2007, to mark the bicentenary. The listed monument was also upgraded from Grade II to II* in 2007.

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Resistance and Remembrance: Marking the 200th anniversary of the Parliamentary Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Part of the British Museum's Atlantic Trade and Identity season, Resistance and Remembrance was a commemorative public day held at the British Museum on 25 March 2007, in association with the Royal African Society and Rendezvous of Victory. Placing a strong emphasis on resistance to the slave trade, the day included poetry readings, storytelling with Beyonder and H Patten, Bonnie Greer and Tony Sewell in discussion, and dramatised contemporary accounts of life as a slave. The day culminated in a Ceremony of Remembrance in the Museum's Great Court, featuring the telecast of a special message from Nelson Mandela.

2007 Remembering Slavery in Hammersmith and Fulham Poster.pdf

Remembering Slavery in Hammersmith and Fulham

Hammersmith and Fulham Urban Studies Centre is a voluntary educational organisation which offers opportunities to children and young people to learn about the local urban environment. The online curriculum resource 'Remembering Slavery' aimed to inform teaching and learning about the transatlantic slave trade by tracing the links of people and places in Hammersmith and Fulham to enslavement, the slave trade and its abolition. It explored the lives of enslaved Africans and their descendants, detailing their experiences and contributions in the local area. The resource aimed to encourage teachers to develop a locally-based Black history focus across curriculum programmes. It consisted of resource guides and animated films across four broad time frames: pre-Victorian, Victorians, Britain in the 1930s and 40s, and Britain since 1948.

2007 Redbridge and Slavery Poster.pdf

Redbridge and Slavery

Redbridge Museum's exhibition to mark the bicentenary examined the London Borough of Redbridge's connections to the slave trade and abolition. These links included local resident Josiah Child, once Governor of the East India Company, an investor in the Royal African Company and owner of plantations in Jamaica. The Mellish family of Woodford had connections with the West India Docks in London, built for the sugar trade. Alexander Stewart of Woodford owned Jamaican plantations and acted on behalf of owners of enslaved Africans in compensation claims after abolition. The exhibition also examined church records detailing some of the Black residents of Redbridge in the 17th and 18th centuries. Music from the Caribbean island of Dominica was included, as was a series of personal responses to the bicentenary by local residents.

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Recovered Histories

In the Recovered Histories online resource, Anti-Slavery International digitised and made accessible for the first time a collection of over 800 pamphlets dating from the 18th and 19th centuries relating to the transatlantic slave trade. The resource captured the narratives of the enslaved, the enslavers, slave ship surgeons, abolitionists, parliamentarians, clergy, planters and rebels. An accompanying touring historical exhibition and an education pack featured testimonies and pictures from Africans subjected to slavery, those participating in the enslavement and those who fought against it. An outreach and resources programme included a series of free regional seminars in April and May 2008, which encouraged dialogue about the transatlantic slave trade and its legacies by bringing together a wide range of groups and organisations who worked on these issues. The workshops were held in Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds, London and Manchester. A series of short stories were published, inspired by the Recovered Histories resource.

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Okapi

Okapi, Congolese and African Cuisine

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Notting Hill Carnival: Set All Free

The theme for Notting Hill Carnival in August 2007 was Set All Free, to mark the bicentenary, and to acknowledge that slavery still exists around the world. The show featured special performances to mark the bicentenary.

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No caption [anti-slavery delegation to London?]

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National Maritime Museum

The National Maritime Museum is the largest maritime museum in the world. It forms part of the Royal Museums Greenwich UNESCO World Heritage Site. The NMM houses ten galleries that all showcase Britain’s Maritime History. Its mission is 'to enrich people’s understanding of the sea, the exploration of space, and Britain's role in world history’. ‘The Atlantic Worlds Gallery,' launched in 2007 for the commemoration of the bicentenary, charts the interconnections between Britain, Africa and the Americas between 1600 and 1850. The gallery is about the movement of people, goods and ideas across and around the Atlantic Ocean from the 17th century to the 19th century. The connections created by these movements affected people across three continents, impacting on their cultures and communities and shaping the world we live in today. Four main themes are explored within the gallery, including exploration, war, enslavement and resistance. These displays benefited extensively from the museum's purchase of the Michael Graham-Stewart Slavery Collection in 2002. 'Atlantic Worlds' charts the triangular trade through African civilisations, enslavement and the Middle Passage, and the abolition movement. It recounts the stories of some of the people involved in the resistance movement and the campaign for the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade – including Toussaint l’Ouverture, Olaudah Equiano and Samuel Sharp whose acts of resistance and rebellion were crucial to the turning of European public opinion against the trade. Its narrative also goes beyond the achievement of legal abolition in Britain, to include discussions of the Royal Navy's involvement in suppressing the trade world wide.

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Museum of London Docklands

The Museum of London Docklands houses the Port and River collections of the Museum of London. The aim of these museums is to showcase the growth and development of London, from the Roman era through to the present day. In a period of expansion for the Museum of London, the Museum of London Docklands was opened in 2003 in a Grade I listed warehouse on West India Quay, the historic trading heart of London.

Due to its location in a warehouse which would very likely have stored sugar, and other slave-produced items, the history of the transatlantic slave trade and its impact on London fits well within this space. ‘London, Sugar and Slavery’ was originally produced in 2007 as part of the bicentenary commemorations but has since become a permanent part of the museum. The displays have a local focus, supported through a wide range of objects, and consider the impact of the slave trade on London historically and today.

On entering the gallery visitors are met with a list of ships that traded slaves from the West India Quay- placing them right there in the story. Next there are discussions of the economics of slavery, and indications of how the money made from it changed the city of London forever. The exhibition also includes discussions of resistance, and abolition- centring the movement on the mass movement in the wider population with a case entitled ‘Abolition on the Streets.’ To bring the display up to date there is a discussion of representations of black people in popular culture, with objects including children’s books, film memorabilia, toys and prints, in line with a further piece on racism in London.

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Midnight Robbers: The Artists of Notting Hill Carnival

Midnight Robbers was exhibited at City Hall, London in 2007 and the Ohio State University Urban Art Space in 2008. The exhibition explored the historic context of Notting Hill Carnival and examined the Carnival art form. The London exhibition also marked the bicentenary of the Abolition Act. ‘Midnight Robber’ is a masquerade of traditional carnival, in a wide-brimmed hat and cape. The exhibition adopted the Midnight Robber motif for its title, and sought to engage audiences in the history of Caribbean-derived carnival as a legacy of slavery and colonialism. It was curated by Lesley Ferris and Adela Ruth Tompsett of Middlesex University and showcased the work of carnival artists through photographs, costumes and a carnival interactive.