The hell of a British slave ship
I’ve been listening again to Dutch historian Rutger Bregman and his BBC Reith lectures that were broadcast in December. These were his ‘reservoirs of hope’ talks. The second edition of four, How to start a Moral Revolution, stuck out for me given the tour I do called, somewhat clumsily, The Pan-African Congress, Slavery, Frederick Douglas and Thomas Clarkson.
This is part of Bregman’s transcript concerning ‘12 men with black hats’ who met in May 1787 and started a movement that spread across the country.
‘In the UK,’ writes Bregman, ‘a country where less than 3% of the population and not a single woman could vote, they (abolitionists) launched a movement that would mobilise millions to overthrow one of the oldest economic systems. It was the first great political movement for the rights of others. In all of human experience, observes the great historian Adam Hochschild, there was no precedent for such a campaign.
‘It's tempting to see the official abolition of legal slavery as the inevitable consequence of progress, that it would have disappeared anyway in a world of cars and computers, just like the stagecoach and the carrier pigeon have faded away from our lives. Yet historians tell us a different story. Dig deeper, and you realise just how unlikely abolition was. A historical accident, one prominent scholar has called it, a contingent event that might just as easily never have occurred.'
This is part of Bregman’s transcript concerning ‘12 men with black hats’ who met in May 1787 and started a movement that spread across the country.
‘In the UK,’ writes Bregman, ‘a country where less than 3% of the population and not a single woman could vote, they (abolitionists) launched a movement that would mobilise millions to overthrow one of the oldest economic systems. It was the first great political movement for the rights of others. In all of human experience, observes the great historian Adam Hochschild, there was no precedent for such a campaign.
‘It's tempting to see the official abolition of legal slavery as the inevitable consequence of progress, that it would have disappeared anyway in a world of cars and computers, just like the stagecoach and the carrier pigeon have faded away from our lives. Yet historians tell us a different story. Dig deeper, and you realise just how unlikely abolition was. A historical accident, one prominent scholar has called it, a contingent event that might just as easily never have occurred.'
Thomas Clarkson was at the heart of the abolition movement and gave a remarkable speech at Manchester Cathedral
These sentences are very potent: ‘It was the first great political movement for the rights of others. In all of human experience, observes the great historian Adam Hochschild, there was no precedent for such a campaign.’
You can read about Hochschild here.
Chattel slavery was one of the great horrors of human history involving Africans forced across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. Bregman’s point remains fruitful though (the whole lecture is worth listening to or reading) because the British anti-slavery movement was unprecedented but reveals how over time a small group of determined people can enact massive change in this case for good but for ill too. This is Bregman’s point, his reservoir of hope’, if, of course, the massive change is for the good. None of this destroys for one second British culpability in the slave trade.
Bregman could have emphasised the African contribution a little more in his lecture. A key player was Olaudah Equiano, the slave who bought his own freedom. He was one of the 12 men who created that abolitionist movement after all. His 1789 autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, sold so well that nine editions were published during his life and helped secure passage of the British Slave Trade Act. The slave rebellions in Jamaica and Haiti also reinforced opinion amongst those in favour of abolition.
You can read about Hochschild here.
Chattel slavery was one of the great horrors of human history involving Africans forced across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. Bregman’s point remains fruitful though (the whole lecture is worth listening to or reading) because the British anti-slavery movement was unprecedented but reveals how over time a small group of determined people can enact massive change in this case for good but for ill too. This is Bregman’s point, his reservoir of hope’, if, of course, the massive change is for the good. None of this destroys for one second British culpability in the slave trade.
Bregman could have emphasised the African contribution a little more in his lecture. A key player was Olaudah Equiano, the slave who bought his own freedom. He was one of the 12 men who created that abolitionist movement after all. His 1789 autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, sold so well that nine editions were published during his life and helped secure passage of the British Slave Trade Act. The slave rebellions in Jamaica and Haiti also reinforced opinion amongst those in favour of abolition.
The incredible Olaudah Equiano
Bregman’s lecture also includes the efforts of William Wilberforce but focusses more on Thomas Clarkson. To my mind it was always Clarkson who was the most important. This is certainly true in a Manchester context. His sermon here led to the first petition demanding the end of the slave trade from any UK town or city.
It’s a curiosity that Manchester was at the centre of the abolitionist movement in the UK despite its vast appetite for slave picked cotton. On my tour I ask where were the conflict lines between pro-abolition and anti-abolition in the city.
I take the story forward to the mucky compromise of the second Act of Parliament, the 1833 Abolition Act which freed the slaves within the Empire (the 1807 Act had abolished the ‘trade’ in slaves). It moves on to discuss the continuing Manchester abolition campaign concerning slavery in the USA and featuring African-American visitors to Manchester such as Sarah Parker Remond, Willam A Jackson and the fabulous orator Frederick Douglass. The American Civil War links are explored. The tour concludes with the epic meeting of the Fifth Pan-African Congress in 1945 at All Saints which along with global figures included important locally-based campaigners Ras T Makonnen, Peter Millard and Len Johnson.
Back to Bregman’s statement: ‘'It was the first great political movement for the rights of others.' This can’t be ignored in any telling of the UK and slavery. Many commentators, particularly museums and galleries, should seek the truth about the utter horror of chattel slavery but also look for balance when telling the story of the UK abolition of slavery. To tell that full story we shouldn’t ignore those few who ‘launched a movement that would mobilise millions to overthrow one of the oldest economic systems’.
Slavery was endemic to all cultures and had been from time immemorial. Someone, somewhere, had to make a stand, and for a combination of reasons that stand was made here. History can be glorious, and it was these campaigners who made the contemplation of slavery shameful for right minded future generations despite its shadowy and illegal persistence across the planet. That was a glorious moment. That was a turning point.
It’s a curiosity that Manchester was at the centre of the abolitionist movement in the UK despite its vast appetite for slave picked cotton. On my tour I ask where were the conflict lines between pro-abolition and anti-abolition in the city.
I take the story forward to the mucky compromise of the second Act of Parliament, the 1833 Abolition Act which freed the slaves within the Empire (the 1807 Act had abolished the ‘trade’ in slaves). It moves on to discuss the continuing Manchester abolition campaign concerning slavery in the USA and featuring African-American visitors to Manchester such as Sarah Parker Remond, Willam A Jackson and the fabulous orator Frederick Douglass. The American Civil War links are explored. The tour concludes with the epic meeting of the Fifth Pan-African Congress in 1945 at All Saints which along with global figures included important locally-based campaigners Ras T Makonnen, Peter Millard and Len Johnson.
Back to Bregman’s statement: ‘'It was the first great political movement for the rights of others.' This can’t be ignored in any telling of the UK and slavery. Many commentators, particularly museums and galleries, should seek the truth about the utter horror of chattel slavery but also look for balance when telling the story of the UK abolition of slavery. To tell that full story we shouldn’t ignore those few who ‘launched a movement that would mobilise millions to overthrow one of the oldest economic systems’.
Slavery was endemic to all cultures and had been from time immemorial. Someone, somewhere, had to make a stand, and for a combination of reasons that stand was made here. History can be glorious, and it was these campaigners who made the contemplation of slavery shameful for right minded future generations despite its shadowy and illegal persistence across the planet. That was a glorious moment. That was a turning point.
Heaton Hall
Given Manchester’s role in abolition and subsequent related history the necessity for a Museum of Manchester is reinforced. It’s crazy that a city so important across so many areas of human activity over the last 250-300 years has nothing with which to truly celebrate and examine its own history.
The Science and Industry Museum and The People’s History Museum are the closest we have but of course the history of the city is not their central focus. There are temporary and piecemeal exhibitions here and there, Central Library is very good for these, but again nothing that gives a rounded view of the Manchester story.
It’s not as though we lack an ideal candidate for hosting such a museum. There’s an empty building waiting to be repurposed that used to one of our great galleries. We have Heaton Hall. It’s glorious rooms could be the perfect host for the Museum of Manchester along with those damaged spaces on the property that the City of Manchester has mothballed and neglected. The Hall already has a wonderful group of volunteer ‘friends’ who could be mobilised to help.
What better way to give life to Heaton Hall while pulling tourists and others out of the city centre on the tram? It kills two birds with one stone, Heaton Hall and Park receives an almighty boost and the city region gets a proper museum in which to mark its significance.
There are two dates for the public tours this year covering the abolition theme, the 219th anniversary of the 1807 Slave Trade Act on Friday 1 May. This is at 5pm. Then there’s the regular annual tour close to anniversary of the 5th Pan-African Congress in 1945. This takes place at 10am on Saturday 31 October.
The Science and Industry Museum and The People’s History Museum are the closest we have but of course the history of the city is not their central focus. There are temporary and piecemeal exhibitions here and there, Central Library is very good for these, but again nothing that gives a rounded view of the Manchester story.
It’s not as though we lack an ideal candidate for hosting such a museum. There’s an empty building waiting to be repurposed that used to one of our great galleries. We have Heaton Hall. It’s glorious rooms could be the perfect host for the Museum of Manchester along with those damaged spaces on the property that the City of Manchester has mothballed and neglected. The Hall already has a wonderful group of volunteer ‘friends’ who could be mobilised to help.
What better way to give life to Heaton Hall while pulling tourists and others out of the city centre on the tram? It kills two birds with one stone, Heaton Hall and Park receives an almighty boost and the city region gets a proper museum in which to mark its significance.
There are two dates for the public tours this year covering the abolition theme, the 219th anniversary of the 1807 Slave Trade Act on Friday 1 May. This is at 5pm. Then there’s the regular annual tour close to anniversary of the 5th Pan-African Congress in 1945. This takes place at 10am on Saturday 31 October.
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