Month: February 2023

The Quakers were instremental in ending slavery in the British Empire in 1833. To learn about their role in Belfast, book an ANTI SLAVERY TOUR! They are held on each Sat from 10.30 at the Big Fish from 11.2.23 to 25.3.23.  Info: 

The Society of Friends, or Quakers, began lobbying for abolition in the 1780s. They were very well coordinated on both sides of the Atlantic and played a central role in many imaginative initiatives that lead to the eradication of slavery in Britain and the US. Learn more about Quaker Abolitionists in Ireland on this special walking tour of Belfast. To learn more about how the Quakers campaigned in Belfast to end slavery, book an ANTI SLAVERY TOUR! Tours on each Sat from 10.30 at the Big Fish from 11.2.23 to…

January 2023 marked the the bicentenary of the formation in England of the organisation now known as Anti-Slavery International. It is the oldest international human rights organisation in the world. Slavery had been outlawed in the British Empire in 1833, but it was imperfectly enforced and it still existed in other countires, most notably the US. Committed, highly motivated and well organised abolitionists on both sides of the Atlantic realised that strength lay in coordinated action, and this led to the 1840 International Anti-Slavery Convention, held for 11 days in…

The mausoleums of the families of Waddell Cunningham & Thomas Greg. In the later half of the 1700s, these two men operated very successful shipping companies in New York and the Caribbean. Both owned sugar plantations on the island of Dominica, and hence were slave owners. Find out more on a walking tour of Belfast. To find out more about them, book an ANTI SLAVERY TOUR! Tours on each Sat from 10.30 at the Big Fish from 11.2.23 to 25.3.23. Info:

“I never saw my mother, to know her as such, more than four or five times in my life ; and each of these times was very short in duration, and at night. She was hired by a Mr. Stewart, who lived about twelve miles from my home. She made her journeys to see me in the night, travelling the whole distance on foot, after the performance of her day’s work. She was a field hand, and a whipping is the penalty of not being in the field at sunrise,…

Learn how slaves sought to escape their captivity! To learn more about Douglass in Belfast, book an ANTI SLAVERY TOUR! They are held on each Sat from 10.30 at the Big Fish from 11.2.23 to 25.3.23.  Info: 

The transatlantic slave trade was the largest forced migration in human history and completely changed Africa, the Americas and Europe. Between the 1400s and 1800s, 12-15 million men, women and children were forcibly transported from Africa to the Americas. Britain’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade officially began, with royal approval, in 1663 with the creation of the Royal African Company (RAC). Between 1662 and 1807, British and British colonial ships purchased an estimated 3,415,500 Africans. Of this number, 2,964,800 survived the ‘middle passage’ and were sold into slavery in…

Come on our tour and learn some amazing stories about how people escaped slavery! www.antislaverybelfast.com

Thanks to Samuel Thompson for his very kind piece on the above website. You can read the whole item here: https://sluggerotoole.com/2023/02/18/a-history-we-can-agree-on/#respond The AntiSlavery Belfast guided walking tour explores the history of Belfast’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade and its abolition. Led by Mr Mark Doherty and Dr Tom Thorpe. Tours on each Sat from 10.30 at the Big Fish from 11.2.23 to 25.3.23. Info:

Drew was born in Limerick in 1800 and studied at Trinity College Dublin. He was ordained as a priest in the Church of Ireland and served as a curate in Antrim and later as the first incumbent of Christ Church in Belfast. Drew built over 20 low-church style churches and schools in the area and was a fervent member of the Orange Order and a Tory. He opposed Catholic emancipation and high-church Anglicanism, and refused to accept the 1841 census that showed Catholics as the largest denomination in Ireland. He…

Mark let the second ANTI SLAVERY TOUR on Saturday (18.2.23). Tours on each Sat from 10.30 at the Big Fish from 11.2.23 to 25.3.23. Info:

Richard Davis Webb (1805–1872) was an Irish publisher, Quaker and abolitionist. He was a founding member of the Hibernian Antislavery Association in 1837 and was one of the Irish delegates at the 1840 Anti-Slavery Convention in London. Frederick Douglass was introduced to Webb in 1845, shortly after he published his narrative, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.” Webb was impressed by Douglass’s eloquence and became a strong supporter of his work. He arranged for Douglass to speak at various Quaker meetings in the northeastern United States…

Robert Neil was a silversmith who started business in 1803 in High Street. He was a partner with Henry L. Gardner and helped turn the firm into a successful company of jewellers, watchmakers and opticians. He was married to Letitia and had nine surviving children. He was an advocate of radical, progressive causes and was involved in various activities such as anti-slavery, Parliamentary reform, and support for the Belfast Poor House. He was a strong anti-slavery man and hosted visiting abolitionist lecturers such as William Lloyd Garrison, Henry C. Wright,…

Francis Anderson Calder was born in 1787 and served in the Royal Navy between 1803 and 1815. After naval service, he founded the Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1836 with the purpose to ‘Prevent Cruelty and Relieve Suffering’ to animals. It is the second oldest animal welfare charity in the world. He also paid for the construction between 1843 and 1855 of ten public water-troughs for the use of cattle including the present day one outside the Customs House. Anderson Calder was active in the…

He was the youngest son of John Cooke, a tenant farmer of Grillagh, by his second wife, Jane Howie or Howe, of Scottish descent, and was born on 11 May 1788. The 1798 Rebellion was said to have a powerful influence on his religious and political views. Cooke adopted the Non-Arian Old Light position in the Presbyterian tradition. Non-Arians tended to take a dogmatic, prescriptive and conservative view of Presbyterianism, rejecting the liberal views of the Arians based on following conscience and reason in matters of faith. He had a strong…

Mary Ann McCracken was born on July 8, 1770, to Captain and Ann McCracken (nee Joy). Her grandfather, Francis Joy, founded the Belfast Newsletter in 1737 and was one of the Belfast merchants who did a thriving business supplying rough linen clothing and salted provisions to the sugar plantations of the West Indies. McCracken came from a liberal background and attended David Manston’s co-educational school, a radical institution in the late 18th century. She had sympathies with the United Irishmen and was a lifelong abolitionist. In 1845, she helped establish…

The Middle Passage refers to the stage of the transatlantic slave trade where enslaved Africans were transported across the Atlantic Ocean from West and Central Africa to the Americas. The voyage was called the “Middle Passage” because it was the middle leg of a three-part journey, with the other two legs being the journey from Africa to the slave-trading ports and the journey from the Americas to the final destinations of the enslaved Africans. The Middle Passage was characterized by horrific conditions on the slave ships, where enslaved Africans were…

The transatlantic slave trade was the largest forced migration in human history and completely changed Africa, the Americas and Europe. Between the 1400s and 1800s, 12-15 million men, women and children were forcibly transported from Africa to the Americas. Britain’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade officially began, with royal approval, in 1663 with the creation of the Royal African Company (RAC). Between 1662 and 1807, British and British colonial ships purchased an estimated 3,415,500 Africans. Of this number, 2,964,800 survived the ‘middle passage’ and were sold into slavery in…

Thomas Paine was an influential 18th-century writer and philosopher, best known for his political writings advocating for the American Revolution and the rights of man. Paine was born in England in 1737 and emigrated to the American colonies in 1774, where he wrote his most famous work, “Common Sense,” a political pamphlet that played a major role in the American Revolution. In 1791, Paine published “Rights of Man,” a response to Edmund Burke’s critique of the French Revolution. In this work, Paine argued for the rights of man and the…

The Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade received royal assent on 25 March 1807. It prohibited the slave trade in the British Empire but did not abolish the practice of slavery. Slavery was abolished in most of the British Empire in 1833. Why did it take 26 years between the abolition slave trade and the abolition of slavery itself? The 26 year gap between the abolition of the slave trade and the abolition of slavery itself was due to various political, economic, and social factors. One of the…