Department for Culture Media and Sport
bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade
25 March 2007 was exactly 200 years since Parliament passed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act.
This 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.
The bicentenary is an important opportunity to reflect on the struggles of the past, the progress we have made so far and the challenges that remain.
On 18 May 2007, the then Minister for Culture David Lammy addressed the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation in Hull.
We are playing an important part in marking the bicentenary. Museums, galleries and cultural organisations across the country are running events and exhibitions throughout 2007 and beyond.
With the Department for Education and Skills, we have provided joint funding of £925,000 for the Understanding Slavery Initiative to produce materials for schools about the transatlantic slave trade to support the teaching of history and citizenship, and teacher training.
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) is encouraging community organisations and heritage institutions to apply for funding for projects to mark the bicentenary. HLF has already awarded grants to more than 170 projects – totalling more than £14 million – which look at this important historical period.
To help people consider how best to commemorate this year’s anniversary and its continuing legacy, www.hlf.org.uk/rememberingslavery gives examples of bicentenary projects HLF has already supported as well as details on how to make a successful application.
The Awards for All grants programme funded by the Big Lottery Fund with the Arts Council, Heritage Lottery Fund and Sport England recently launched a website and online database – http://www.abolition200.org.uk/ – to publicise bicentenary events and provide information about funding schemes available for bicentenary projects.
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Nominate someone you know for an honour in the bicentenary year. The honours system is a great way to recognise outstanding merit and service to the nation. Honours recognise the achievements of ordinary people who do extraordinary things.
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Join the bicentenary commemoration. The links below show you what's on and how you can become involved.
There are many hundreds of events happening across the country, throughout the year, including:
Arts Council England | Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery | British Empire and Commonwealth Museum | British Library | British Museum | The Dark | English Heritage | Greater Manchester | Houses of Parliament | Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons | Museum of London & Museum in Docklands | National Gallery | National Maritime Museum | National Museums Liverpool | National Portrait Gallery | Natural History Museum | Palace of Westminster | Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology | Tate | Victoria & Albert Museum
Arts Council England is inviting poets to commemorate the bicentenary by writing a poem on the theme of enslavement. Eleven poems will be specially commissioned by the Arts Council from some of the country’s leading poets. A competition to find the twelfth poem runs until 28 September 2007. For more information, see the full competition details and entry form.
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"The Equiano Project" celebrates the life and times of the 18th Century writer and campaigner Olaudah Equiano.
A partnership project between Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery and The Equiano Society, this innovative programme includes a free, major exhibition running from 29 September 2007 - 13 January 2008 at Gas Hall) and a touring exhibition.
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The centrepiece of the South West's bicentenary commemoration programme is “Breaking the Chains: Britain and the abolition of the slave trade”. This ground-breaking exhibition presents authentic artefacts, film, music, photography, video and personal testimonies to provide visitors with an incredible multi-sensory experience.
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The British Library has hosted events and screenings relating to the bicentenary, and its website contains information and activities relating to the campaign for abolition.
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The Atlantic Trade & Identity season features a series of exhibitions, displays and events exploring transatlantic trade and its relationship to slavery, resistance and diasporas.
The focus for the bicentenary was “La Bouche du Roi: an artwork by Romuald Hazoumé” (until 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.
“La Bouche du Roi” was exhibited at the British Museum until May 2007, and is currently on tour through the British Museum’s Partnership UK scheme:
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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.
Dark Heritage tour 2007
- September - Gloucester Cathedral
- October - Hereford
- November - Nottingham
- December - Bolton
The Dark Heritage 2007 tour is run by Bee Arts CIC. Tour details can be found on their website.
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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.
Formal descriptions of listed buildings will also 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.
Events relating to the abolition of the slave trade will also take place at English Heritage properties around the country.
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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. The main programme will run until November 2007, with some activities continuing into 2008.
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The Hunterian Museum is working on Exhibiting Difference, a one-year project to engage audiences with the history of the slave trade through the history of medicine. This project is funded by the HLF and John Lyon's Charity.
As part of this project, the exhibition "A Visible Difference: skin race and identity 1720-1820" runs until 21 December 2007. Related events will also take place through the year.
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The Museum of London will undergo 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. On 10 November 2007, the museum will open “London, Sugar and Slavery”, the only permanent gallery in London that examines the city’s involvement in transatlantic slavery and its legacy on the capital.
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The free Scratch the Surface exhibition (until 4 November 2007) examines the role that the slave trade played in the lives of two people featured in portraits in our collection: Zoffany's portrait of "Mrs Oswald" and Sir Joshua Reynolds's "Colonel Tarleton". As part of the exhibition, 2004 Turner Prize nominee, Yinka Shonibare MBE, has been invited to create a new installation in response to these two portraits.
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The National Maritime Museum is marking the bicentenary year with a range of events to remember the millions of people who suffered and died through enslavement, to honour those who resisted it and pay tribute to those who campaigned for abolition. This programme includes film, poetry, music, discussion and debate for a range of audiences of all ages.
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On 23 August 2007, National Museums Liverpool opened the display galleries of the International Slavery Museum, a brand-new, world class cultural institution. This will build on the groundbreaking Transatlantic Slavery Gallery in the Merseyside Maritime Museum and will prove to be a magnificent new international institution and a worthy legacy of 2007.
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As well as events and an exhibition that ran until July 2007, the National Portrait Gallery has developed a new section for its website that explores aspects of the history of slavery and its abolition.
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The Natural History Museum is using the bicentenary 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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The Parliament & The British Slave Trade 1600 - 1807 website uses original source material, interwoven with narrative from expert historians, to tell the story of Parliament’s complex relationship with the British slave trade. It was produced by the 24 Hour Museum for the Parliamentary Archives.
In addition, Westminster Hall hosts "The British Slave Trade: Abolition, Parliament and people" until 23 September 2007. The exhibition is open to the public and free of charge.
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.
On 23 August 2007, special events in Parliament helped mark the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. This included the creation of a Commemoration Quilt.
Quilts have an important place in the history of African resistance to the slave trade: they were used as 'secret' forms of communication and allowed traditional African stories and culture to be passed on to generations born in the West Indies and Americas.
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Find out who really built the pyramids! As part of Black History Month, the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology will host a free afternoon of activities from 3-7 p.m. on Wednesday, 3 October 2007. This will include a recurring gallery talk, “Slavery in Ancient Egypt” and the chance to handle ancient Egyptian objects.
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As the repository of a national collection with its roots in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, Tate has a special interest in the bicentenary, and there is a specific historical strand which links Tate to the event. Sir Henry Tate, while not yet born when the 1807 Act was passed, was a notable philanthropist whose fortune was founded on the importation and refining of sugar, the product which emerged from the history of slave colonies in the Caribbean.
Tate will mark the abolition of Britain’s transatlantic slave trade with activities in Tate galleries throughout 2007, and by lending works from its Collection to support significant events such as The Olaudah Equiano Project in Birmingham. For more details see the Tate website.
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There will be a series of trails throughout the V&A's permanent collection until December 2007 that highlight the hidden - and often unexpected - links to slavery.
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The Government has published a commemorative magazine to mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade (PDF 1.53MB). Copies can be ordered free of charge by phoning 0870 122 6236 and quoting product code 06REU04476.
In March 2006 we 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.
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