Slavery and Abolition Day School

Manchester and the surrounding region played a crucial role in the struggle to abolish the Atlantic slave trade and slavery itself, first in Britain’s Caribbean colonies and then in the United States. From the beginnings of the Parliamentary campaign against the slave trade in the 1780s to the American Civil War of the 1860s, Mancunians, men and women, the wealthy and the workers, white and black, committed themselves to this cause, holding mass meetings, lobbying Parliament, publishing anti-slavery books, and hosting former slaves such as Olaudah Equiano and Frederick Douglass—while living amongst the mills which consumed so much slave-grown American cotton.

By examining and discussing important events, texts, and images, we will learn about the many contributions Mancunians made to this important element in the ongoing struggle for human rights.

Participants will work with Natalie Zacek from the University of Manchester's Department of English and American Studies.