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bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade
25 March 2007 is the 200th anniversary of the 1807 Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. This Act outlawed the slave trade throughout the British Empire and made it illegal for British ships to be involved in the trade, marking the beginning of the end for the transatlantic traffic in human beings.
bicentary of slaveryThe Anti-Slavery Arch at Paganhill, Stroud, has been restored, interpreted and promoted in a project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Local Heritage Initiative. Slavery was a significant, if overlooked, feature of the local history of the area, and the nearby ports at Bristol and Gloucester. The project also made links with the current anti-slavery movement.
The bicentenary is an important opportunity to reflect on the struggles of the past, the progress we have made and the challenges that remain.
* Abolition of the slave trade
Main Government website for the bicentenary
The Department for Communities and Local Government is responsible for the Government's plans to mark the Bicentenary. An Advisory Group chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister will galvanise action to ensure that 2007 makes an impact across the country.
DCMS is playing a part, too. Many museums, galleries and cultural organisations are running events and exhibitions marking the bicentenary.
We also published the bicentenary pamphlet: "Reflecting on the past and looking to the future".
Related DCMS media releases from 20 January 2006 and 25 March 2006 can be found in the press area. On 27 November 2006, the Prime Minister expressed "deep sorrow" that the slave trade ever existed.
* Education: "Understanding slavery"
* Funding
* Events to mark the bicentenary
* Other bodies marking the bicentenary
Education: "Understanding slavery"
With the Department for Education and Skills, we have provided joint funding of £910,000 for the Understanding slavery initiative to produce materials for schools about the trans-Atlantic slave trade to support the teaching of history and citizenship, and teacher training.
Funding
The Heritage Lottery Fund is funding projects that add to the collective understanding of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and its impact on national heritage. They have announced awards of over £20 million for projects and produced a guide for community-based organisations wanting to bid, "Remembering Slavery in 2007" (PDF 1mb), with advice on project ideas, examples of possible projects and details on how to make a successful funding application. An accompanying "guidance leaflet" (PDF 1.9mb) is also available.
Contact the Information Team on 020 7591 6042.
If you are planning a community-based event or project around the Bicentenary and are looking for non-Lottery sources of funding, visit the government funding website for a guide to national and regional government funding streams.
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Events to mark the bicentenary
A number of initiatives and events will mark the bicentenary. These programmes will raise awareness of the slave trade, its effects, and the existence of servitude even now.
You can join the bicentenary commemoration. The links below show you what's on and how you can become involved.
"African Snow" | Bristol Industrial Museum | British Empire and Commonwealth Museum | British Museum | The Dark | English Heritage | Greater Manchester | Museum of London & Museum of Docklands | National Museums Liverpool | National Portrait Gallery | Natural History Museum | Palace of Westminster | Royal Naval Museum | Science Museum | Victoria & Albert Museum | Wilberforce 2007
"African Snow"
Can victim and abuser ever be reconciled?
The play ?African Snow? brings together two men from opposite sides of the slave trade ? English sailor John Newton and the former slave Olaudah Equiano. Both were famous for writing about their experiences of the slave trade, and both testified before Parliament as part of the campaign for abolition.
?African Snow? can be seen at the York Theatre from 30 March 2007, with a national tour until the end of June. See the Riding Lights website for more details.
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Bristol Industrial Museum
The Bristol Industrial Museum has been awarded £10 million by the Heritage Lottery Fund to refurbish the museum, which will include the story of Bristol's involvement in the slave trade. The city-wide programme of work is being led by Bristol City Council.
Contact: Paul Barnett or Asif Khan: 0117 922 2000.
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British Empire and Commonwealth Museum, Bristol
The centrepiece of the South West's bicentenary commemoration programme, the ground-breaking exhibition ?Breaking the Chains: Britain and the abolition of the slave trade? will occupy an entire floor of the British Empire & Commonwealth Museum. It has been developed in partnership with Bristol City Council's Museums, Galleries and Archives service.
Entry to the exhibition is included with normal museum admission. For details call 0117 925 4980, email
enquiries@empiremuseum.co.uk or visit
www.empiremuseum.co.uk.
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British Museum
?Trade and Changing Identities: commemorating 500 years of Atlantic history and culture? is a season of events, exhibitions and displays embracing the themes of tragedy and trade, discovery and the cultural contribution of diasporas.
The focus for the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade will be ?La Bouche du Roi: an artwork by Romuald Hazoumé? (22 March ? 13 May 2007). The work, created between 1997 and 2000, is based on an 18th century print of the Brookes, a Liverpool slave ship. First published in 1788, this became the most famous image associated with the abolitionist movement.
More information on the work can be found on the ?Coming soon? page of the British Museum website.
?La Bouche du Roi? will then go on tour through the British Museum?s Partnership UK scheme:
* Ferens Art Gallery, Hull (2 June ? 15 July 2007)
* Liverpool International Slavery Museum, National Museums Liverpool (4 August ? 2 September 2007)
* Bristol?s City Museum (15 September ? 28 October 2007)
* Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle (10 November ? 3 February 2008)
* Horniman Museum, London (mid-November 2008 ? 17 January 2009)
In April 2007, there will also be a Hayward Touring/British Museum Partnership UK exhibition commencing in Hull, ??Mind-forg'd manacles?: William Blake and Slavery? ? 2007 is also the 250th anniversary of the birth of William Blake.
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The Dark
The interactive Dark installation, touring the UK in 2007, brings to life a horrific moment aboard an 18th century slave ship, as re-lived by three ghostly participants from the real event: John Newton, Edward Rushton and Kunle.
Groups of up to 15 people at a time can explore the specially created three-dimensional audio environment within a completely dark space.
At the Dark website virtual ghosts tell of their experiences as slave traders, sea captains and slaves, who passed through the ports of Liverpool and Bristol. The Dark has been created by Braunarts for Culture Online.
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English Heritage
English Heritage has announced its commitment to researching, for the first time, connections between the transatlantic slave trade and properties in its care. Properties from the relevant era (1600 to 1840) will be investigated for their links to the transatlantic slave trade in a research programme that could take almost two years.
It also announced that formal descriptions of listed buildings would be reviewed to acknowledge historic links to transatlantic slavery and the abolitionist movement, revealing the fuller story of England?s history. This new information will help provide guidance on sites where the social historic importance can be even greater than the architectural interest.
Both projects aim to help mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in a way that extends far beyond the general activities for 2007.
Other English Heritage activities for the 2007 bicentenary include:
* In May 2007, Kenwood House will reveal the story of Lord Mansfield and his grand-niece Dido ? a young woman of dual heritage brought up in the property ? and exploring Lord Mansfield significant legal victories for abolitionists in England
* A first national ?Sites of Memory? map and website with free information on buildings and memorials across England that reflect the role of the slave trade and resistance to it
* Responding to an invitation by heritage bodies in Ghana and St Kitts and Nevis to advise on surveying, conservation planning and Historic Environment Records for important sites relevant to the history of slavery
* A new project working with community groups in London will explore the hidden multicultural histories of objects in the collection at Rangers House, Blackheath
* A community project in Birmingham inspired by Elizabeth Cadbury?s work to abolish the slave trade. Birmingham women made textile bags, embroidered with messages, in which to hold the anti-slavery manifesto and deliver these across the city. In 2007, women across Birmingham will make their own similar bags and create a manifesto with their own messages to be exhibited over Heritage Open Days 2007.
* ?Coming to Ipswich?, an arts-based project with community groups that, in partnership with Ipswich Museum, explores people?s history in the context of how and when they came to be living in the town
* A project with ?Wilberforce 2007? in Hull to support community members as they mark their own ways of recognising the bicentennial, and create a heritage trail linking sites of importance relating to the transatlantic slave trade and its abolition
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?Revealing Histories, Remembering Slavery?: the legacy of the slave trade in Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester was heavily involved in supplying textiles for export to Africa and manufacturing the raw cotton that returned from America. Manchester itself was also a strongly abolitionist town.
"Revealing Histories, Remembering Slavery" involves 10 museums and cultural organisations in Greater Manchester who, for the first time, explore the history, impact and legacy of empire and the slave trade in the collections and histories of the area's cultural institutions and communities.
The museums have been conducting research into their collections in order to find objects and stories linked to the history of slavery and its economic, social and cultural impact on the region. Working in close collaboration with local communities, the partnership will build on this research to present a wide-ranging programme of activities that develop new interpretations and narratives highlighting the contemporary relevance of this history. The main programme will run from March to November 2007, with some activities continuing into 2008.
The research report is available on CD to curators, researchers, community groups and members of the public.
?Revealing History? partners: Manchester Museum; Manchester Art Gallery; Whitworth Art Gallery; People?s History Museum; Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester; Gallery Oldham; Bolton Museums, Art Gallery & Aquarium; Rochdale Arts & Heritage Services; North West Museums Hub; Arts About Manchester.
Contact: Nadine Andrews, project consultant and coordinator,
nadine@aam.org.uk.
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Museum of London & Museum in Docklands
The Museum of London will be undergoing refurbishment of its post 17th Century galleries in 2007, which will include reinterpretation of London's part in the slave trade. It will be developing community partnerships and supporting people in researching and interpreting their heritage.
The Museum in Docklands is located in a former sugar warehouse constructed specifically for the West Indies sugar trade. It is planning an exhibition in 2007 on the role of London in the slave trade, which will focus on reconciliation between descendants of the traders and slaves. It is researching the role of London in the slave trade for a new gallery which will explain the participation of London in the transatlantic trade through the West India Dock.
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National Museums Liverpool
National Museums Liverpool will open the display galleries of the International Slavery Museum on 23 August 2007. In the design of the displays and through focused outreach, the museum will target new visitors, particularly from under-represented and ethnic minority groups. The museum plans to expand this gallery into a international resource and research centre.
Contact: National Museums Liverpool 0151 478 4612.
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National Portrait Gallery
?Portraits, people and the abolition of the slave trade? (17 March ? 22 July 2007) will highlight key individuals in the gallery?s collections who have been linked to the slave trade and its abolition.
Ranging from Elizabeth I to William Wilberforce to Aidan McQuade, Director of Anti-Slavery International, these portraits cover individuals who invested in the slave trade, or who owned slaves and supported slavery, as well as images of slaves themselves and portraits of people who were prominent in the movement to abolish the slave trade.
The trail will be supported by an Abolition of Slavery website and by a varied programme of events including a special commemoration weekend of music, performance, talks, story-telling, film and other activities over 23-25 March 2007. See the National Portrait Gallery website for more details.
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Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum are using the bi-centenary of the abolition of the slave trade as an opportunity to commemorate and explore the science, natural world and naturalists of the time. The 2007 programme will bring science, history and visitor perspectives together in a series of interactive, discussion-based events.
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Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament)
The bicentenary of British Parliamentary abolition of the slave trade is to be marked by Parliament with "The British Slave Trade: Abolition, Parliament and people", in Westminster Hall from 23 May to 23 September 2007.
Exhibits will be on loan from national and regional museums, including the wooden chest and contents used by Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846) in his nationwide campaign for abolition, which is to be lent by the Wisbech and Fenland Museum.
The exhibition will be open to the public, free of charge.
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Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard
The key role played by the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron in helping to combat slavery will be highlighted in a special exhibition "Chasing Freedom: The Royal Navy and the Suppression of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (1807-2007)" to be held at the Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
Through moving accounts written by men serving in the Africa Squadron, the exhibition will illustrate these very personal experiences and the human stories behind the slave trade and its suppression. The displays will also highlight the historic and continuing role of the modern Royal Navy in combating people trafficking and piracy and defending human rights.
Chasing Freedom opens on 27 January 2007 and runs until January 2008. For more information see
www.historicdockyard.co.uk.
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Science Museum
With assistance from Elizabeth Anionwu, member of the Wellcome Wolfson Board of Trustees, geneticist and the Mary Seacall Professor of Nursing at Thames University, the museum will create an audience-led series of events in the Dana Centre and an interpretation trail within the Science Museum.
The goal is to interpret various objects in the Museum?s collection in the context of the slave trade and its abolition. Events will occur at various times between spring and autumn 2007.
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Victoria & Albert Museum
Uncomfortable Truths at the Victoria & Albert Museum from 20 February - 17 June 2007 is a contemporary exhibition of new and specially commissioned work. The exhibition will address the ways in which the legacy of slavery informs contemporary art and design in a display of a series of works throughout the museum's public spaces, seeking to reassess human cost of slavery.
In conjunction with the exhibition there will also be a series of trails throughout the V&A's permanent collection from 20 February 2007- December 2007 that highlight the hidden - and often unexpected - links to slavery. There will also be a conference on 23 & 24 February 2007, "From cane field to tea-cup: The impact of the trans-Atlantic slave trade on Art", which will examine and recontextualise the production, circulation and collection of design and the decorative arts in relation to the slave trade's generation of wealth.
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Wilberforce 2007
A full programme of events are being planned under the name Wilberforce 2007, led by Hull City Council with the Wilberforce House Museum, the Wilberforce Institute for the study of slavery and emancipation and the University of Hull. The HLF have awarded a grant for Hull Museums & Art Gallery of £800,500 to redevelop and update their slavery and abolition collections.
Contact: Mitch Upfold 01482 300300
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Other bodies
Set all free
"Set all free" is a wide-ranging project to remember the past and apply its lessons to tackle the legacies of trans-Atlantic slavery and its modern day equivalent. "Set all free" has been set up by "Churches Together in England" as a collaboration between those who are happy to work with a Christian ethos on the relevance of the Bicentenary. Their website provides a range of information on educational resources, what's on, links and contact details.
Contact: Kate Yates 020 7529 8141
Anti-Slavery International
Anti-Slavery International, founded in 1839, is planning a range of activities and resources around the bicentenary, seeking to raise awareness of slavery past and present. These include publications, an exhibition, a video, education materials, and campaigns on slavery worldwide.
Contact: Sarah Williams 020 7501 8933.
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