Interpreting the Bicentenary in Britain
2009; Frank Cass & Co.; Volume: 30; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/01440390902818989
ISSN1743-9523
Autores Tópico(s)Global Maritime and Colonial Histories
ResumoAbstract This article compares historians’ debates about the abolition of the slave trade with the representation of abolition in British public history, including museums, parliamentary debates and newspaper articles. It argues that shifts in the politics of race in Britain since the 1970s led to official institutions such as museums focusing on previously excluded issues such as the resistance of enslaved people, but that some elements of historians’ interests in abolition received little attention. These included the political context of the decision to end the British slave trade, and the impact on Africa of that decision. Acknowledgements The research for this article and the conference at which it was initially presented was supported by the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the British Academy and Newcastle University. I thank them for their support. Thanks also to Gemma Romain, Jane Webster and the participants at the ‘Remembering Slave Trade Abolitions’ conference for discussion of the issues raised here. Notes On the Westminster Abbey service, which drew additional attention as a result of the protest by the activist Toyin Agbetu, see Petre ‘Slavery Protester Disrupts Westminster Service’. For ‘Maafa Truth 2007’, see http://www.ligali.org/truth2007/maafatruth/screenings.htm/. For ‘Breaking the Shackles’, see http://www.tynemouthpageant.org/shackles.html/ For analysis of this development, see Harris, ‘Coming of Age’; Wood, ‘“I Did the Best I Could for My Day”’. ‘The Abolitionist's Parlour’ was exhibited at the Feren's Art Gallery, Hull, in May and June 2007. ‘Once Upon a Time in the West There was Lace’, based on a residency by Donkor during summer 2007, was at Wollaton Hall, Nottingham, in January and February 2008 (see http://www.laceslavery.org.uk/). ‘Human Cargo’ included work by Raimi Gbadamosi, Lisa Cheung, Melanie Jackson, Fiona Kam Meadley and Jyll Bradley (see http://www.humancargo.co.uk/contemporaryarts.html). For detailed description of several of these exhibitions, see Bernier and Newman, ‘Public Art’. Speech by Malcolm Moss, House of Commons Hansard, debates for 20 March 2007, col. 742. Weinstein, ‘Making of the 1807 Bicentenary’. For an exploration of the difference between museum representations of the history of slavery and those in the broader commercial media, see Prior, ‘Commemorating Slavery 2007’. The petition is included in the online version of the exhibition (http://slavetrade.parliament.uk/slavetrade/assetviews/documents/a50mancpetitionforabolition.html). This text is taken from the exhibition's website (http://www.empiremuseum.co.uk/exhibitions/st2007.htm). The stamps also commemorated William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson, Granville Sharp and Hannah More (http://www.royalmail.com/portal/stamps/content1?catId=47000688&mediaId=47000690). Lammy and Goggins, Reflecting on the Past, 8. This publication, despite its textual focus on the breadth of the campaign, used portraits of two leaders – Wilbeforce and a black man ‘believed to be … Olaudah Equiano’ (in fact, almost certainly not Equiano) – for its cover image. In January 2007, in an acceptance speech for an honorary doctorate awarded by Newcastle University, Brown directly connected the ‘thousands of people [who] campaigned to achieve one of the unique changes brought about in Britain at that time – the abolition of the slave trade’, with the anti-debt campaign (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press.office/newslink/index.html?ref=1172493498). He concluded his speech to the September 2007 TUC conference by noting that: ‘Two hundred years ago it was the British people who came together and with the biggest mass petition that had ever been mounted in the history of our country the British people brought the trade in slavery to an end’, linking this campaign to today's Millenium Development Goals (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1562685/Gordon-Brown's-speech-to-the-TUC-in-full.html). Hunt: ‘A bold step away’. Brown, Moral Capital. House of Commons Hansard, debates for 20 March 2007, col. 706 (Abbott), col. 712 (Corbyn). Abbott also stressed the significance of popular abolitionism in Britain. Sewell, Black Tribunes; Shukra, ‘Black Sections in the Labour Party’; Jeffers, ‘Black Sections in the Labour Party’. Her Majesty's Government, Bicentenary. Her Majesty's Government, Bicentenary, 6. The pamphlet also notes that: ‘While Whites and Africans campaigned against slavery in Britain, the persistent protest of enslaved Africans 5,000 miles away in the Caribbean played a direct role in abolition.’ See also the parliamentary speech of William Hague, biographer of William Wilberforce and former Conservative leader, which argued that abolition ‘took place because of the wide dissemination of truths about the trade, because of the shifting and then harnessing of public opinion, and because of the actions and contributions of slaves themselves, coupled with the stoic perseverance of a few principled individuals’ (House of Commons Hansard, debates for 20 March 2007, cols 696–697, emphasis added). http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/map/index.shtml, ‘Resistance and Abolition’, section 27 of 35. Amazing Grace, dir. Michael Apted (Bristol Bay/Samuel Goldwyn Films, 2006). Oldfield, ‘Chords of Freedom’, 98. On these shifts, see Hall, ‘From Scarman to Stephen Lawrence’. Hodge, ‘The Bicentenary’. The Cross-Community Forums, open meetings held in London between 2005 and 2007, were initiated by the African-led organisation Rendezvous of Victory, in alliance with Anti-Slavery International and the World Development Movement. Thanks to Gemma Romain for discussion on this point, and for sending me copies of emails sent to the BASA listserv during 2007. New Nation, 27 November 2006. For the text of Blair's article, see http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page10487/. For an analysis of Blair's statement, see Scott, ‘Preface’. For Ligali, which describes itself as a ‘Pan African Human Rights Organisation’, see http://www.ligali.org/. For discussion of the Bristol organisations, see Madge Dresser's article in this issue. House of Commons Hansard, debates for 20 March 2007, col. 713; ‘Abolition of the Slave Trade Bicentennial 2007, Ignored No More’, http://www.london.gov.uk/slavery/index.jsp/ Quote from Brown, Moral Capital, 15, which also summarises the debate. Important refutations of Williams's ‘decline’ thesis include: Drescher, Econocide; Drescher, ‘The Decline Thesis’; Eltis, Economic Growth. For the most recent substantial defence of Williams, see Carrington, Sugar Industry. For a recent evaluation, see Morgan, Slavery, Atlantic Trade and the British Economy. Blackburn, Overthrow of Colonial Slavery. Davis, Problem of Slavery. Blackburn, Overthrow of Colonial Slavery, 152. Blackburn, Overthrow of Colonial Slavery, 314. On the problematic dynamics of relationships between museum professionals and academic advisors, see Prior, ‘Commemorating Slavery 2007’. The Terrorism Act 2006 introduced a number of new crimes including committing ‘acts preparatory to terrorism’, ‘encouragement to terrorism’ and ‘dissemination of terrorist publications’; it also allowed for the detention of suspects in terrorism cases for up to 28 days without charge (http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2006/ukpga_20060011_en_1). During 2007, government ministers repeatedly but ultimately unsuccessfully argued for the extension of the 28-day limit (see, e.g., Anon., ‘Increase 28-day Detention Limit’; Anon., “UK Terror Detention Limit’; Anon., “Smith seeks 42-day Detention Limit’). The exception to this was Pan-Africanist material, which employed the Afrocentric concept of ‘Maafa’ to address not just the period of slavery, but also the colonisation of Africa (see, e.g., the film Maafa Truth 2007). On the use of enslaved people to produce palm oil and other export crops in West Africa after 1807, see Lovejoy, Transformations in Slavery, 165–190; Law, Ouidah, 211–14. Hopkins, ‘Economic Imperialism’; Hopkins, An Economic History. For a set of essays responding to Hopkins's thesis, see Law, From Slave Trade to ‘Legitimate’ Commerce. Sherwood, After Abolition. Black, ‘After 1807’. Adiele E. Afigbo, keynote address at the conference ‘The Bloody Writing is Forever Torn: Domestic and International Consequences of the First Governmental Effort to Abolish the Atlantic Slave Trade’, Accra and Cape Coast, Ghana, August 2007. Afigbo's talk can be viewed at: http://oieahc.wm.edu/conferences/ghana/sessions.html/. Alistair Burt, House of Commons Hansard, debates for 20 March 2007, col. 776. Claire Curtis-Thomas, House of Commons Hansard, debates for 20 March 2007, col. 746. This is how African involvement in the slave trade is presented in the Ligali film Maafa Truth 2007, for instance. James Walvin, email to author, 10 September 2008. John Charlton, who spoke to popular audiences in North East England on many occasions during and after 2007 confirmed that this question ‘has cropped up at nearly every event I have done’. Email to author, 10 September 2008. For an important discussion of similar moral and historiographical problems, see Austen, ‘Slave Trade’. Comment by ‘Matt’, 1 April 2007, Catalyst Magazine website: http://83.137.212.42/siteArchive/catalystmagazine/Default.aspx.LocID-0hgnew0sl.RefLocID-0hg01b001006009.Lang-EN.htm. For an important analysis of this phenomenon in relation to the United States, see Johnson, OAH State of the Field.
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