Breaking The Chains

Lawyer Stephen's Cave - excerpt
This excerpt is the eighth chapter from forthcoming book, 'Lawyer Stephen's Cave', written by Liverpool-based author & historian, Alex Robinson. During a sabbatical in St. Kitt's, she becamed intrigued by local stories of 'Lawyer Stephen' English barrister and the grandfather of Virginia Woolf, who defended the cases of slaves against their 'masters' in the Kittitian courts. During this time of rebellion and revolution in the Caribbean (he was active during the Haitian wars of independence), he became the scourge of planter society and resided outside of society in a cave where he was free to be a defender of Human rights.
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"You, the Queen, should be ashamed!"
All was solemn at the slavery service in Westminster Abbey ... until a bright-shirted demonstrator let loose, says David Smith who watched the drama unfold
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Life on St. Kitt's, 1775
An extract from 'journal of a lady of quality; being the Narrative of a journey from Scotland to the West Indies, North Carolina and Portugal, in the years 1774 and 1775'. Please note, this extract has been taken from an 18th century text and the tone and language should be viewed within that historical context. It is not our intention to offend anyone by the language used here, but it is our intention for people to understand the ways in which slavery racialised and dehumanised African people.
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Child Labour
March 25th 2007 marked the abolition of slavery, two hundred years on and we can be forgiven for thinking that after all this time, freedom does in fact exist in a world run by Western democracies who in their quest for a new world order promote the need of a world based on equal rights, justice and freedom. But in the reality of it all we reside in a bleak existence in which our post colonial era allows the existence of at least 218 million child labourers.
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Letter to Arthur Torrington
This was an email sent to Arthur Torrington of the Equiano Society, in response to his post on the Black and Asian Studies (BASA) listerv, indicating his disappointment with an exhibition commemorating the Bicentenary at the National Portrait Gallery, London.
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Background to Sugar Coated Tears
On March 25 1807, the Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was passed through parliament. From August 1 1807 it was then illegal for British ships to be involved in the trade. This marked the beginning of the end for the transatlantic traffic in human beings. 2007 has seen a great deal of national activity to commemorate the bicentenary of the Act and its enforcement. There have been many events and exhibitions seeking to understand slavery and abolition beyond parliamentary dates and important figures of the time.
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