Sites of Memory

English Heritage uncovers some key hidden legacies...

When the stories behind our local streets and landmarks are told they can give us a glimpse into history on our doorsteps. The late 16th to early 19th centuries – the period of Britain’s most active involvement in the transatlantic slave trade - have left a wealth of evidence in records and the historic environment that today tells the story of anti-slavery campaigners from all backgrounds, of those who grew wealthy on the trade in human lives and also of those who were themselves slaves in England but nevertheless left their mark on history.

Sites recorded include:
The wreck of the “Douro”, a Liverpool ship wrecked and sunk beneath the seas at Round Rock, Isles of Scilly in 1843, 36 years after British ships were banned from the slave trade

Liverpool Town Hall, was at the centre of the city’s trading activity. All of the city’s mayors between 1787 and 1807 were involved in the slave trade. Built in 1754, the building’s frieze shows African faces, elephants, crocodiles and lions representing Liverpool’s African trading links.

‘Samboo’s’ Grave, at Sunderland Point, near Lancaster
www.timetravel-britain.com/05/July/sunderland.shtml: ‘Samboo’ is thought to have been a young African servant to a sea captain or merchant. Local stories say that he caught a fever and died soon after arriving on shore in 1736. The plaque on his grave was added 60 years later and the site has gained poignancy in representing other unknown slaves.

Ottobah Cugoano (about 1757 - unknown) was a friend of Equiano and one of the first African Britons actively engaged in the campaign for the abolition of slavery. His book, Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, published in 1787, rejected all arguments that supported African enslavement. From at least 1784 Cugoano had been employed as a servant by the fashionable painters Richard and Maria Cosway at their home, now Schomberg House, 81 Pall Mall, London SW1 which can be seen from the street.

Britain’s oldest memorial to the abolition of slavery, the Anti-Slavery Arch, Farmhill Road, Paganhill, Stroud in Gloucestershire, was erected in 1834 by Henry Wyatt (1793-1847) to celebrate the passing of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833.
www.anti-slaveryarch.com

For a digital version of the leaflet visit www.english-heritage.org.uk

Top Pic : Bronze manilla from the wreck of the “Douro”. C Mark Dunkley, © English Heritage

The Legacy of Dido A brand new exhibition, ‘Mansfield, Slavery and Justice, A public and private legacy’, will be held at Kenwood House, London to mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the British transatlantic slave trade by Parliament. It is known that a young woman of dual heritage was brought up at Kenwood as part of the aristocratic family of Lord Mansfield, who, as Lord Chief Justice, presided over test cases on the legality of the slave trade brought by Abolitionists in England. The story of Lord Mansfield and his great-niece, Dido, will be revealed in an English Heritage exhibition in May 2007 at Kenwood House, Hampstead Lane, London. NW3 7JR Exhibition runs from 24 May to 2 September 2007. Open daily 11am – 5pm, ADMISSION FREE Portrait of Dido Elizabeth Belle and Lady Elizabeth Finch Hatton. From the collection of the Earl of Mansfield, Scone Palace, Perth. © English Heritage