100 attended our BHM launch meeting on Wednesday 8th October at the Heritage Centre with Dr Angelina Osborne & Roger McKenzie (International editor of the Morning Star), opened by Warinder Juss MP
Read The Black Country & Enslavement: Manufacture of Agricultural Tools in book format: https://online.visual-paradigm.com/share/book/the-black-country-enslavement-manufacture-of-agricultural-tools-2ast6dj8n6
Read Dr Osborne’s original research The Black Country & Enslavement: An Overview in book format: https://online.visual-paradigm.com/share/book/the-black-country-enslavement–an-overview-2ast31f8uf
We will be distributing copies to schools and libraries in Wolverhampton and also in Dudley and Walsall with the help of their trades union councils. Please contact us for copies.
Dr Osborne introduced the findings of her research on the local links to those who profited from enslavement and the local manufacture of ironware used in plantations and to enslave. Copies of her two books were given free to all attendees.
This project has been organised and funded by: Wolverhampton, Bilston and District Trades Union Council with UNITE WM6150, UNISON City of Wolverhampton, GMB X13, UNITE WM/6140, UNITE Black Country Area Activists Committee, Staffordshire UNISON, Walsall TUC, Dudley TUC and a Trades Union Council Development grant.
online launch of the original research into local links to transatlantic enslavement; with Dr Angelina Osborne & Roger McKenzie – videos here
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The Slave Compensation Commission was created to manage the distribution of £20 million compensation to owners (not: to slaves …). Its records provide a more or less complete census of slave-ownership in the British Empire in the 1830s. The individuals named in these records form the starting point of the Encyclopaedia of British Slave-ownership.
Prominent historian Patrick Vernon from Wolverhampton. He is nationally recognised as an expert on black history, and has published extensively.
On learning of this proposed research he said: “I welcome the proposal. This work needs to be done. I am not aware that it has yet been. Hopefully this research will be the start of other similar projects.”
Further reading:
Recipients of payments from the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Recipients_of_payments_from_the_Slavery_Abolition_Act_1833
database can be found here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/project/details/
British slave owners https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:British_slave_owners
Simon Briercliffe, a local historian has written some blog posts about known links:
https://uptheossroad.wordpress.com/2017/08/22/slavery-and-the-black-country-lords-and-ladies/
https://uptheossroad.wordpress.com/2017/09/03/slavery-and-the-black-country-collars-and-chains/
https://uptheossroad.wordpress.com/2017/09/24/slavery-and-the-black-country-coming-home/
https://uptheossroad.wordpress.com/2015/07/20/dont-read-below-the-line/
https://uptheossroad.wordpress.com/category/wolverhampton/
see also
http://www.wolverhamptonhistory.org.uk/people/migration/slavery2
wednesfield traps http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/articles/Wednesfield/nineteenth.htm
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v28/n15/e.s.-turner/catchers-in-the-rye
nail trade https://www.sedgleymanor.com/trades/nailmakers2.html
similar to our report but for Sheffield – https://sheffieldandslavery.com/ https://sheffieldandslavery.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/report2021-1.pdf
Church of England apologises again for past links to slavery https://rogermckenzie.substack.com/p/church-of-england-apologises-again
2022:
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Aug21 we have appointed a researcher Angelina Osborne to the
Research project
The Wolverhampton, Bilston & District Trades Union Council sought a researcher to undertake some initial research into Wolverhampton/Staffordshire connection to slavery and the slave trade. This project stems from the Black Lives Matter movement.
Aims
1. Uncover the history, which is of particular importance and poignant interest to black trades unionists, but certainly not only to them.
2. Identify and research complicit individuals and their companies.
3. create a database of research materials studied.
3. identify further avenues for future research.
4. help to strengthen BAME trade union networks.
5. Increase public recognition of some local people and companies’ involvement in Britain’s shameful past.
Main tasks
Identify materials and sources which shed light on the links between Wolverhampton/Staffordshire and the Slave Trade.
Use the ‘Encyclopaedia of British Slave-ownership’ and other sources to gather information about families and individuals from the area connected to the slave trade.
Produce resources suitable for Trade Unions, particularly BAME trade union networks, as well as schools, colleges, and the general public.
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Research proposal on local connections to slavery: the manufacture of agricultural implements:
1.0 Focus
1.1 The international Black Lives Matter campaigns have, amongst other things, led to a resurgence of interest in the history of British deep involvement in slavery. Much of that history is either hidden or undiscovered.
1.2 Some research has already been done, but there is far more to uncover.
1.3 In 2022 W&B&D TUC commissioned some initial research by Dr Angelina Osborne into Wolverhampton & Bilston & District’s connection to slavery and the slave trade.
1.4 Dr Osborne suggested several topics for further research, one of which is the local manufacture and export of agricultural implements.
1.5 Unlike single use hardware such as shackles, agricultural implements were “dual use;” that is, they could be used by downtrodden agricultural workers in UK, or by slaves in the Caribbean. Because of this, the connection between such production and slavery remains hidden.
1.6 W&B&D TUC wishes to commission a second tranche of research, focussing on the connection between the manufacture & export of agricultural implements and slavery.
2.0 Goals
2.1 Uncover this specific history, which is of particular importance and poignant interest to black trades unionists, but certainly not only to them;
2.2 Identify and research complicit individuals and their companies.
2.3 Increase public recognition and understanding of Britain’s shameful past, which resonates to this day.
3.0 Outcomes
3.1 Create and make publicly available case studies of complicit individuals and companies.
3.2 Creation of a spreadsheet recording complicit individuals and companies.
3.3 Create and make publicly available research materials for use by future researchers.
3.4 History talks given to trades union branches and other organisations.
3.5 Donation of materials for use in schools.
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