Mark and I are delighted to announce that we have extended tour dates for the ANTI SLAVERY BELFAST TOUR to the end of May. Each Saturday there will be a tour from the Big Fish starting at 10.30am. It is two and a half hours and includes a 30min break. More information is here.
Great to see our new leaflet. For information on tours, look here!
Out today doing another Anti Slavery Belfast Tour. It was Mark’s day off! Great crowd and tolerable weather!
In 1845, FREDERICK DOUGLASS, a ‘fugitive slave’ came to Ireland Belfast to promote his memoir and campaign for the abolition of slavery in the USA. Upon learning from James Stanfield, president of the Belfast Anti-Slavery Society, that the Free Presbyterian Church in Scotland was accepting money from fellow churches in America slave states, Douglass demanded they ‘Send back the money.’ 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:
On 14 JULY 1792, many united Irishmen in Belfast celebrated BASTILLE DAY. Henry Joy McCracken proposed a toast to ‘To Mr. Wilberforce, and a speedy repeal of the infamous traffic in the flesh and bone of man.’ To learn more about slavery 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:
In 1859, MARY ANN MCCRACKEN, wrote to Dr. R. R. Madden, complained few people were interested in the cause of anti-slavery. She lamented that ‘Belfast, once so celebrated for its love of liberty is now so sunk in the love of filthy lucre that there are but 16 or 17 female anti-slavery advocates, for the good cause paying 2/6 yearly,, not one man, tho’ several Quakers in Belfast, and none to distribute papers to American Emigrants but an old woman within 17 days of 89.” To learn more about slavery…
An advertisement in the BELFAST NEWSLETTER in the 1750s asked for help finding a ‘run away from the service of Mrs Fullerton of Carrickfergus, on Sunday last, a negro slave boy.’ To learn more about slavery 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:
In 1845, FREDERICK DOUGLASS, a ‘fugitive slave’ came to Ireland Belfast to promote his memoir and campaign for the abolition of slavery in the USA. After his first talk in Belfast in December he wrote to his friend Richard Webb. He noted that ‘all my books went at one go. I want more. I want more. I have everything to hope and nothing to fear. The paper of this morning took a favourable notice of my meeting … and a deep interest seems to be excited.’ To learn more about…
The NORTHERN STAR newspaper was published in Belfast from 1792 to 1795. It had strong United Irishmen sympathies and was strongly abolitionist. It declared that ‘every individual, as far as he consumes sugar products, becomes accessory to the guilt [of slavery].” To learn more about slavery 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:
In 1845, FREDERICK DOUGLASS, a ‘fugitive slave’ came to Ireland Belfast to promote his memoir and campaign for the abolition of slavery in the USA. After his first 4 very successful talks in Dublin in September 1845 he noted ‘one of the most pleasing features of my visit … has been a total absence of … prejudice against me on account of my colour. The change of circumstances in this is particularly striking. I find myself not treated as a colour, but as a man – not as thing, but…
Irish Nationalist and MP, DANIEL O’CONNELL, known as the ‘Liberator’ for his campaign to introduce Catholic emancipation, declared in London in the 1830s that he ‘was an abolitionist. I am for speedy, immediate, abolition. I enter into no compromise with slavery.’ He had a massive impact on the slavery movement in Ireland. To learn more about slavery 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:
In 1846, FREDERICK DOUGLASS, a ‘fugitive slave’ came to Belfast to promote his memoir and campaign for the abolition of slavery in the USA. He noted that the population of Belfast ‘seems full of religion, drinks wine and prays.’. To learn more about Douglass in Ireland, 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:
Watchmaker and United Irishman THOMAS MCCABE in 1786 stopped Waddell Cunningham’s proposal for a Belfast Slave Ship Company. He warned anyone who supported the venture ‘May God eternally damn the soul of the man who subscribes the first guinea.’ To learn more about slavery 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:
Many contemporaries expressed doubt that the eloquent, articulate and cultured person that was Douglass could have been a former slave. In response to these comments, he said “I have a degree from that peculiar institution, and my diploma is written on my back.” To learn more about his visit and Belfast’s connections to slavery, 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:
An advertisement in the BELFAST NEWSLETTER on 19 OCTOBER 1765 gave a reward of three guineas for the capture of a ‘Runaway from John Cawden, Princes Street, Belfast. A young negro manservant named John Moore…Straight and well made has two remarkably broad teeth in upper jaw.” To learn more about slavery 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:
He came to promote his memoir and campaign for the abolition of slavery in the USA. He said about his visit that “… behold the change … Instead of the bright blue sky of America, I am covered with the soft grey fog of the Emerald Isle. I breathe, and Lo! The chattel becomes a man.” To learn more about Douglass in Ireland, 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:
In the later part of the 18th century, Belfast United Irishman and abolitionist THOMAS RUSSELL would ‘not taste anything with sugar in it’ as sugar was grown, harvested, processed and refined using slave labour. To learn more about slavery 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:
Mark out doing our 4th tour on International Women’s Day in Belfast; making the point that many anti-slavery abolitionists were also feminists! Tours on each Sat from 10.30 at the Big Fish from 11.2.23 to 29.4.23. Info: https://bit.ly/3wbcSbZ
In 1791, former OLAUDAH EQUIANO visited Belfast. He came to promote the 4th edition of his memoir. He recalled ‘in May 1791, I sailed from Liverpool to Dublin where I was very kindly received, and from thence to Cork, and then travelled over many counties in Ireland. I was everywhere exceedingly well treated, by persons of all ranks”. To learn more about his visit and Belfast’s connections to slavery, 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.…
Out today telling about Belfast’s complex, dark and surprising slavery past for a third time on Saturday. Wonderful crowd today! Tours on each Sat from 10.30 at the Big Fish from 11.2.23 to 25.3.23. Info:
