
Further research is now underway and due to complete around April 2025 with an interim report due at our AGM 16 Jan 2025.
This further research has been funded by UNITE WM/6150 with the assistance of Wolverhampton TUC.
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.
Read our original research: Research-paper-into-the-Black-Country-slavery-links
online launch of this new research into local links to transatlantic enslavement; with Dr Angelina Osborne & Roger McKenzie – videos here
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March 2022: The research is now complete and available to download.
We feel that this unique piece of research is an important first step in unravelling the links between the industries and industrialists of Wolverhampton, Staffordshire and the Black Country to trans-Atlantic enslavement.
WB&DTUC will then reproduce this research in a form more suitable for use in schools and trade union education and publish a printed version for distribution. For this when safer, we intend an in-person launch.
This project has been organised and funded by:
Wolverhampton, Bilston and District Trades Union Council with GMB X13, UNITE WM6150, UNITE Black Country Area Activists Committee, UNISON City of Wolverhampton, Staffordshire UNISON, Dudley TUC and a Trades Union Council Development grant.
We are very pleased with the outcome and given a £2,500 budget, we believe it to be very good value for money.
We have discussed with Dr Osborne the basis for further research, developing the work already done. We envisage the cost of this to be around £10,000 and we will use the launches to generate publicity for this further round of fundraising.
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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