"Black and British: A Forgotten History" Moral Mission

1 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:12,074 Watch Online Movies and Series for FREE www.osdb.link/lm 2 00:00:14,920 --> 00:00:18,120 There's a story here in Jamaica that on the last day of July in the year 3 00:00:18,120 --> 00:00:23,200 1828 people climbed up the hills and the mountains to watch the dawn. 4 00:00:25,360 --> 00:00:26,920 It was at that moment, 5 00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:30,440 after 50 years of campaigning by the abolitionists and after 6 00:00:30,440 --> 00:00:33,360 centuries of rebellion and resistance by the slaves themselves, 7 00:00:33,360 --> 00:00:37,400 slavery in the British Empire was finally over. 8 00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:41,840 As the moment of abolition approached, 9 00:00:41,840 --> 00:00:46,000 the slave owners had no idea what would happen next. 10 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:51,840 For years, they told people that slavery could never be ended 11 00:00:51,840 --> 00:00:54,840 because, if it were, the black people would rise up 12 00:00:54,840 --> 00:00:56,240 and they would kill the whites - 13 00:00:56,240 --> 00:00:58,880 and they'd started to believe their own propaganda. 14 00:00:58,880 --> 00:01:01,640 They were a tiny minority on an island surrounded 15 00:01:01,640 --> 00:01:05,400 by a third of a million black people and they looked on, convinced 16 00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:08,600 that their now former property, the people they'd exploited 17 00:01:08,600 --> 00:01:11,760 and whipped, were going to rise up and take revenge. 18 00:01:18,160 --> 00:01:19,320 But as dawn broke... 19 00:01:21,960 --> 00:01:24,400 SINGING 20 00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:29,240 ..instead of seeking revenge, many of the former slaves went to church. 21 00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:35,520 Queen Victoria had come to the throne just six weeks earlier and 22 00:01:35,520 --> 00:01:40,400 the new Victorians saw the abolition of slavery as the dawn of a new age 23 00:01:40,400 --> 00:01:44,760 of progress and enlightenment for Britain and its empire. 24 00:01:53,640 --> 00:01:57,280 The fact that the former slaves had no possessions, the fact that almost 25 00:01:57,280 --> 00:02:00,760 all the farmland was still in the hands of the White planters, 26 00:02:00,760 --> 00:02:04,080 these details were just not allowed to get in the way of this 27 00:02:04,080 --> 00:02:08,480 great moment of Victorian moral triumphalism. 28 00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:13,120 But within 30 years, this Victorian sense of moral superiority 29 00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:14,640 would come crashing down. 30 00:02:22,160 --> 00:02:24,880 In this programme, we'll be remembering the people 31 00:02:24,880 --> 00:02:29,040 and events in this extraordinary and often tragic period 32 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:32,560 of our history, when many saw the abolition of slavery 33 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:35,120 as a triumphant new beginning. 34 00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:36,440 Peace to Africa. 35 00:02:43,480 --> 00:02:46,440 Abolition changed how the Victorians saw themselves. 36 00:02:46,440 --> 00:02:47,640 For many people, 37 00:02:47,640 --> 00:02:52,360 being opposed to slavery became part of what it meant to be British. 38 00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:54,320 Some people took it further. 39 00:02:54,320 --> 00:02:57,280 They didn't want to just look down on other countries that still 40 00:02:57,280 --> 00:03:01,920 tolerated slavery - they saw Britain as the moral leader of the world 41 00:03:01,920 --> 00:03:06,200 and they turned their attentions to ending slavery everywhere. 42 00:03:06,200 --> 00:03:10,440 For them, this was to be the great Victorian Moral Mission. 43 00:03:32,640 --> 00:03:36,280 CHILDREN SING 44 00:03:38,040 --> 00:03:42,000 One part of this global story took place here, in Sierra Leone. 45 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:48,480 In 1807, 31 years before the abolition of slavery, 46 00:03:48,480 --> 00:03:51,320 Britain abandoned the Atlantic slave trade. 47 00:03:51,320 --> 00:03:54,560 We know, we have got our...? 48 00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:56,120 ALL: Freedom. 49 00:03:56,120 --> 00:03:58,000 Freedom from what? 50 00:03:58,000 --> 00:03:59,800 ALL: Slavery. 51 00:03:59,800 --> 00:04:03,160 - And then they captured him again and freed him. - Very good. 52 00:04:03,160 --> 00:04:05,440 Let's clap for her. OK. 53 00:04:07,760 --> 00:04:10,560 The history class these kids are having our is telling the story 54 00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:15,080 of how some of their ancestors ended up here in Freetown, Sierra Leone, 55 00:04:15,080 --> 00:04:18,200 so it's a really important part of their national history, 56 00:04:18,200 --> 00:04:21,960 but it's also part of British history because many of their 57 00:04:21,960 --> 00:04:25,280 ancestors were brought here in the 19th century by the Royal Navy 58 00:04:25,280 --> 00:04:29,160 in what's got to be one of the most remarkable 59 00:04:29,160 --> 00:04:33,160 and the most forgotten chapters in all of British history. 60 00:04:33,160 --> 00:04:34,880 So, it's not good to be a slave. 61 00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:40,320 When Britain abolished its own slave trade, 62 00:04:40,320 --> 00:04:43,200 the other European powers didn't follow their example. 63 00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:48,400 In 1808, the Royal Navy created a special force to suppress 64 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:50,040 the slave trade, 65 00:04:50,040 --> 00:04:51,600 the West Africa Squadron. 66 00:04:53,560 --> 00:04:55,480 For the whole of the 18th century, 67 00:04:55,480 --> 00:04:59,120 the Royal Navy was here in the waters of West Africa 68 00:04:59,120 --> 00:05:02,520 to defend the slave trade, to protect British slave ships 69 00:05:02,520 --> 00:05:05,800 from the attentions of enemy powers. 70 00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:07,080 In the 19th century, 71 00:05:07,080 --> 00:05:10,760 and in what has to be one of the most bizarre transitions 72 00:05:10,760 --> 00:05:13,600 in all of history, their job was to hunt down, 73 00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:17,440 to intercept slave ships and to free the Africans onboard. 74 00:05:25,080 --> 00:05:29,560 The West Africa Squadron was under-resourced and plagued by corruption. 75 00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:41,560 It managed to intercept only around 6% of the slave ships 76 00:05:41,560 --> 00:05:43,320 heading across the Atlantic. 77 00:05:50,840 --> 00:05:56,480 But between 1808 and the 1860s, over 150,000 men, women 78 00:05:56,480 --> 00:05:59,120 and children were liberated. 79 00:06:05,320 --> 00:06:09,120 Some of their names are recorded in the Freetown archives. 80 00:06:14,960 --> 00:06:20,840 So, Manga, who is 37, a man, five foot nine, 81 00:06:20,840 --> 00:06:24,000 scar on the side of right of elbow. 82 00:06:25,720 --> 00:06:29,760 And these are all children. A little boy of five, six... 83 00:06:29,760 --> 00:06:31,920 This is a girl, she's 11 years old, 84 00:06:31,920 --> 00:06:34,600 she is four feet ten and on each cheek she has this mark 85 00:06:34,600 --> 00:06:39,880 and, rather than try to describe it, the registrar here 86 00:06:39,880 --> 00:06:44,920 has drawn the mark, a tribal scar or a tattoo, that this girl has. 87 00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:49,600 And there are many of these little, tiny illustrations in this book. 88 00:06:49,600 --> 00:06:54,800 These are the tribal marks of pre-colonial Africans. 89 00:06:54,800 --> 00:06:57,680 These are a little snapshot into the cultures. 90 00:06:57,680 --> 00:07:00,040 And we sometimes forget, 91 00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:02,680 slavery was designed to wipe people's cultures out. 92 00:07:02,680 --> 00:07:05,680 These people had been caught just at the last moment. 93 00:07:05,680 --> 00:07:08,240 They are on slave ships, they've been intercepted, 94 00:07:08,240 --> 00:07:10,680 they've been brought back to Africa. 95 00:07:10,680 --> 00:07:13,360 "Without name". This is a man who is 18 years old. 96 00:07:13,360 --> 00:07:17,600 He is without a name, he is four feet eight and he's deaf and dumb, 97 00:07:17,600 --> 00:07:19,680 and he was destined to become a slave. 98 00:07:19,680 --> 00:07:20,720 (God!) 99 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:26,280 What sort of life would this poor guy have had 100 00:07:26,280 --> 00:07:28,960 if he'd been taken to the New World and put on a plantation? 101 00:07:37,480 --> 00:07:42,080 There's no guarantee that all these people went on to live free lives. 102 00:07:48,120 --> 00:07:50,640 We know that some were forced into the Army, 103 00:07:50,640 --> 00:07:54,440 others were kidnapped and sold back into slavery, 104 00:07:54,440 --> 00:07:56,880 but some settled in Freetown. 105 00:08:02,760 --> 00:08:07,200 The former slaves were known as the "re-captives" and they were 106 00:08:07,200 --> 00:08:09,280 brought here, to the King's Yard, 107 00:08:09,280 --> 00:08:12,520 to be counted and have their names recorded. 108 00:08:12,520 --> 00:08:15,400 This gate is very significant because the moment you step out 109 00:08:15,400 --> 00:08:17,680 of these gates you become a free man. 110 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:21,520 Slavery, as we all know, 111 00:08:21,520 --> 00:08:25,560 may have lasted for a few centuries, but freedom lasts for ever. 112 00:08:26,560 --> 00:08:29,240 CHILDREN SING 113 00:08:29,240 --> 00:08:31,000 Today, the people of Freetown 114 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:33,840 are commemorating those who were liberated. 115 00:08:37,240 --> 00:08:40,320 They are gathering before the gates of the King's Yard. 116 00:08:43,440 --> 00:08:47,440 We realise that our great-great-grandfather was among 117 00:08:47,440 --> 00:08:50,960 the re-captive slaves, which never reached the intended destination. 118 00:08:50,960 --> 00:08:52,920 - The Royal Navy interceded... - That's right. 119 00:08:52,920 --> 00:08:54,960 ..and they ended up here in Freetown. 120 00:08:54,960 --> 00:08:56,720 Yes, and, as a result of that, 121 00:08:56,720 --> 00:08:59,320 we were to able to identify our identity. 122 00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:01,480 I mean to say, I was just the lucky few. 123 00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:04,240 You see, they say many are caught, but few are chosen, 124 00:09:04,240 --> 00:09:06,360 so we are the lucky ones amongst the lot. 125 00:09:09,560 --> 00:09:13,120 Their shackles were cut-off, their wounds were dressed 126 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:16,120 and each received a piece of cotton clothing and some food. 127 00:09:20,440 --> 00:09:24,840 In the name of God, alleluia! 128 00:09:24,840 --> 00:09:26,920 - ALL: Amen! - God bless us all. 129 00:09:26,920 --> 00:09:29,600 They then walked through this gate to freedom. 130 00:09:32,520 --> 00:09:33,840 Peace to Africa. 131 00:09:33,840 --> 00:09:37,760 APPLAUSE 132 00:09:43,640 --> 00:09:45,320 Bad things have been done, 133 00:09:45,320 --> 00:09:48,600 but some good was now eventually coming out of the bad. 134 00:09:57,200 --> 00:10:01,600 Britain's global crusade against the slave trade was anything but perfect. 135 00:10:02,560 --> 00:10:06,720 And yet, if you were one of those slaves, on a slave ship, 136 00:10:06,720 --> 00:10:10,200 captured by the Royal Navy, intercepted at sea, 137 00:10:10,200 --> 00:10:14,000 and you had the shackles broken off your wrists and your feet 138 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:17,320 and you were landed here in Freetown, Sierra Leone, 139 00:10:17,320 --> 00:10:19,520 as a free person then what had happened 140 00:10:19,520 --> 00:10:21,560 and what happened here afterwards 141 00:10:21,560 --> 00:10:23,720 was nothing short of a miracle. 142 00:10:31,640 --> 00:10:34,440 In the 1850s, the West Africa Squadron 143 00:10:34,440 --> 00:10:36,560 began to change its tactics. 144 00:10:36,560 --> 00:10:39,200 They landed forces and attacked the bases 145 00:10:39,200 --> 00:10:41,520 of European and African slave traders. 146 00:10:41,520 --> 00:10:43,320 Now these attacks were justified 147 00:10:43,320 --> 00:10:45,640 in that they helped suppress the slave trade, 148 00:10:45,640 --> 00:10:49,480 but bit by bit and year by year what was happening 149 00:10:49,480 --> 00:10:53,800 on the coast of West Africa began to become more colonial. 150 00:10:53,800 --> 00:10:56,440 The anti-slave trade mission began to merge 151 00:10:56,440 --> 00:11:00,160 with the opening phases of the colonisation of West Africa. 152 00:11:03,800 --> 00:11:08,200 As well as force, the West Africa Squadron employed diplomacy 153 00:11:08,200 --> 00:11:12,360 to persuade local African leaders to abandon the slave trade. 154 00:11:13,760 --> 00:11:18,680 In 1850, when Frederick Forbes, a captain in the West Africa Squadron, 155 00:11:18,680 --> 00:11:23,600 visited King Gezo of Dahomey, they exchanged diplomatic gifts, 156 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:27,680 but one of those gifts was not what Forbes was expecting. 157 00:11:30,480 --> 00:11:32,720 On the 5th of July, Forbes tells us 158 00:11:32,720 --> 00:11:36,840 he receives on behalf of Queen Victoria ten heads of cowries, 159 00:11:36,840 --> 00:11:42,200 shells, a keg of rum and, in the middle of a list, a captive girl. 160 00:11:43,240 --> 00:11:47,240 Forbes had a picture of the child printed. 161 00:11:48,480 --> 00:11:52,880 And that gives her new name - Sara Forbes Bonetta. 162 00:11:52,880 --> 00:11:55,040 Forbes, after Captain Forbes, 163 00:11:55,040 --> 00:11:58,160 and Bonetta, after his ship, the HMS Bonetta. 164 00:12:00,240 --> 00:12:04,000 So Captain Forbes, this rather famous, very well-respected officer 165 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:06,200 in the British West Africa Squadron, 166 00:12:06,200 --> 00:12:10,560 whose task in life is to suppress the African slave trade, 167 00:12:10,560 --> 00:12:12,880 now finds himself sailing back to Britain 168 00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:16,000 with a slave child on board his ship, 169 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:19,240 and this little girl on her way to Britain 170 00:12:19,240 --> 00:12:22,560 was to lead an absolutely remarkable life. 171 00:12:27,320 --> 00:12:29,000 Cracking shot. 172 00:12:31,880 --> 00:12:33,920 Soon after she arrived in Britain, 173 00:12:33,920 --> 00:12:36,480 Sara was presented to Queen Victoria. 174 00:12:38,920 --> 00:12:40,680 Go on. Beautiful shot. 175 00:12:42,080 --> 00:12:43,760 Second. 176 00:12:44,920 --> 00:12:47,320 She was just six years old. 177 00:12:53,080 --> 00:12:56,400 Sara makes her first appearance in the private journals 178 00:12:56,400 --> 00:12:59,560 of Queen Victoria on the day the two of them meet for the first time, 179 00:12:59,560 --> 00:13:02,000 which is the 9th of November 1850. 180 00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:03,800 The Queen describes her as, 181 00:13:03,800 --> 00:13:06,440 "Sharp and intelligent and speaks English. 182 00:13:06,440 --> 00:13:10,480 "She's dressed as any other girl but, when her bonnet was taken off, 183 00:13:10,480 --> 00:13:14,200 "her little black woolly head and big earrings 184 00:13:14,200 --> 00:13:16,880 "gave her the true negro type." 185 00:13:16,880 --> 00:13:20,240 Now, what Sara made of this encounter, 186 00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:23,200 this meeting with the most powerful woman on earth, 187 00:13:23,200 --> 00:13:25,760 the woman to whom she had been given as a gift, 188 00:13:25,760 --> 00:13:27,960 is something that we'll never know because, 189 00:13:27,960 --> 00:13:31,240 like most of the black people who were drawn into British history 190 00:13:31,240 --> 00:13:34,000 in this period, her words are lost to us. 191 00:13:39,280 --> 00:13:43,040 Grandmother used to tell us about this ancestor 192 00:13:43,040 --> 00:13:47,240 who was the adopted daughter of Queen Victoria, 193 00:13:47,240 --> 00:13:50,800 but we didn't believe her because we just thought 194 00:13:50,800 --> 00:13:54,640 this was an old lady rambling on about the past. 195 00:14:01,280 --> 00:14:05,040 The Queen agreed to become Sara's protector. 196 00:14:05,040 --> 00:14:07,240 She paid for her education, 197 00:14:07,240 --> 00:14:12,040 which was undertaken by missionaries here at Palm Cottage in Kent, 198 00:14:12,040 --> 00:14:15,040 which is now the local social club. 199 00:14:18,200 --> 00:14:21,320 In the eyes of some people, Sara's life was to become 200 00:14:21,320 --> 00:14:24,440 a social experiment and a rather patronising one. 201 00:14:26,600 --> 00:14:30,520 This clearly bright child was to be used to demonstrate 202 00:14:30,520 --> 00:14:34,560 that under British guidance an African could become educated, 203 00:14:34,560 --> 00:14:39,480 Christianised and, in the buzz word of the 19th century, civilised. 204 00:14:47,200 --> 00:14:51,640 In less than a year, Sara had made the astonishing transition 205 00:14:51,640 --> 00:14:53,800 from being an enslaved orphan... 206 00:14:53,800 --> 00:14:55,880 "Lieutenant Colonel North." 207 00:14:55,880 --> 00:14:58,240 ..to become a royal protege. 208 00:14:58,240 --> 00:15:01,480 "Lieutenant Colonel Sir Jackson." 209 00:15:03,960 --> 00:15:06,160 By the time she was an adult, 210 00:15:06,160 --> 00:15:11,160 Sara had taken her place in Victorian high society. 211 00:15:11,160 --> 00:15:16,640 And in this book, among all of these eminent Victorians, 212 00:15:16,640 --> 00:15:21,120 there are arch dukes and members of the aristocracy, 213 00:15:21,120 --> 00:15:24,000 you turn the page and suddenly 214 00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:28,080 there's a page of these black Victorians. 215 00:15:30,760 --> 00:15:34,320 These pictures of Sara were taken just after her wedding 216 00:15:34,320 --> 00:15:37,360 to James Davies, a trader from Freetown 217 00:15:37,360 --> 00:15:40,640 whose own parents had been liberated slaves. 218 00:15:43,120 --> 00:15:46,520 About a month after they were married, Sara and James 219 00:15:46,520 --> 00:15:50,120 came to London to attend the studio of Camille Silvy. 220 00:15:50,120 --> 00:15:53,120 He was an aristocratic French portrait photographer 221 00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:55,320 who was just the star of the day, 222 00:15:55,320 --> 00:15:58,040 so to be in these books was a real statement. 223 00:15:58,040 --> 00:16:00,040 It said that you had arrived, 224 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:02,560 that you were part of the Victorian elite. 225 00:16:03,760 --> 00:16:08,320 And here are Sara Forbes Bonetta and James Davies. 226 00:16:08,320 --> 00:16:12,960 James and Sara are the poster children of the Moral Mission. 227 00:16:12,960 --> 00:16:16,400 They both could have been victims, in one way or another, 228 00:16:16,400 --> 00:16:19,960 of the Atlantic slave trade and here they are in a book 229 00:16:19,960 --> 00:16:23,680 with the rich and the powerful of 1860s London. 230 00:16:24,720 --> 00:16:28,680 They're hybrid people. They're as much British as they are African. 231 00:16:28,680 --> 00:16:31,640 They are in some ways living the lives that millions of people 232 00:16:31,640 --> 00:16:35,800 live today, where we're not quite one thing and not quite the other. 233 00:16:35,800 --> 00:16:38,680 It must have been incredibly disorientating 234 00:16:38,680 --> 00:16:42,240 for a 19-year-old girl whose benefactor 235 00:16:42,240 --> 00:16:44,640 is the Queen of Great Britain. 236 00:16:58,840 --> 00:17:03,200 Today, members of Sara's family have come to Palm Cottage Social Club 237 00:17:03,200 --> 00:17:05,280 to honour her life. 238 00:17:07,080 --> 00:17:10,520 Hello there, members. Thanks very much for coming this afternoon. 239 00:17:13,160 --> 00:17:17,240 I am glad to be here today to commemorate the life 240 00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:19,840 of my great-great-grandmother. 241 00:17:20,840 --> 00:17:25,120 She was a very accomplished person 242 00:17:25,120 --> 00:17:31,640 and very strong willed to be able to survive in the situation. 243 00:17:32,760 --> 00:17:36,480 I think she'd approve of everything we're doing today. 244 00:17:50,120 --> 00:17:54,480 Sara and James had three children and they named their first 245 00:17:54,480 --> 00:17:59,120 daughter Victoria after the Queen, who became the child's godmother. 246 00:17:59,120 --> 00:18:03,240 She's been discovered for the first time for a lot of local people, 247 00:18:03,240 --> 00:18:06,680 so hopefully we'll get enquiries about her history and members that 248 00:18:06,680 --> 00:18:10,680 have been here today will pass on what they've learnt about her life. 249 00:18:14,320 --> 00:18:18,600 Thank you all for coming to help me to unveil this plaque 250 00:18:18,600 --> 00:18:21,720 to my great-great-grandmother, 251 00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:25,920 who lived in a house on this very spot in 1855. 252 00:18:30,160 --> 00:18:32,280 APPLAUSE 253 00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:43,360 She has been written out of history, 254 00:18:43,360 --> 00:18:47,520 but this will bring her back into history. 255 00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:55,080 People should be proud that we are part of her life... 256 00:18:56,480 --> 00:18:59,720 ..that we are a part of history and hopefully we'll keep our club going 257 00:18:59,720 --> 00:19:01,400 for many more years to come. 258 00:19:09,480 --> 00:19:15,000 I feel very proud of her and I hope she is looking down on us 259 00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:17,320 as we celebrate her life now. 260 00:19:27,160 --> 00:19:30,120 During the years Sara was growing up in Britain, 261 00:19:30,120 --> 00:19:33,760 the main focus of the Victorian Moral Mission was America. 262 00:19:41,320 --> 00:19:45,800 Eloquent speakers who had escaped from slavery in the American South 263 00:19:45,800 --> 00:19:49,000 captivated audiences the length and breadth of Britain 264 00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:52,400 with shocking stories of life under slavery. 265 00:19:57,160 --> 00:20:00,840 To British audiences, most of whom had never seen a slave before, 266 00:20:00,840 --> 00:20:04,240 the arrival of these passionate, eloquent Black Americans 267 00:20:04,240 --> 00:20:06,280 was an electrifying experience. 268 00:20:06,280 --> 00:20:10,960 But in the 1840s, one clear superstar emerged on the anti-slavery scene 269 00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:13,080 and that was Frederick Douglass, 270 00:20:13,080 --> 00:20:16,760 who was one of the best speakers of his age or of any age. 271 00:20:25,120 --> 00:20:28,880 Frederick Douglass arrived in Britain in 1845. 272 00:20:32,640 --> 00:20:35,120 He'd just published his autobiography... 273 00:20:36,520 --> 00:20:40,400 ..and people flocked to his sell-out tour of Britain and Ireland. 274 00:20:51,960 --> 00:20:55,000 By the time he arrived here in Dundee, in early 1846, 275 00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:58,240 Frederick Douglass had already been on the road for six months. 276 00:20:58,240 --> 00:21:00,880 So many people in this city wanted to hear him speak 277 00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:04,440 that he had to give four separate lectures just to meet demand 278 00:21:04,440 --> 00:21:06,440 and one of them took place here 279 00:21:06,440 --> 00:21:09,280 in what was then the Bell Street Baptist Chapel. 280 00:21:11,800 --> 00:21:15,640 "I came here because the slaveholders do not wish me to be here. 281 00:21:15,640 --> 00:21:19,960 "I came here because those in slavery knew that this monster of darkness, 282 00:21:19,960 --> 00:21:24,920 "which hates the light and to which the light of truth is death, 283 00:21:24,920 --> 00:21:28,960 "could only live by being permitted to grope away in the darkness, 284 00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:30,880 "crushing human hearts." 285 00:21:33,320 --> 00:21:35,880 Glasgow-based poet Tawona Sithole 286 00:21:35,880 --> 00:21:39,760 has been inspired by Frederick Douglass' work. 287 00:21:39,760 --> 00:21:41,760 He was a confident speaker. 288 00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:45,800 When he was in a room, people were definitely enchanted 289 00:21:45,800 --> 00:21:47,480 by what he was saying. 290 00:21:47,480 --> 00:21:51,320 He had a serious message but he also found a way of putting that 291 00:21:51,320 --> 00:21:56,040 in a humorous way and I feel that breaks down so many barriers, 292 00:21:56,040 --> 00:21:59,760 you know, so people are able to actually listen and engage. 293 00:22:01,120 --> 00:22:06,040 "I came here because slavery is the common enemy of mankind. 294 00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:11,520 "And to do all in my power to induce the humanity, 295 00:22:11,520 --> 00:22:15,400 "morality and Christianity of the world 296 00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:19,320 "to rise up and crush this demon of iniquity." 297 00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:24,960 At the heart of the abolitionist message in the 1840s was a very simple idea - 298 00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:29,040 it was that slavery wasn't a political issue, it was a moral issue. 299 00:22:29,040 --> 00:22:32,880 And because it was moral, it could not be constrained behind borders. 300 00:22:32,880 --> 00:22:37,440 Slavery anywhere was an affront to moral people everywhere, 301 00:22:37,440 --> 00:22:41,160 but slavery in America WAS Britain's business. 302 00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:44,000 It wasn't a national domestic issue for America - 303 00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:46,480 it was a global moral crisis. 304 00:22:48,280 --> 00:22:52,720 He was tall, broad and it was said he could turn women's heads. 305 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:58,040 Dr Peggy Brunache has studied Frederick Douglass' life and work. 306 00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:01,360 When you saw him up there, 307 00:23:01,360 --> 00:23:05,400 he was no different than everyone else in the room. 308 00:23:05,400 --> 00:23:07,320 That was his point. 309 00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:09,840 That there was a commonality to all of them. 310 00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:13,920 Douglass' speeches compelled the sympathy and understanding 311 00:23:13,920 --> 00:23:17,160 for the enslaved men and women in the southern states. 312 00:23:17,160 --> 00:23:20,880 Even if you may have not supported slavery, 313 00:23:20,880 --> 00:23:23,880 there were still built up stereotypes 314 00:23:23,880 --> 00:23:26,840 of what a Black person was, a slave was, 315 00:23:26,840 --> 00:23:28,880 and he crushed them all. 316 00:23:32,800 --> 00:23:36,920 So now it's my great pleasure to invite everyone 317 00:23:36,920 --> 00:23:40,600 to join us outside as we unveil the plaque. 318 00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:47,280 He had a vision 319 00:23:47,280 --> 00:23:49,760 and it's difficult carrying a vision 320 00:23:49,760 --> 00:23:52,960 because not everyone around you can see. 321 00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:58,280 His fight was unending. 322 00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:00,280 He was unyielding. 323 00:24:01,360 --> 00:24:04,160 He was for Black rights, he was for women's rights 324 00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:07,280 and that alone is inspiring. 325 00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:12,360 If one of us is not free then none of us are free. 326 00:24:14,560 --> 00:24:16,720 APPLAUSE 327 00:24:43,240 --> 00:24:47,080 In 1856, two of the most famous women in the world 328 00:24:47,080 --> 00:24:49,440 arranged a secret rendezvous. 329 00:24:52,520 --> 00:24:57,040 Almost every detail of it remains a mystery to this day. 330 00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:05,560 We think it took place here, at King's Cross, 331 00:25:05,560 --> 00:25:08,520 and one of those women was Queen Victoria. 332 00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:16,080 The reason Queen Victoria was sneaking about in her own kingdom 333 00:25:16,080 --> 00:25:19,040 was because, like pretty much everybody else in the 1850s, 334 00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:21,080 she was fascinated by a new book 335 00:25:21,080 --> 00:25:23,560 and she'd arranged to have a secret meeting 336 00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:26,120 with its American author, Harriet Beecher Stowe. 337 00:25:26,120 --> 00:25:30,200 This book was the bestselling book of the entire Victorian age. 338 00:25:30,200 --> 00:25:34,000 It sold 1.5 million copies in Britain and the Empire. 339 00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:37,800 It outsold every major work by every Victorian author - 340 00:25:37,800 --> 00:25:41,120 Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, the Bronte sisters - 341 00:25:41,120 --> 00:25:43,600 only the Bible sold more copies. 342 00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:46,760 And yet, this is a book about Black people. 343 00:25:46,760 --> 00:25:50,280 It's a book about slaves in the deep south of America. 344 00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:53,000 It's a book that hardly anybody reads these days 345 00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:54,960 and yet everybody's heard of - 346 00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:56,840 it's Uncle Tom's Cabin. 347 00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:05,440 "What is freedom to a nation but freedom to the individuals in it? 348 00:26:09,320 --> 00:26:12,280 "What is freedom to that young man who sits there 349 00:26:12,280 --> 00:26:14,840 "with his arms folded over his broad chest, 350 00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:19,280 "the tint of African blood in his cheek, its dark fires in his eye?" 351 00:26:22,520 --> 00:26:25,080 "No, no, no. 352 00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:28,240 "My soul ain't yours, mas'r. You haven't bought it. 353 00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:30,000 "Ye can't buy it. 354 00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:33,200 "It's been bought and paid for by one that is able to keep me." 355 00:26:36,320 --> 00:26:39,800 "And there was such a silence that the tick of the old tock 356 00:26:39,800 --> 00:26:42,960 "could be heard measuring with silence touch 357 00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:47,120 "the last moments of mercy and probation to that hardened heart." 358 00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:58,080 The plot of Uncle Tom's Cabin is relatively simple - 359 00:26:58,080 --> 00:27:00,560 it tells the story of a group of slaves from Kentucky 360 00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:03,440 whose lives are turned upside down when some of them are sold 361 00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:05,920 and others escape to avoid that fate. 362 00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:08,760 One group does reach British Canada and freedom, 363 00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:12,640 but Uncle Tom is murdered by the wicked slave owner Simon Legree. 364 00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:14,880 And these Black characters - 365 00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:19,000 Uncle Tom and Chloe, George and Eliza Harris, Topsy, 366 00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:23,000 they become some of the most famous characters of the Victorian age. 367 00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:26,440 They are every bit as famous as Oliver Twist or Jane Eyre 368 00:27:26,440 --> 00:27:28,320 or David Copperfield. 369 00:27:28,320 --> 00:27:30,240 They've been forgotten today, 370 00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:32,800 but at the time everybody knew who they were. 371 00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:37,120 Queen Victoria's meeting with Beecher Stowe was kept secret 372 00:27:37,120 --> 00:27:40,920 because it was feared that it be seen as a royal intervention 373 00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:44,280 in the battle against slavery in the United States. 374 00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:49,840 Like many of her subjects, Victoria was deeply moved by the novel, 375 00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:52,920 but its portrayal of Black people 376 00:27:52,920 --> 00:27:57,000 is full of poisonous racial stereotypes. 377 00:27:57,000 --> 00:28:01,520 Gary Young has written about its impact on the Victorian audience. 378 00:28:02,520 --> 00:28:06,080 For Britain in the 1850s, this book's got everything going for it. 379 00:28:06,080 --> 00:28:09,200 It's about American slavery rather than British slavery, 380 00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:11,160 it's melodramatically written, 381 00:28:11,160 --> 00:28:14,200 it's about the family, what we now call Victorian values, 382 00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:16,440 so it's got hit written all over it. 383 00:28:16,440 --> 00:28:17,800 Yes. 384 00:28:17,800 --> 00:28:21,600 I mean, there's something about the crudeness of it, 385 00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:28,080 the simplicity of it, the fact that it's like a targeted strike. 386 00:28:29,080 --> 00:28:31,080 The strike is against slavery. 387 00:28:31,080 --> 00:28:34,400 It's not against inequality, it's not against racism, 388 00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:36,920 it's not against White supremacy. 389 00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:42,080 It's against a specific institution and therefore, if your society 390 00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:46,160 had gotten rid of slavery already, even if it was relatively recently, 391 00:28:46,160 --> 00:28:53,080 then you have the capacity, if you so wish, to feel smug. 392 00:28:53,080 --> 00:28:56,640 One way that one might understand that smugness, people looking 393 00:28:56,640 --> 00:28:59,760 at Black Lives Matter in America and thinking at least in Britain 394 00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:02,120 we don't shoot Black people dead in the street. 395 00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:05,600 Now the fact that there's vast inequalities with unemployment, 396 00:29:05,600 --> 00:29:10,280 the fact that people are dying in police custody and so on, 397 00:29:10,280 --> 00:29:12,480 well, yeah, yeah, yeah, they're... 398 00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:14,400 but we're not doing that. 399 00:29:14,400 --> 00:29:18,520 And if you look at the success of the book, it hit its mark. 400 00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:32,400 While a novel about slavery became the bestselling book of the age... 401 00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:40,440 Victorian popular music was adopting musical styles and instruments 402 00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:45,200 that had been pioneered by enslaved Africans in the American South. 403 00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:55,320 This is one of the first pieces of moving film shot anywhere in Britain 404 00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:58,280 and it was shot on these streets here in Soho 405 00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:01,320 about 120 years ago, back in the 1890s. 406 00:30:01,320 --> 00:30:03,920 It's a scene of Black-faced minstrels. 407 00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:06,480 These are White guys who have blacked up their faces 408 00:30:06,480 --> 00:30:09,120 and they're performing African-American music 409 00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:11,720 on instruments like banjos and guitars. 410 00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:17,320 Now to us this music, this phenomena, is really uncomfortable. 411 00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:19,760 But if we can put that aside for one moment, 412 00:30:19,760 --> 00:30:24,080 there is an amazing story because this was a global entertainment 413 00:30:24,080 --> 00:30:27,600 and it was as popular in this country as it was in America. 414 00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:39,920 Minstrel music became the sound of the Victorian Street... 415 00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:46,200 ..and the toxic racial stereotypes in minstrelsy 416 00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:47,960 took root in our culture. 417 00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:54,480 The Black and White Minstrel Show 418 00:30:54,480 --> 00:30:58,560 was a staple of British television right up until 1978. 419 00:31:05,280 --> 00:31:09,480 Rhiannon Giddens is reclaiming the African-American origins 420 00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:13,160 of this hugely influential musical tradition. 421 00:31:15,760 --> 00:31:19,000 Those are all 1855 tunes. 422 00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:23,320 I know from everything I've read that Black-faced minstrelsy, 423 00:31:23,320 --> 00:31:25,800 in its early stages, could be anti-slavery, 424 00:31:25,800 --> 00:31:27,400 could be opposing slavery, 425 00:31:27,400 --> 00:31:30,280 and yet I know that intellectually and emotionally 426 00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:32,320 I find that really difficult to accept. 427 00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:34,840 Yes. I mean, I think that's the most important thing 428 00:31:34,840 --> 00:31:37,600 to get across about minstrelsy is that it was complicated 429 00:31:37,600 --> 00:31:39,600 and it wasn't, I mean... 430 00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:42,240 It wasn't wholly evil. 431 00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:46,280 A lot of the early songs, even though they still contain a lot of offensive language, 432 00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:50,240 a lot of the early songs are lots of pining for lost love 433 00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:52,760 or, you know, not being treated well. 434 00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:56,280 On the one hand, it's like there is a lot of that longing melancholy 435 00:31:56,280 --> 00:32:01,240 and, on the other hand, there is still horrible racist statements. 436 00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:05,480 So, for me, there's something that's very healing about writing songs 437 00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:08,080 that are actually from a slave's point of view, 438 00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:10,160 or enslaved people's point of view, 439 00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:13,880 on this instrument that really is America's first instrument. 440 00:32:13,880 --> 00:32:17,600 That was the language that they helped create, that they were allowed. 441 00:32:17,600 --> 00:32:19,920 I feel like I could do a lot worse 442 00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:23,400 than be in a line of Black banjo players, 443 00:32:23,400 --> 00:32:27,360 you know? I mean, it's like...the more I learn about it, 444 00:32:27,360 --> 00:32:29,880 the more proud I am of being of colour. 445 00:32:38,960 --> 00:32:42,960 # Julie oh Julie won't you run 446 00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:47,440 # Cos I see down yonder the soldiers have come 447 00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:51,640 # Julie oh Julie can't you see 448 00:32:51,640 --> 00:32:56,120 # Them devils have come to take you far from me? 449 00:32:58,760 --> 00:33:02,600 # Mistress oh mistress I won't run. # 450 00:33:02,600 --> 00:33:05,280 There's this whole lost chapter of Black music 451 00:33:05,280 --> 00:33:07,760 that is inaccessible to us because of Black-faced stuff, 452 00:33:07,760 --> 00:33:10,000 but a lot of people don't want to go there. 453 00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:11,760 We can't let it be inaccessible. 454 00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:15,320 # And I'll stay right here till they come for me. # 455 00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:21,040 There's this whole area of 50 or 60 years that we're leaving out 456 00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:23,680 and it's like, that's the important stuff. 457 00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:26,920 It's deeply in the culture and I think that, 458 00:33:26,920 --> 00:33:31,200 if we want to get to the heart of it, that's a big piece. 459 00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:35,200 # Mistress oh mistress I wish you well 460 00:33:36,920 --> 00:33:38,880 # But in leaving here 461 00:33:40,480 --> 00:33:45,040 # I'm leaving hell. # 462 00:34:06,480 --> 00:34:09,840 This is the state of Mississippi. 463 00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:23,880 In the mid-19th century, it was one of the richest places in the world... 464 00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:33,240 ..and much of this wealth was built on the backs 465 00:34:33,240 --> 00:34:35,840 of millions of enslaved Africans. 466 00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:45,960 Today, the Deep South seems like a rather genteel sort of place 467 00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:49,600 but in the 1840s and the 1850s this was one of the most dynamic, 468 00:34:49,600 --> 00:34:52,680 most fast-moving and most brutal places in the world 469 00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:55,880 and it was the centre of an absolutely globalised industry. 470 00:34:55,880 --> 00:34:58,960 Cotton from the Mississippi Valley made up more than half 471 00:34:58,960 --> 00:35:00,800 of all America's exports 472 00:35:00,800 --> 00:35:04,400 and the slaves themselves, their lives and their bodies, 473 00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:07,000 they were the most valuable commercial asset 474 00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:09,400 in the American economy. 475 00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:13,560 So people who lived in houses like this used to have a phrase that they 476 00:35:13,560 --> 00:35:18,480 liked to use to remind everyone just how important their industry was. 477 00:35:18,480 --> 00:35:21,200 They used to say, "Cotton is king". 478 00:35:26,160 --> 00:35:30,800 Cotton and slaves were shipped down the Mississippi by paddle steamer... 479 00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:36,640 ..to be sold in the markets of places like New Orleans. 480 00:35:40,560 --> 00:35:44,120 But the plantations of Mississippi were just one half of 481 00:35:44,120 --> 00:35:46,240 a global industry. 482 00:35:46,240 --> 00:35:49,800 And that's because the vast majority of the cotton that came off 483 00:35:49,800 --> 00:35:52,840 these fields and that was shipped down this river 484 00:35:52,840 --> 00:35:55,520 went to the mills and factories of Britain. 485 00:35:55,520 --> 00:35:57,880 And the slaves, the people who worked these fields, 486 00:35:57,880 --> 00:36:00,600 the people who were bought and sold in the slave markets of 487 00:36:00,600 --> 00:36:04,760 New Orleans, their labour wasn't just making their owners rich, 488 00:36:04,760 --> 00:36:08,600 it was fuelling Britain's Industrial Revolution. 489 00:36:17,880 --> 00:36:21,920 American cotton was spun and woven into cloth in the great mills 490 00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:24,400 and factories of Lancashire and Cheshire. 491 00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:31,360 By the 1860s, nearly half a million people 492 00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:33,440 were employed in the cotton mills. 493 00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:40,040 And, for each direct employee, 494 00:36:40,040 --> 00:36:43,840 another three people were supported by their wages. 495 00:36:49,600 --> 00:36:53,880 And that is the great contradiction within the Victorian Moral Mission 496 00:36:53,880 --> 00:36:56,680 because abolitionist anti-slavery Britain 497 00:36:56,680 --> 00:36:59,600 was economically dependent upon American cotton, 498 00:36:59,600 --> 00:37:03,080 which meant she was up to her neck in American slavery. 499 00:37:05,120 --> 00:37:07,400 Across Britain, four million people 500 00:37:07,400 --> 00:37:10,480 were to some degree reliant upon cotton. 501 00:37:11,640 --> 00:37:14,920 When I was growing up in the North of England, THIS is the history that 502 00:37:14,920 --> 00:37:17,880 I was taught at school - the history of the Industrial Revolution, 503 00:37:17,880 --> 00:37:20,200 and I was told that this was MY history 504 00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:22,240 because it was the heritage of the white 505 00:37:22,240 --> 00:37:24,080 working-class side of my family. 506 00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:25,720 And I came on school trips to 507 00:37:25,720 --> 00:37:29,480 places like this and I learnt about Spinning Jenny's and water frames 508 00:37:29,480 --> 00:37:31,280 and the terrible conditions, 509 00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:33,120 but I was never told, not once, 510 00:37:33,120 --> 00:37:37,440 that the cotton that made places like this so incredibly profitable 511 00:37:37,440 --> 00:37:41,520 was produced by slaves 3,000 miles away in the Deep South. 512 00:37:41,520 --> 00:37:45,400 And we talk about the Industrial Revolution and Black history 513 00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:48,680 as if they are completely separate, but in the middle of 514 00:37:48,680 --> 00:37:52,400 the 19th century, cotton clothes, produced with cotton picked 515 00:37:52,400 --> 00:37:56,520 by Black people in the Deep South, were Britain's biggest exports. 516 00:37:56,520 --> 00:38:00,920 The Black slaves of America never set foot on British soil, 517 00:38:00,920 --> 00:38:03,480 but they ARE part of British history. 518 00:38:08,200 --> 00:38:12,640 This was the great blind spot of the Victorian Moral Mission. 519 00:38:15,800 --> 00:38:21,200 Britain was making a fortune from cotton grown by enslaved Africans. 520 00:38:24,200 --> 00:38:28,360 In 1861, the slave-owning southern states of America 521 00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:31,160 went to war against the anti-slavery north. 522 00:38:41,440 --> 00:38:45,320 The northern government established a naval blockade on the 523 00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:46,720 southern cotton trade... 524 00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:51,600 ..and the free flow of cotton from the Mississippi Valley 525 00:38:51,600 --> 00:38:53,880 came to an abrupt halt. 526 00:39:04,320 --> 00:39:08,400 What followed was a social and economic disaster. 527 00:39:08,400 --> 00:39:11,720 Lancashire fell into the grip of what became known as 528 00:39:11,720 --> 00:39:13,160 the Cotton Famine. 529 00:39:19,600 --> 00:39:24,160 Relief committees were set up, riots broke out and, by the end of 1862, 530 00:39:24,160 --> 00:39:30,360 nearly half a million people were in receipt of some form of charity. 531 00:39:33,400 --> 00:39:37,760 And the Northern American states came to Lancashire's aid. 532 00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:49,880 If you want to get a picture of just how bad things got for 533 00:39:49,880 --> 00:39:54,240 the people of Lancashire then this barrel can tell you that story 534 00:39:54,240 --> 00:39:58,400 because it talks to you, it tells you its own story in its own words, 535 00:39:58,400 --> 00:40:00,640 it even speaks in the first person! 536 00:40:00,640 --> 00:40:05,720 "I am one of the thousands of barrels that was filled with flour 537 00:40:05,720 --> 00:40:09,720 "and sent by the free states of America in the ship 538 00:40:09,720 --> 00:40:13,800 "the George Griswold to the starving people of Lancashire, 539 00:40:13,800 --> 00:40:17,720 "whose misery was caused by the aggressive Civil War 540 00:40:17,720 --> 00:40:19,480 "of the slave owners." 541 00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:23,080 This is a relic from what we would today call humanitarian aid - 542 00:40:23,080 --> 00:40:26,720 food that was sent by the northern states to the people of the 543 00:40:26,720 --> 00:40:30,880 North West of England to help them survive the Cotton Famine. 544 00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:35,080 But, more than that, this is also a piece of propaganda. 545 00:40:35,080 --> 00:40:38,560 It's there to remind everybody, on both sides of the Atlantic, 546 00:40:38,560 --> 00:40:41,640 that what this war was about is slavery. 547 00:40:55,680 --> 00:40:58,600 The British Government remained officially neutral 548 00:40:58,600 --> 00:41:00,320 in the American Civil War. 549 00:41:04,360 --> 00:41:08,120 But many people in Britain, both rich and poor, 550 00:41:08,120 --> 00:41:11,160 supported the southern, slave-owning states... 551 00:41:12,360 --> 00:41:14,480 ..nowhere more so than in Liverpool. 552 00:41:17,160 --> 00:41:20,120 The city had grown rich as a slave-trading port. 553 00:41:23,920 --> 00:41:28,280 But following abolition, Liverpool's shipping magnates had swapped 554 00:41:28,280 --> 00:41:30,400 their human cargo for cotton. 555 00:41:33,520 --> 00:41:37,840 By the time of the Civil War, 85% of all the cotton that left 556 00:41:37,840 --> 00:41:41,880 New Orleans flowed up the Mersey and was landed in these docks. 557 00:41:43,760 --> 00:41:47,520 Now, many of the city's merchants and traders were facing 558 00:41:47,520 --> 00:41:51,640 financial ruin and they were willing to do whatever it took 559 00:41:51,640 --> 00:41:53,400 to break the blockade. 560 00:41:54,920 --> 00:41:58,440 The arms manufacturers of Liverpool simply ignored their own 561 00:41:58,440 --> 00:42:02,520 government's declaration of neutrality and, in this shipyard, 562 00:42:02,520 --> 00:42:06,000 warships were constructed for the Confederate Navy. 563 00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:08,520 One of them, the CSS Alabama, 564 00:42:08,520 --> 00:42:10,880 intercepted 65 northern ships. 565 00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:13,800 Not only had it been built on Merseyside, 566 00:42:13,800 --> 00:42:16,000 many of its crewmen were local men. 567 00:42:30,320 --> 00:42:33,960 Arming the Confederate states made the traders and manufacturers 568 00:42:33,960 --> 00:42:36,360 of Liverpool a fortune. 569 00:42:36,360 --> 00:42:39,720 The Government, for the most part, turned a blind eye. 570 00:42:42,760 --> 00:42:46,560 And as the mills shut their doors and thousands of people lost 571 00:42:46,560 --> 00:42:49,000 their jobs, it's hardly surprising 572 00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:52,800 that most of Lancashire's mill towns came out in support 573 00:42:52,800 --> 00:42:55,800 of the cotton-producing states of the South. 574 00:42:57,400 --> 00:42:59,640 Most, but not all. 575 00:43:00,760 --> 00:43:04,080 The town of Rochdale was one of the towns worst hit 576 00:43:04,080 --> 00:43:05,560 by the Cotton Famine. 577 00:43:05,560 --> 00:43:08,400 What was happening here was happening right across the 578 00:43:08,400 --> 00:43:11,520 Lancashire Valley - people were leaving their homes and 579 00:43:11,520 --> 00:43:15,160 travelling from town to town, desperate to find work. 580 00:43:17,240 --> 00:43:21,200 Even when they were hungry and destitute, thousands of workers 581 00:43:21,200 --> 00:43:25,200 in Rochdale stood in solidarity with the slaves of America. 582 00:43:26,240 --> 00:43:29,160 But the Cotton Famine was a mounting crisis. 583 00:43:30,440 --> 00:43:34,440 One response to the crisis was to start schemes of public works 584 00:43:34,440 --> 00:43:36,440 and this road is a result 585 00:43:36,440 --> 00:43:38,480 of one of those schemes. 586 00:43:38,480 --> 00:43:41,920 What happened is that unemployed mill workers from down there 587 00:43:41,920 --> 00:43:45,400 in the Lancashire Valley were brought up here, onto the moors, 588 00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:49,880 with spades and shovels and pickaxes, and they cut this road 589 00:43:49,880 --> 00:43:51,480 right across the valley, 590 00:43:51,480 --> 00:43:53,320 right across the landscape. 591 00:43:53,320 --> 00:43:56,560 This is still called by the name it was given back then, 592 00:43:56,560 --> 00:43:59,640 in the 19th century, it's the Cotton Famine Road. 593 00:44:00,720 --> 00:44:04,920 JAUNTY FOLK MUSIC PLAYS 594 00:44:12,680 --> 00:44:16,200 This is slavery, this is Black history as we think of it, 595 00:44:16,200 --> 00:44:19,480 colliding into the lives of White working-class people. 596 00:44:22,280 --> 00:44:24,840 And it's for that reason, for that sacrifice, 597 00:44:24,840 --> 00:44:28,720 that the people here are rightly proud of what their ancestors did. 598 00:44:42,120 --> 00:44:45,560 I very much look at the road as really 599 00:44:45,560 --> 00:44:48,320 a sort of scar that's been left in the landscape. 600 00:44:52,880 --> 00:44:56,240 But whilst they were suffering, they were very clear about what 601 00:44:56,240 --> 00:44:58,440 was right and what was wrong 602 00:44:58,440 --> 00:45:01,040 and, clearly, slavery was wrong. 603 00:45:02,560 --> 00:45:05,960 I'd like extend a special welcome to the Lord Mayor and 604 00:45:05,960 --> 00:45:08,200 the Lady Mayoress of Rochdale. 605 00:45:12,640 --> 00:45:16,160 My ancestors worked in the cotton mills in Rochdale and they 606 00:45:16,160 --> 00:45:20,760 were badly affected by the Cotton Famine. 607 00:45:20,760 --> 00:45:23,960 "We have fathers sitting in the house at midday, 608 00:45:23,960 --> 00:45:26,000 "silent and glum, 609 00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:28,880 "while children look wistfully about and 610 00:45:28,880 --> 00:45:32,520 "sometimes whimper for bread which they cannot have." 611 00:45:33,840 --> 00:45:36,840 There was a young child in the family, she was only six-month old 612 00:45:36,840 --> 00:45:41,120 in 1861, so it would have been a very difficult time for them. 613 00:45:44,240 --> 00:45:48,520 Everyone knew what was going on and they knew the reason that 614 00:45:48,520 --> 00:45:52,840 they were fighting this, and they just buckled to and went through it 615 00:45:52,840 --> 00:45:56,880 and said, "It's tough, but it's not as tough for us as it is for them". 616 00:45:58,880 --> 00:46:02,080 It gives me the greatest pleasure that we unveil this in the memory 617 00:46:02,080 --> 00:46:06,480 of the hardships of the past and the future of this new group and 618 00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:10,360 committee who've made this happen today. Well done. Thank you so much. 619 00:46:11,720 --> 00:46:14,520 APPLAUSE 620 00:46:23,920 --> 00:46:25,320 I'm from Rochdale. 621 00:46:25,320 --> 00:46:28,560 There's something about Rochdale that it's just got that certain 622 00:46:28,560 --> 00:46:30,400 "je ne sais quoi". It's that grit, 623 00:46:30,400 --> 00:46:33,880 determination and guts to say, "This is the right thing", 624 00:46:33,880 --> 00:46:36,920 you know, "This is the right thing - let's do it". 625 00:46:38,160 --> 00:46:41,280 And I'd like to say I would do it, I'd like to say I would. 626 00:46:41,280 --> 00:46:46,200 - Well, you're from Rochdale, so history says you would! - Yes! 627 00:46:46,200 --> 00:46:48,960 I probably WOULD, yeah! 628 00:47:11,400 --> 00:47:14,800 While the Cotton Famine was undermining the Moral Mission... 629 00:47:17,440 --> 00:47:20,440 ..another crisis had been growing in Jamaica. 630 00:47:24,560 --> 00:47:26,720 In the decades after the abolition of slavery, 631 00:47:26,720 --> 00:47:29,760 the sugar islands of the British West Indies that had once been 632 00:47:29,760 --> 00:47:32,920 so incredibly profitable started to go into decline. 633 00:47:32,920 --> 00:47:35,800 There was competition from other producers and, here on Jamaica, 634 00:47:35,800 --> 00:47:38,920 much of the soil was exhausted and some of the planters started 635 00:47:38,920 --> 00:47:41,160 to go bankrupt. They went back to Britain, 636 00:47:41,160 --> 00:47:45,120 leaving the old houses and the old factories to fall into ruins. 637 00:47:45,120 --> 00:47:47,280 What you had on Jamaica by the 1860s 638 00:47:47,280 --> 00:47:50,120 was thousands of acres that no-one was farming 639 00:47:50,120 --> 00:47:52,800 and hundreds of thousands of former slaves 640 00:47:52,800 --> 00:47:55,120 who had no work and no land. 641 00:47:58,640 --> 00:48:02,160 To make matters worse, Jamaica suffered the worst drought 642 00:48:02,160 --> 00:48:05,680 that anyone could remember - people were desperate. 643 00:48:08,920 --> 00:48:15,240 The spark that ignited the flame took place in the small town of Morant Bay. 644 00:48:16,320 --> 00:48:20,400 It began with a case in this courthouse over the eviction 645 00:48:20,400 --> 00:48:23,920 of a man who'd been farming on an abandoned estate. 646 00:48:25,560 --> 00:48:29,600 It's really hard to work out, 150 years later, exactly where 647 00:48:29,600 --> 00:48:33,400 everything took place, but we do know that a crowd of about 500 to 648 00:48:33,400 --> 00:48:37,680 600 local people had gathered here in front of the courthouse and that, 649 00:48:37,680 --> 00:48:40,880 on the stairs of the courthouse, the local militia had gathered. 650 00:48:40,880 --> 00:48:44,320 They are local White men, a form of territorial Army. 651 00:48:44,320 --> 00:48:47,160 And up there, the local magistrate 652 00:48:47,160 --> 00:48:50,240 began to read the riot act to the crowds. 653 00:48:50,240 --> 00:48:54,280 At some point, people in the crowd began to throw stones and, 654 00:48:54,280 --> 00:48:57,800 at that point, the militia opened fire on the crowd, 655 00:48:57,800 --> 00:49:01,160 but the crowd then attacked this building and began to burn it down. 656 00:49:19,720 --> 00:49:21,720 The militia killed seven people 657 00:49:21,720 --> 00:49:24,120 and another 18 were killed by the crowd, 658 00:49:24,120 --> 00:49:26,200 including the local magistrate. 659 00:49:29,320 --> 00:49:32,080 But, shortly after, the violence subsided. 660 00:49:39,440 --> 00:49:42,360 This had been a serious local incident, 661 00:49:42,360 --> 00:49:44,480 but, in the grand scheme of things, 662 00:49:44,480 --> 00:49:47,880 this was a riot in a backwater town in a part of the Empire 663 00:49:47,880 --> 00:49:50,200 that no longer mattered very much. 664 00:49:50,200 --> 00:49:53,280 The reason why every Jamaican has heard of Morant Bay is 665 00:49:53,280 --> 00:49:55,080 because of what happened next. 666 00:50:01,360 --> 00:50:05,000 On the orders of the Governor of Jamaica, Edward Eyre, 667 00:50:05,000 --> 00:50:06,960 the Army was unleashed. 668 00:50:09,360 --> 00:50:12,160 The militia swarmed into the region 669 00:50:12,160 --> 00:50:15,880 and hundreds of innocent Jamaicans were killed - 670 00:50:15,880 --> 00:50:18,520 some were executed. 671 00:50:28,720 --> 00:50:31,240 It was a brutal act of vengeance, 672 00:50:31,240 --> 00:50:35,440 even by the low standards of the 19th century. 673 00:50:39,840 --> 00:50:43,520 Professor Clinton Hutton has spent years researching what many 674 00:50:43,520 --> 00:50:47,000 Jamaicans call the Morant Bay War. 675 00:50:48,040 --> 00:50:53,080 What had happened at Morant Bay was still very localised, 676 00:50:53,080 --> 00:50:55,440 not that many people had been involved, 677 00:50:55,440 --> 00:50:59,120 - but the governor didn't see it that way, did he? - No. 678 00:50:59,120 --> 00:51:03,920 He saw it in the context of Black insurrection 679 00:51:03,920 --> 00:51:06,520 against White authority. 680 00:51:06,520 --> 00:51:10,320 Eyre was responding to Black fear, 681 00:51:10,320 --> 00:51:13,600 the fear of Black uprising. 682 00:51:13,600 --> 00:51:16,680 The basis for somebody being punished, 683 00:51:16,680 --> 00:51:18,200 for somebody being killed, 684 00:51:18,200 --> 00:51:22,520 for somebody being whipped or somebody's house being burnt 685 00:51:22,520 --> 00:51:24,120 was the colour of your skin. 686 00:51:25,640 --> 00:51:28,400 The slave-owning class in Jamaica 687 00:51:28,400 --> 00:51:31,800 were still in power after emancipation 688 00:51:31,800 --> 00:51:36,320 and so the policy of the colonial government was to do 689 00:51:36,320 --> 00:51:41,400 everything to prevent people of African descent from owning the 690 00:51:41,400 --> 00:51:46,720 means and acquiring and accessing the means of their own livelihood. 691 00:51:46,720 --> 00:51:50,520 The idea that Black people should have the right 692 00:51:50,520 --> 00:51:52,840 to rule their own destiny... 693 00:51:55,200 --> 00:51:59,760 ..that was the furthest thing from their mind. 694 00:52:07,560 --> 00:52:11,800 After Morant Bay, old ideas that claimed Black people 695 00:52:11,800 --> 00:52:16,840 were innately savage were revived and they were given greater potency 696 00:52:16,840 --> 00:52:20,640 by new pseudoscientific theories about race. 697 00:52:24,800 --> 00:52:27,840 LIVE MUSIC PLAYS 698 00:52:32,880 --> 00:52:35,600 It's largely been forgotten in Britain, 699 00:52:35,600 --> 00:52:37,720 but, for Jamaicans everywhere, 700 00:52:37,720 --> 00:52:40,600 Morant Bay remains a raw memory. 701 00:52:44,040 --> 00:52:47,840 It's so painful that that pain will never go away. 702 00:52:47,840 --> 00:52:51,560 I grieve and mourn the loss of my ancestors. 703 00:52:54,280 --> 00:52:57,880 At Stony Gut, a Jamaican village that was burnt to the ground 704 00:52:57,880 --> 00:53:02,240 in the reprisals, people are gathering to remember the victims. 705 00:53:04,160 --> 00:53:06,600 This ceremony is a reminder 706 00:53:06,600 --> 00:53:11,720 that we should be the bearers of the torch for freedom. 707 00:53:14,520 --> 00:53:17,680 And, in Britain, an identical plaque will be unveiled 708 00:53:17,680 --> 00:53:20,280 at the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton. 709 00:53:21,720 --> 00:53:25,200 This idea of "celebrate" is an interesting one. 710 00:53:25,200 --> 00:53:27,160 Of course we can say "celebrate", 711 00:53:27,160 --> 00:53:30,320 but, actually, to celebrate doesn't quite do it. 712 00:53:32,000 --> 00:53:37,280 I remember my grandmother telling me about the streets running with 713 00:53:37,280 --> 00:53:42,480 blood in Morant Bay and about the slaughter of many Black Jamaicans. 714 00:53:43,640 --> 00:53:47,880 My ancestors were killed by British forces... 715 00:53:49,000 --> 00:53:53,360 ..that came to Stony Gut shooting, 716 00:53:53,360 --> 00:53:56,240 burning houses, killing people, 717 00:53:56,240 --> 00:54:00,080 slaughtering young babies and pregnant mothers. 718 00:54:01,720 --> 00:54:07,320 That is what I call total annihilation of a set of people. 719 00:54:09,920 --> 00:54:12,760 I think it's important to remember stories like this 720 00:54:12,760 --> 00:54:15,600 because Black British history is British history. 721 00:54:15,600 --> 00:54:17,920 You know, Britain wouldn't be what it is 722 00:54:17,920 --> 00:54:20,800 if it wasn't for the transatlantic slave trade. 723 00:54:20,800 --> 00:54:24,520 Remembering this history means that I can place myself 724 00:54:24,520 --> 00:54:26,640 in the community that I live in. 725 00:54:29,760 --> 00:54:32,800 If we can see ourselves in the history books, 726 00:54:32,800 --> 00:54:35,320 reflected back positively, 727 00:54:35,320 --> 00:54:40,640 it has a direct impact on our sense of self, 728 00:54:40,640 --> 00:54:43,680 on our sense of what we can achieve. 729 00:54:46,600 --> 00:54:49,760 Those more uncomfortable histories can often be difficult things 730 00:54:49,760 --> 00:54:51,640 for people to take on board, 731 00:54:51,640 --> 00:54:55,040 but it's very important that we do commemorate the difficult parts 732 00:54:55,040 --> 00:54:58,720 of history as well as the more celebratory ones. 733 00:54:58,720 --> 00:55:04,400 I now have the great pleasure of unveiling this plaque. 734 00:55:07,880 --> 00:55:10,520 One, two...three! 735 00:55:12,120 --> 00:55:16,400 APPLAUSE 736 00:55:24,600 --> 00:55:27,960 We are stronger by doing things like this as we have done today 737 00:55:27,960 --> 00:55:31,520 and we will galvanise the community around such things, 738 00:55:31,520 --> 00:55:34,440 create the energy that propels us forward. 739 00:56:10,280 --> 00:56:15,200 The rise and fall of the Victorian Moral Mission sheds new light 740 00:56:15,200 --> 00:56:18,360 on some defining moments in our history... 741 00:56:23,760 --> 00:56:25,880 ..from the abolition of slavery... 742 00:56:27,800 --> 00:56:30,440 ..to the Industrial Revolution... 743 00:56:34,680 --> 00:56:38,320 ..and it reminds us of those who were caught up in 744 00:56:38,320 --> 00:56:42,440 the great battle of ideas that divided the country and Empire. 745 00:57:01,280 --> 00:57:04,640 More than 150 years after Morant Bay, 746 00:57:04,640 --> 00:57:07,640 these stories can now be retold and remembered. 747 00:57:09,520 --> 00:57:12,040 The people of Jamaica remember Morant Bay as 748 00:57:12,040 --> 00:57:15,000 a pivotal moment in their history, but it's also a watershed 749 00:57:15,000 --> 00:57:18,040 in British history because it is the moment in which 750 00:57:18,040 --> 00:57:22,800 new racial ideas are unleashed and given their full voice. 751 00:57:22,800 --> 00:57:26,560 It is a moment in which the old ideas, the old Moral Mission, 752 00:57:26,560 --> 00:57:29,440 is declared dead and over. 753 00:57:37,280 --> 00:57:39,040 Next time... 754 00:57:39,040 --> 00:57:41,560 the fall of Empire 755 00:57:41,560 --> 00:57:44,080 and the century of struggle... 756 00:57:44,080 --> 00:57:47,240 He could have been my brother, he could have been your son. 757 00:57:47,240 --> 00:57:49,440 ..to be both Black and British. 758 00:57:52,680 --> 00:57:56,120 If you'd like to find out how to research Black history in your 759 00:57:56,120 --> 00:57:58,200 area, there's an iWonder guide 760 00:57:58,200 --> 00:58:04,360 with links to our partners at... 761 00:58:05,305 --> 00:59:05,760 Watch Online Movies and Series for FREE www.osdb.link/lm