As Britain continues the 2007 celebration of 'Abolition 200', the legal end of Britain's official involvement in trans-Atlantic slave trading, and with most eyes on the main slave trade ports like Bristol and Liverpool, our local councils seem quite unconcerned about direct or indirect involvement with the profits of slavery in Notts and East Midlands, and seem happy just to leave local churches to do the soul searching. Let's ask some questions...
An easy example of Notts involvement in slavery is the well-known Mellish family, whose name is probably best associated in local minds with a Nottingham school. The family is known to have had involvement with ownership and official dealings with plantation estates in the West Indies in the 18th century. Even a cursory look at the Mellish family online archive record reveals inheritance of slave plantation estate property from the governor of the Bahamas (John Tinker), and we can read about William Mellish's official dealings with plantation monies in Jamaica as Receiver General for the Customs & Excise (he was also MP for Retford).
Photos: George Africanus: Re-dedication of former slave's grave
Links: The Mellish and Buchanan Families of Blyth and Hodsock - A Brief History | The Nottingham Sparrow, Nottingham AF | 'Slavery - the Hidden History', Bristol Radical History Group | Anti-slavery march demands reparations for slave trade
Why should our local councils care about this now? Well, apart from the Henry Mellish school association, Sir Andrew Buchanan is the county's Lord Lieutenant and Keeper of the Rolls for Nottinghamshire since 1991 (Lord-Lieutenant is the permanent local representative the Queen in that county and we are told this is a key council roll). The Buchanan family is related to the Mellish's by marriage and though this liason also owns Hodsock Priory, the place near Blyth that makes a fortune each year fleecing the public for the privilege to see its snowdrop garden. This is just one example of a current big-name tie to slave owning in the county. How much more of the fortunes in our county and city might be attributed to the profits of slavery?
Another 'missed opportunity' is to look at the East Midlands cotton spinning industry. Notts was once awash with mills beside the River Leen and elsewhere. There association with slavery is perhaps forgotten because the region's cotton industry was declining before the 1807 Slave Trade Act and the later 1833 Slavery Abolition Act. But how much of the region's prosperity of the time, before abolition and since, was due to slave grown cotton? Shouldn't this be a subject for consideration in the local Abolition 200 proceedings?
It is known that vast numbers of unrepentant slave traders and colonial plantation estate owners (many who were 'absentee landlords' living in Britain) and even abolitionists (who were often slave plantation owners themselves) made a fortune out of government compensation for cost of slaves they had to 'free', which totalled 20 million pounds in the early 1830s. Many freed slaves then continued to work in near slavery conditions for their slave masters as 'appentice' or 'indentured' labourers. What was Nottingham's and Notts' involvement with this compensation pay out and continued exploitation in the colonies?
In Bristol it is known that much of the compensation money was used to build the mills, gasworks, railways and canals which continued to exploit slave-grown cotton from the Southern states of the USA, and at the same time created misery for mill labourers - working class women, children & men - here in Britain. What level of compensation benefitted individuals in Notts and what did they do with the money?
These are the kinds of questions which could be asked, but seldom are, because the answers are likely to be uncomfortable for today's rich and powerful.
Homepage:
Similar story in Northamptonshire - empire history deliberately hidden
14.03.2007 22:29
Picture extract from History workshop journal - slavery history of & northants
Text extract - including Montagu family link to slavery
Author Julia Bush pointed to a "deliberately selective forgetting of Northamptonshire's empire links that is standard in the county's museums, in local history publications, and in most of the history taught in the county's schools."
Links between Montagu family (their estate near Kettering) and slavery, including bringing slave children home, and other info about links to Caribbean slavery in Northants are mentioned.
Source: Julia Bush, "Moving On – and Looking Back"
Hist Workshop J.1993; 36: 183-194
Anon
slavery abolished?
15.03.2007 01:46
Awaiting transport in India to my grandad fighting nazs my grandmother fresh from years in a siberian slave labour camp said conditions of indian workers was worse than USSR in British empires, thankfully after world war2 british soldiers striked with solidarity to the indian freedom movement.
People tied to mortgages, Wage slavery, maintaining unemployment to help keep others scared & wages cheaper. Makes short term profit for corporations, sod the cost of both of these policies on society.
Slavery is still also being used in many prisons around the world, especially america with a massive army of slave workers , Mr Blair is following with this, check this excellent pisstake of Wilkinsons stores involvement
sick of being a wage slave?
join the industrial workers of the world!
a radical union for equality & revolution,
now regrowing it was the biggest domestic threat to american capitalism with its massive solidarity campaigns & protection of workers from robbers from the gutter right up to the Rockefellers at the start of 20th cwentury, not the images of anarchy those in power want you to see
wwww.iww.org.uk
robin ludd
When will slavery finally be abolished?
15.03.2007 02:54
- Slavery continues - both of humans and, on a vast scale, animal slavery too.
- Oppression knows no boundaries -'one struggle - one fight'.
- We should honour the memory of slavery abolitionist William Wilberforce by accepting his wider compassion as co-founder of the RSPCA.
1807 was a very different era when, although there were
many great thinkers that were vegetarian (see
pat
e-mail:
arc@veggies.org.uk
Homepage:
http://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/nar/2007-03/msg00005.html
Slavery links in Birmingham and Manchester & more on Notts
15.03.2007 15:12
The 'Hidden History' story is repeated in Birmingham and Manchester as highlighted by the following links...
Merry Media News - "Inside Out Uncovers Slavery"
Inside Out - West Midlands: Friday March 2, 2007
- Manufacturers in Birmingham were responsible for the production of shackles and muzzles for slaves, steam engines for Caribbean sugar plantations, and guns for sale in Africa in exchange for more slaves.
- In Manchester, textiles were produced for the Africa market made with slave-grown cotton from the Southern states of America, production which continued well after the Abolition of 1833-8.
In Nottingham & Notts, for the (slave trade) Abolition 200 event, the local councils and churches seem only interested in promoting the life of 'George Africanus' (who was taken at the age of 3 from Sierra Leone to Wolverhampton, and subsequently apprenticed by his master Benjamin Molineux after it became illegal to own a slave on British soil in 1772). George Africanus is now promoted locally as one of Nottingham's famous 'enterpreneurs' & his grave is due to be rededicated at St. Marys on 25th March.
Note that this successful enterpeneurship involved, amongst other things, a service to register servants. He was also involved in 'Watch and Ward' a kind of early police unit that would have been used locally for putting down direct action around the time of the reform riots (early 1800s).
Most slaves weren't so lucky of course. After the 1772 law many domestic slaves in Britain became destitute when they got dumped by their owners.
The horror of the slave trade and the inhuman empire economy resulted in vast numbers of deaths on the sea journey from Africa to the Caribbean and on Caribbean plantations (average life expectancy of slaves after arrival was just a few years).
George Africanus also provides another Notts slavery connection since (according to Wikipedia entry) "the father of his owner, John Molineux (1685-1754) came from Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, son of Darcy Molineux (1652-1716) who was High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire in 1687 and Deputy Lieutenant of Nott's between 1698-1702. John settled in Wolverhampton around 1700. The Nott's family Molineux came from Teversall near Mansfield."
For more on life of George Africanus, see also:
The Nottingham Sparrow
Homepage:
http://www.afed.org.uk/nottingham/
Black Servants and Slaves in Northamptonshire
15.03.2007 17:52
"Local parish registers contain a number of entries relating directly to young black servants (or slaves) working for the Northamptonshire gentry. African children were often fashionably baptised with the names of Roman heroes such as Caesar, Hannibal, Alexander and Mark Anthony."
Anon
George Africanus
17.03.2007 01:26
George Africanus came to Britain as a slave from Sierra Leone at the age of three - around 1766, it is thought. After belonging to a Wolverhampton family for around 18 years he found freedom. Having passed through Nottingham before and admired the city, he headed here to live. He founded a servants' register office as well as working as a waiter and labourer.
He married a local girl, Esther Shaw, in 1788 who he lived with until his death in 1834.
In 2003 his grave in St Mary's churchyard in the Lace Market was uncovered and commerorated with a plaque. Percy Dread, who sang a song for its unveiling, said at the time: "This man has been here a long time and has gone through adversity and made good. I think we should know about him - just like Robin Hood, we should know about George."
More on posting at:
&
Tash
e-mail:
tash@indymedia.org
One more Notts slavery link ... and slave trade photos from 1860-80s
19.03.2007 20:58
As for the slave trade, amazing photos from the website
Too bad that Notts, unlike Leicester and Lincs, does not appear to have engaged at all with this project.
As an example of slave trading in the 1880s here is another picture link from 1882:
('Cargo of newly released Slaves on board H.M.S London',
from:
This same photo is captioned on another website,
as follows:
"This photograph shows a group of kidnapped African people who have been released by the Royal Navy in 1882. HMS London was the Royal Navy’s depot ship at Zanzibar in the 1880s. The Navy was active in trying to stop illegal trade in slaves by Britons, and to deter other countries from continuing the trade. The newly liberated slaves shown had probably been released from slaving ships operating between Zanzibar, the Arabian Peninsular and Asia. This trade continued until the late 19th century. The photograph shows Africans freed from slavery, but not necessarily returned to their homes. Many slaves freed by the British were repatriated to the region around Freetown, Sierra Leone. Although the British had stopped trading in slaves earlier in the century, they still bought goods produced by slavery, particularly cotton from the United States until the end of the Civil war in 1865."
* Accession number: National Maritime Museum, ZBA261
The Nottingham Sparrow
Homepage:
http://www.afed.org.uk/nottingham
Abolition myths
28.03.2007 11:20
Slave trade abolished 200 years ago? It's just a myth:
The 1833 Abolition of Slavery Act didn't end the vile trade:
Wage slave
Market Square activities acknowledges official end of slavery but ignores darfur
30.03.2007 12:11
Not only is slavery still a major feature in Africa , the Middle East, and India today, it is also prevalent in the UK, where people are trafficked either for sexual slavery, or to work for almost nothing to line the pockets of the people that they fear. We have a joint police/task forceto attempt to prevent the trafficking of people into the UK, and similar forces are active throughout Europe.
Many of the people from Darfur have experienced abductions and enslavement from the Janjaweed in Darfur. They bear the injuries and the emotional pain of their memories and their losses.
Market Square may have been marking the end of 200 years of slavery last weekend, but the celebrations were very premature.
miriam
e-mail:
miriam1@ntlworld.com
++ Slavery is still alive and kicking, abolishment was a cosmetic surgery only
09.04.2007 12:16
I was here and was touched by this article.
Slavery is still alive and kicking and making the elite filthy rich.
Slavery has never been abolished. Don’t be deluded.
The so called abolishment was just a cosmetic surgery which was performed to change the dynamics and methodology of slavery, so as to make it more effective and cost productive.
People may no longer be in forced slavery with their hands chained, but they are still mentally and psychologically in slavery.
When industrial revolution happened, forced slavery became a burden and unprofitable and so the dynamics had to be changed.
And these subtle forms of slavery are even worse and more harmful and destructive of the spirit of man because they are not very obvious.
So far Britain has still not compensated or paid restitutions to the African and Asian countries which it enslaved, exploited and destroyed to build its empire.
So, I wonder what they are celebrating?
John Greenman
modern slavery
John Greenman-modern slavery
e-mail:
joint_venture_wanted@yahoo.com
Homepage:
http://mscsrrr.com/elite-affiliate-program.htm
GOOD TO BE,OPEN?
30.05.2007 17:35
THIS IS A CAMP AND NOT A COMMUNITY,THAT HAS BEEN DEPRIVE AND TESTED ON IN ALL FORM'S.
IF YOUR IN THE NEW,YORK AREA 8/1/07-9-0-07 I WELL HAVE A SHOW IN YONKER'S N,Y
AND BELIVE ME DEALING WITH THIA ISSUE WITH OUT SHAME/GULT IS HARD,PEOPLE AS IF THEY WAS THERE,
MAYBE THEY ARE LOOKING AT THE FORM OF SLAVERY THEY ARE IN AND USING TO SAY
"THAT CHAINS OF LABOR ARE STILL HERE, I WAS LOOKING AT SOME PAPER'S AND IT READED REASON''S FOR BEING LYNCH, ONE WAS BEING A GRAVE ROBBERY,AOTHER WAS
ATTEMP RAPE ON A SCHOOL TEACHER, SON OF A MURDERER,,MOONSHINER,
AND A FIGHTER,...
AND THIS IS NOT BASED ON COLOR IT'S TIME/EVENT'S
THIS IS HOW WE CAN BEGAN TO UNDO THE STEREOTYPES THAT CAST US ALL..
AARON GUYTON
e-mail:
504Guyton@hotmail.com
Homepage:
http://CDBABY.COM/TRU-KNIGTHZ
Another East Midlands slavery example from English Heritage website
10.06.2007 23:03
Another East Midlands example from English heritage:
Sites of memory: The Slave Trade and Abolition
---------------------------------------------------------------------
East Midlands
The Fitzherbert family, owners of Tissington Hall 'Tissington, Ashbourne, Derbyshire, 01335 352200, since the 17th century, married into the Perrin family, who owned four plantations in Jamaica, producing sugar and coffee from the second half of the 18th century. These came to be owned and managed from Tissington Hall. At the same time, reflecting the growing divisions on the slavery issue, John Alleyne, one of the barristers supporting the case of escaped slave James Somerset, was also related to the Fitzherberts by marriage. Alleyne had turned against his own family's business in Barbados and worked with Granville Sharpe in the abolition cause.
---
Read the latest (May 2007) Nottingham Sparrow here:
including the article 'History: Abolition of Slavery?'
The Nottingham Sparrow
Homepage:
http://www.afed.org.uk/nottingham
Notts Slavery 'learning resources' including Newark anti-Gladstone poster
10.06.2007 23:19
What was the attitude of the people of Nottinghamshire to slavery?
Includes mention of the "Baptism of John Americanus of Newark in 1645 recorded in the church parish register" plus some letters by a family 'Wilson'.
Also, a link to this recent contribution to Nottingham Archives (contributed Feb 2007).
Title:Anti-Gladstone Election Poster by 'The Negroes Real Friend', 1832
Creator: E Hage, Printer, Newark
Description: Slavery was a leading issue in Newark during campaigning for the 1832 parliamentary election. One of the candidates at the election was William Ewart Gladstone, later to become Prime Minister of England. Gladstone had stated himself to be against slavery but the poster, from 'The Negroes Real Friend', puts forward the view that Gladstone is not sincere in his views and argues that his father, John Gladstone, 'is deeply interested in the continuance of Slave Property', and believes 'Sugar cannot be cultivated in the West Indies without Slavery'.
anon