Intercultural Arts - the Art of Diversity

Legacies of British slave-ownership: Workshop in Newcastle, 25^th September 2010

We are a group of researchers undertaking a three-year project at University College 
London on the legacies of slave-ownership in Britain. What we are doing is examining the 
dispersal of compensation money paid to slave owners following the abolition of slavery 
in 1833. We are looking at the ways in which the money was used by beneficiaries in 
Britain as it shaped economic, social, cultural and political life over the next fifty years or 
so.

As part of the project we are very keen to share our work with and learn from others 
who are concerned with the legacies of slavery and slave-ownership, be they local 
historians, those working in museums and archives, community groups, academics 
and simply interested individuals. To try to bring people together we are holding a 
series of regional workshops during the rest of this year. In these workshops we will 
present the aims, objectives and scope of our Legacies project, including material which 
is of particular relevance for the workshop region; have presentations from workshop 
participants of their own work and plans for future research; discuss how we can share 
and disseminate further work and build a national network of interested parties.

In the north-east, it was one of the revelations of the Tyne & Wear 2007 Remembering 
Slavery Project that it showed the involvement in the slavery business of people who 
ran businesses, owned land and lived in the region – like the Trevelyans at Wallington 
and John Graham Clarke in Newcastle. 

Project member John Charlton's book Hidden Chains. The Slavery Business and North 
East England 1600-1865 (Tyne Bridge Publishing 2008) outlines the story. It includes 
the details of the compensation money received by the Trevelyans as a result of the 
Parliamentary Act to free the slaves in the West Indies and some other British colonies. 
The work started by the project continues through the North East Slavery & Abolition 
Group [NESAG].

In conjunction with the NESAG, the third workshop will be held in the Laing Art Gallery, 
New Bridge Street, Newcastle on 25th September and will include an overview of the 
Legacies of British Slave-ownership project, a summary analysis of our preliminary 
results for the north east of England, presentations by contributors from the NESAG, 
and an opportunity for participants to share their areas of interest with others. Please 
see below for a detailed schedule of the workshop.

We will also be distributing an interim report in the form of a data file and series of 
maps of slave-ownership in the north east by email to all attendees in the week before 
the event.

We very much hope that you will be interested in participating in what we think

will be an exciting and innovative project of bringing together individuals and

groups. Unfortunately, due to restrictions on space, the numbers at theNewcastle workshop will be limited to 40 or 50 people.

If you would like to attend, please let us know so we can reserve a place for you.

Further information about our project can be found on our website – http://www.ucl.ac.uk – 
or you can contact us directly by writing to 
  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
 . You are very welcome to 
distribute this invitation and the attached flyer to other people who you believe might 
be interested but if you do so please emphasise the need to reserve places so that we 
don’t disappoint anybody on the day.

With best wishes,

Prof. Catherine Hall

Keith McClelland

Dr. Nick Draper

Rachel Evans
Legacies of British Slave-ownership (LBS)

A one-day workshop at the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle

Saturday 25 September 2010

LBS project team at University College London:

Catherine Hall, Nick Draper, Keith McClelland, Rachel Evans