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:
Come along and learn how Belfast Clock Makers helped in the campaign to abolish slavery. Tours on each Sat from 10.30 at the Big Fish from 11.2.23 to 25.3.23. Info:
Tours start at The Big Fish, a wonderful artwork by Dublin artist John Kindness. Lovely name, lovely work! The ceramic scales illustrate old Belfast – an outdoor history book. At this place was the original town dock, from which Belfast traded with the world in the days of sail. Come along and learn of our rich history in the days of slavery. Tours on each Sat from 10.30 at the Big Fish from 11.2.23 to 25.3.23. Info:
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…
