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2007 Beverley Wilberforce Poster.pdf

William Wilberforce, Slavery and the East Riding

Alongside commemorating the passing of the 1807 Abolition Act, the ‘William Wilberforce, Slavery and the East Riding’ exhibition at the Treasure House in Beverley also highlighted Wilberforce’s connections with the East Riding of Yorkshire. The exhibition traced the roots of the Wilberforce family back to the early 13th century, and narrated the story of William Wilberforce’s early life in a family of merchants, and later, his significant contributions to the abolition campaign. It also looked at the other links between the East Riding and slavery, in the family fortunes of the Beverley family and Watt family, founded on ownership of slave plantations, but also the anti-slavery societies established in the region. The exhibition ended by highlighting the plight of the millions of people still enslaved across the world today, and discussed some of the contemporary antislavery efforts.

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.

2007 Sheffield City Archives Towards Liberty Research-Guide.pdf

Towards Liberty: Slavery, the Slave Trade, Abolition and Emancipation

This booklet was produced to mark the bicentenary in 2007 and to highlight the material available in Sheffield Local Studies Library and Sheffield Archives for the study of slavery, the slave trade, abolition movements and emancipation. It looks, in particular, at the role of the city of Sheffield and the surrounding areas, and its local residents. Sheffield benefited from the slave system in that goods manufactured in the city's factories were used on the plantations in the West Indies and America. Sugar and coffee produced on the plantations was consumed by residents. There were active anti-slavery groups in Sheffield, including the Ladies Anti-Slavery Society, and petitioning and boycotts were common. Hannah Kilham, a Sheffield Quaker, published a memoir of her experiences in West Africa as a teacher in the 1820s and 1830s.

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Sweet History?

The Sweet History? project saw the Bristol Architecture Centre work with young people from the Knowle West Media Centre to explore the social and economic impacts of the sugar and slave trades on the built environment heritage of Bristol. Working with local artists and historians, the young people put together the Sweet History? Trail, containing photographs and information about 23 sites in and around Bristol that have links to the sugar and slave trades. The project had a particular focus on using digital technology to develop an interactive website (which included an audio podcast of the trail) to engage youth audiences with the study of heritage buildings.

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Slaves and Highlanders

An exhibition developed by Cromarty Courthouse Museum in the Scottish Highlands recording the role of Highland Scots in the slave trade and slave plantations of the Caribbean and South America and, in particular, British Guiana. The striking illustrations were by John McNaught. The exhibition told individual stories of Scottish merchants, plantation owners and their slaves, such as a slave called Inverness, bought, sold, exploited and hunted as a runaway by Scots in Demerara. It also looked at the freed slaves who found a place in Scottish society. Connected to this project was the placing of a plaque in the former Royal Northern Infirmary (now the executive office of the University of the Highlands and Islands). It remains one of the few acknowledgements of the use of profits from the slave plantations to fund charitable public institutions, and the only known one in Gaelic.

Promotional material.pdf

Slavery Here!

Slavery here! was a project hosted by museums across the Tees Valley led by Preston Hall Museum. It featured an interactive exhibition to explore the story of the Tees Valley’s connections with slavery. For example, the town of Stockton-on-Tees had its own Sugar House, a refinery that processed sugar from the Caribbean. The exhibition also looked at the work of local abolitionist campaigners Dr Robert Jackson and Elizabeth Pease, and the impact of contemporary slavery on today's society. Alongside the exhibition at Preston Hall Museum, other special events included workshops on African drumming and culture, object handling, and introductions to Fair Trade products. The project also produced a commemorative quilt (in collaboration with Newtown Community) and a film, ‘Manacles and Money’.

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Sites of Memory: The Slave Trade and Abolition

The Sites of Memory project was the first research by English Heritage (now Historic England) to provide an overview for the public of the buildings, memorials and grave sites across England that reflects the role of the slave trade in British history, and resistance to it. The project explored the history of Black people in Britain during the 18th and 19th centuries by exploring the stories behind the historic built environment of local streets, buildings and landmarks. The research (by historians Angelina Osborne and S. I. Martin, on behalf of English Heritage) also identified sites associated with the slave trade and plantation wealth, and with the abolitionists who campaigned for an end to slavery. English Heritage also made recommendations for new listings for historic sites that mark the Black presence.

2007 Remembering Slavery 2007 Archive Project.pdf

Remembering Slavery Archive and Mapping Project

Remembering Slavery 2007 involved museums, galleries and other cultural organisations across the North East of England in a programme of exhibitions, events, performances, lectures and activities to explore the themes of slavery and abolition, and identify connections with the region.

The Remembering Slavery Archive Mapping and Research Project, led by the Literary and Philosophical Society in Newcastle and assisted by local history groups, uncovered a large amount of archival material in the region’s institutions, exposing many hitherto unknown links between the North East and the slave trade. The participating record offices and libraries were Tyne and Wear Archives Service, the Literary and Philosophical Society Library, the Northumberland Record Office and the Robinson Library’s Special Collections at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. This reassessment of the North East’s involvement in slavery and the slave trade led to new published research, including John Charlton's 'Hidden Chains: the Slavery Business and North East of England 1600-1865'. There was also a lecture programme at the Literary and Philosophical Society, including talks by Professor James Walvin. Several of the project volunteers published essays based on their research in 'North East History 39' (North East Labour History Society, 2008). The North East Slavery and Abolition Group was established among the project volunteers, and further work on slavery and abolition was included in the Society’s North East Popular Politics project (NEPPP), 2010-13. Much of the material found in the 2007 project has been loaded onto the NEPPP database.

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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Reconciliation Reredos

The Reconciliation Reredos project to develop a major public artwork was the response by Saint Stephen’s Church in Bristol city centre to a complex historical legacy. St Stephen's was the harbour church which benefitted from merchant’s donations, which effectively ‘blessed’ slave trade ships leaving the port, and which served as the burial site for Africans living in Bristol in the era of the transatlantic slave trade. The project involved the commissioning of a new altarpiece: four pieces of contemporary artwork exploring the mercantile connections that built the city of Bristol were created by artist Graeme Mortimer Evelyn, transforming the stone-carved Victorian Reredos housed in the church since 1875. A community learning programme engaged groups of people from the city through workshops, forums and events around the four focus concepts: Creation, Imago Dei (the Image of God in humanity), Reconciliation and Hope.

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Port City: On Exchange and Mobility

Port City was a large-scale exhibition featuring over 40 international artists and addressing issues of migration, trade and contemporary slavery. Set in the arts centre and gallery Arnolfini, it was accompanied by a programme of art, music, film, literature and educational activities. Coinciding with the bicentenary year, several works explored Bristol's histories of trade, as well as a contemporary port. For Seeds of Change, Brazilian artist Maria Thereza Alves researched sites around the Floating Harbour where ballast would have been off-loaded. The ballast seeds discovered were germinated by local groups so as to make a garden of ‘living history’, reflecting the different routes travelled by Bristol merchants. Other highlights included a model of a 'global village' made from sugar by Meschac Gaba and kaleidoscopes showing contemporary scenes from the triangle of the transatlantic slave trade by Mary Evans.

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 Knaresborough FEVA 2007.pdf

Knaresborough Festival of Entertainment and Visual Arts, 2007

Historian Audrey Dewjee gave a talk on the Yorkshire links with slavery, abolition and emancipation during Knaresborough's annual Festival of Entertainment and Visual Arts in 2007, entitled 'Merchants, Plantations and Slave Traders'.

2007 Museum of Edinburgh Slavery exhibition panels.pdf

It Didn't Happen Here! Edinburgh's Links in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

This exhibition at the Museum of Edinburgh explored the city's links to the slave trade and, in particular, trading connections with the Americas. Imports to the Port of Leith from North America and the West Indies included tobacco, rum, sugar, cotton, rice and indigo. The exhibition looked at Scots who sought fortunes in the West Indies, as well as Black residents who made their homes in Edinburgh. It also explored Edinburgh's connections to the abolition movement.

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Ireland and the Slave Trade

The Ulster's People's College and the South Belfast Roundtable on Racism launched an exhibition to mark the bicentenary at a Northern Ireland Committee for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (NICRAS) conference on slavery at the Linen Hall Library in 2007. A study group of community workers from NICRAS, the Chinese Welfare Association, Black Youth Network, Donegall Pass Community Forum and the Donegall Pass Community Centre produced the exhibition which told the story of Ireland's involvement in the slave trade and its abolition. Attention was drawn to the fact that merchants in Belfast and across Ireland profited by supplying slave plantations with provisions such as beef or salted fish; some owned slave plantations. The exhibition also stressed that a growing number of campaigners often fought both for Catholic Emancipation and the Abolition of Slavery, linking the two experiences of disadvantage. The exhibition also raised the issues of contemporary slavery and racism. The exhibition toured community centres in Northern Ireland.

2007 Remembering Slavery Dorman Museum Thumb.jpg

Into Africa

Into Africa was an exhibition held at the Dorman Museum in Middlesbrough, which examined the textile collaboration between Britain and West Africa after the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. The exhibition focused on the textile samples of Christopher Dresser, the most prominent industrial product designer of the Victorian period. The samples were originally made for European markets, but increasingly became popular in West African textile trades in the late 19th century. The exhibition placed the samples in the context of African textile history, the Lancashire cotton trade and modern day exports.

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Inhuman Traffic: The Business of the Slave Trade

An exhibition at the British Museum exploring how the transatlantic slave trade functioned. The display examined the commodities involved - tobacco, guns, textiles, sugar, rum - and the ways in which Africa, Europe and the Americas were linked in a global trade network. The exhibition also looked at resistance leaders including Toussaint L'Ouverture, Olaudah Equiano and Nanny of the Maroons, and their struggles to end enslavement. The exhibition was accompanied by a varied public programme at the museum exploring the legacy of the slave trade as part of the Atlantic Trade and Identity season, featuring film screenings, panel discussions, seminars and lectures.

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Hidden History of the Dales

This project was a collaboration between the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes and North Yorkshire Record Office to research people and places of the Yorkshire Dales connected with Africa, the Caribbean and India. 'Hidden History' collected local stories of slave owners and traders, abolitionists, Africans and Asians who moved to the Dales, and others like the actor Ira Aldridge who passed through. The project included various community activities. Working with actor Joe Williams, pupils from the Wensleydale School explored the life of Olaudah Equiano and performed alongside Joe at the exhibition opening. There were drop-in sessions on exploring family history, carnival costume making, talks and music. The exhibition toured to other locations in Yorkshire, including Boroughbridge Library. The Dales Countryside Museum has continued to collect information relating to individuals who were connected with the Yorkshire Dales and the wider world.

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Gilt of Cain

Gilt of Cain was unveiled by the Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu in Fen Court, City of London, in September 2008. The artwork, a collaboration by sculptor Michael Visocchi and poet Lemn Sissay, commemorates the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. The granite sculpture is composed of a group of columns surrounding a podium – suggesting an ecclesiastical pulpit or slave auctioneer’s block. Extracts from Lemn Sissay’s poem, ‘Gilt of Cain’, are engraved into the granite.

Fen Court is the site of a churchyard formerly of St Gabriel’s Fenchurch St and now in the Parish of St Edmund the King and St Mary Woolnoth, Lombard St. The latter has a strong historical connection with the British abolitionist movement of the 18th and 19th centuries: Reverend John Newton, a slave-trader turned preacher and abolitionist, was rector of St Mary Woolnoth between 1780 – 1807. This project was initiated by Black British Heritage and the Parish of St Mary Woolnoth and was commissioned by the City of London Corporation in partnership with the British Land Company.

Durham Record Office exhibition captions.pdf

Exhibition to mark the bicentenary of the 1807 Act

Durham Record Office held an exhibition of its original documents relating to slavery, the slave trade and abolition. These include reports, maps, and a number of letters, from, for example, Sir John Shaw Lefevre (Under Secretary for the Colonies in 1833), the abolitionist James Stephen and the prominent Quaker activist Josiah Forster. The exhibition was displayed in the Record Office and toured several venues in the region. It was also used for inspiration by members of Jackass Youth Theatre, who produced the play Sharp Practice after visiting the Record Office and consulting some of the original documents on display.