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Professor Catherine Hall with husband Stuart, a cultural theorist |
Why the history of abolition isn’t simply black and white
THE aim is not to make white people feel guilty, says Catherine Hall, professor of modern British social and cultural history at University College London.
For the past 18 months she has been debating with leading historians and activists about the best way to present Britain’s uncomfortable and lucrative relationship with the transatlantic slave trade.
A new exhibition installed in a former sugar warehouse recognises the collective struggle in Africa, the Caribbean and in London against the trade. It aims to dispel the the myth that its abolition was purely the work of a few evangelical parliamentarians.
Professor Hall said: “There’s been a lot of argument and debate, but we agreed that we wanted to explore a shared history between black and white people and stress the importance of black agency in abolition history.”
Thousands of ships carrying millions of slaves sailed past the West India Dock, which fronted the site of the Museum in Docklands.
Merchants purchased enslaved Africans and transported them to the Caribbean to work on plantations.
The exhibition reveals hidden accounts of the daily work by slaves on the island of St Kitts, documented in journals written by plantation owners.
The museum has archived the chains, iron collars and masks used to punish those who attempted to escape.
An interactive map allows users to discover more than 100 locations throughout London which were involved in the “triangle trade”. Visitors will embark on a journey through time with a state-of-the-art light and sound installation.
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