0:00:14 > 0:00:18There's a story here in Jamaica that on the last day of July in the year
0:00:18 > 0:00:231828 people climbed up the hills and the mountains to watch the dawn.
0:00:25 > 0:00:26It was at that moment,
0:00:26 > 0:00:30after 50 years of campaigning by the abolitionists and after
0:00:30 > 0:00:33centuries of rebellion and resistance by the slaves themselves,
0:00:33 > 0:00:37slavery in the British Empire was finally over.
0:00:39 > 0:00:41As the moment of abolition approached,
0:00:41 > 0:00:46the slave owners had no idea what would happen next.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51For years, they told people that slavery could never be ended
0:00:51 > 0:00:54because, if it were, the black people would rise up
0:00:54 > 0:00:56and they would kill the whites -
0:00:56 > 0:00:58and they'd started to believe their own propaganda.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01They were a tiny minority on an island surrounded
0:01:01 > 0:01:05by a third of a million black people and they looked on, convinced
0:01:05 > 0:01:08that their now former property, the people they'd exploited
0:01:08 > 0:01:11and whipped, were going to rise up and take revenge.
0:01:18 > 0:01:19But as dawn broke...
0:01:21 > 0:01:24SINGING
0:01:24 > 0:01:29..instead of seeking revenge, many of the former slaves went to church.
0:01:31 > 0:01:35Queen Victoria had come to the throne just six weeks earlier and
0:01:35 > 0:01:40the new Victorians saw the abolition of slavery as the dawn of a new age
0:01:40 > 0:01:44of progress and enlightenment for Britain and its empire.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57The fact that the former slaves had no possessions, the fact that almost
0:01:57 > 0:02:00all the farmland was still in the hands of the White planters,
0:02:00 > 0:02:04these details were just not allowed to get in the way of this
0:02:04 > 0:02:08great moment of Victorian moral triumphalism.
0:02:08 > 0:02:13But within 30 years, this Victorian sense of moral superiority
0:02:13 > 0:02:14would come crashing down.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24In this programme, we'll be remembering the people
0:02:24 > 0:02:29and events in this extraordinary and often tragic period
0:02:29 > 0:02:32of our history, when many saw the abolition of slavery
0:02:32 > 0:02:35as a triumphant new beginning.
0:02:35 > 0:02:36Peace to Africa.
0:02:43 > 0:02:46Abolition changed how the Victorians saw themselves.
0:02:46 > 0:02:47For many people,
0:02:47 > 0:02:52being opposed to slavery became part of what it meant to be British.
0:02:52 > 0:02:54Some people took it further.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57They didn't want to just look down on other countries that still
0:02:57 > 0:03:01tolerated slavery - they saw Britain as the moral leader of the world
0:03:01 > 0:03:06and they turned their attentions to ending slavery everywhere.
0:03:06 > 0:03:10For them, this was to be the great Victorian Moral Mission.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36CHILDREN SING
0:03:38 > 0:03:42One part of this global story took place here, in Sierra Leone.
0:03:43 > 0:03:48In 1807, 31 years before the abolition of slavery,
0:03:48 > 0:03:51Britain abandoned the Atlantic slave trade.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54We know, we have got our...?
0:03:54 > 0:03:56ALL: Freedom.
0:03:56 > 0:03:58Freedom from what?
0:03:58 > 0:03:59ALL: Slavery.
0:03:59 > 0:04:03- And then they captured him again and freed him.- Very good.
0:04:03 > 0:04:05Let's clap for her. OK.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10The history class these kids are having our is telling the story
0:04:10 > 0:04:15of how some of their ancestors ended up here in Freetown, Sierra Leone,
0:04:15 > 0:04:18so it's a really important part of their national history,
0:04:18 > 0:04:21but it's also part of British history because many of their
0:04:21 > 0:04:25ancestors were brought here in the 19th century by the Royal Navy
0:04:25 > 0:04:29in what's got to be one of the most remarkable
0:04:29 > 0:04:33and the most forgotten chapters in all of British history.
0:04:33 > 0:04:34So, it's not good to be a slave.
0:04:38 > 0:04:40When Britain abolished its own slave trade,
0:04:40 > 0:04:43the other European powers didn't follow their example.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48In 1808, the Royal Navy created a special force to suppress
0:04:48 > 0:04:50the slave trade,
0:04:50 > 0:04:51the West Africa Squadron.
0:04:53 > 0:04:55For the whole of the 18th century,
0:04:55 > 0:04:59the Royal Navy was here in the waters of West Africa
0:04:59 > 0:05:02to defend the slave trade, to protect British slave ships
0:05:02 > 0:05:05from the attentions of enemy powers.
0:05:05 > 0:05:07In the 19th century,
0:05:07 > 0:05:10and in what has to be one of the most bizarre transitions
0:05:10 > 0:05:13in all of history, their job was to hunt down,
0:05:13 > 0:05:17to intercept slave ships and to free the Africans onboard.
0:05:25 > 0:05:29The West Africa Squadron was under-resourced and plagued by corruption.
0:05:36 > 0:05:41It managed to intercept only around 6% of the slave ships
0:05:41 > 0:05:43heading across the Atlantic.
0:05:50 > 0:05:56But between 1808 and the 1860s, over 150,000 men, women
0:05:56 > 0:05:59and children were liberated.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09Some of their names are recorded in the Freetown archives.
0:06:14 > 0:06:20So, Manga, who is 37, a man, five foot nine,
0:06:20 > 0:06:24scar on the side of right of elbow.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29And these are all children. A little boy of five, six...
0:06:29 > 0:06:31This is a girl, she's 11 years old,
0:06:31 > 0:06:34she is four feet ten and on each cheek she has this mark
0:06:34 > 0:06:39and, rather than try to describe it, the registrar here
0:06:39 > 0:06:44has drawn the mark, a tribal scar or a tattoo, that this girl has.
0:06:44 > 0:06:49And there are many of these little, tiny illustrations in this book.
0:06:49 > 0:06:54These are the tribal marks of pre-colonial Africans.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57These are a little snapshot into the cultures.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00And we sometimes forget,
0:07:00 > 0:07:02slavery was designed to wipe people's cultures out.
0:07:02 > 0:07:05These people had been caught just at the last moment.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08They are on slave ships, they've been intercepted,
0:07:08 > 0:07:10they've been brought back to Africa.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13"Without name". This is a man who is 18 years old.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17He is without a name, he is four feet eight and he's deaf and dumb,
0:07:17 > 0:07:19and he was destined to become a slave.
0:07:19 > 0:07:20(God!)
0:07:22 > 0:07:26What sort of life would this poor guy have had
0:07:26 > 0:07:28if he'd been taken to the New World and put on a plantation?
0:07:37 > 0:07:42There's no guarantee that all these people went on to live free lives.
0:07:48 > 0:07:50We know that some were forced into the Army,
0:07:50 > 0:07:54others were kidnapped and sold back into slavery,
0:07:54 > 0:07:56but some settled in Freetown.
0:08:02 > 0:08:07The former slaves were known as the "re-captives" and they were
0:08:07 > 0:08:09brought here, to the King's Yard,
0:08:09 > 0:08:12to be counted and have their names recorded.
0:08:12 > 0:08:15This gate is very significant because the moment you step out
0:08:15 > 0:08:17of these gates you become a free man.
0:08:20 > 0:08:21Slavery, as we all know,
0:08:21 > 0:08:25may have lasted for a few centuries, but freedom lasts for ever.
0:08:26 > 0:08:29CHILDREN SING
0:08:29 > 0:08:31Today, the people of Freetown
0:08:31 > 0:08:33are commemorating those who were liberated.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40They are gathering before the gates of the King's Yard.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47We realise that our great-great-grandfather was among
0:08:47 > 0:08:50the re-captive slaves, which never reached the intended destination.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52- The Royal Navy interceded... - That's right.
0:08:52 > 0:08:54..and they ended up here in Freetown.
0:08:54 > 0:08:56Yes, and, as a result of that,
0:08:56 > 0:08:59we were to able to identify our identity.
0:08:59 > 0:09:01I mean to say, I was just the lucky few.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04You see, they say many are caught, but few are chosen,
0:09:04 > 0:09:06so we are the lucky ones amongst the lot.
0:09:09 > 0:09:13Their shackles were cut-off, their wounds were dressed
0:09:13 > 0:09:16and each received a piece of cotton clothing and some food.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24In the name of God, alleluia!
0:09:24 > 0:09:26- ALL: Amen! - God bless us all.
0:09:26 > 0:09:29They then walked through this gate to freedom.
0:09:32 > 0:09:33Peace to Africa.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37APPLAUSE
0:09:43 > 0:09:45Bad things have been done,
0:09:45 > 0:09:48but some good was now eventually coming out of the bad.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01Britain's global crusade against the slave trade was anything but perfect.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06And yet, if you were one of those slaves, on a slave ship,
0:10:06 > 0:10:10captured by the Royal Navy, intercepted at sea,
0:10:10 > 0:10:14and you had the shackles broken off your wrists and your feet
0:10:14 > 0:10:17and you were landed here in Freetown, Sierra Leone,
0:10:17 > 0:10:19as a free person then what had happened
0:10:19 > 0:10:21and what happened here afterwards
0:10:21 > 0:10:23was nothing short of a miracle.
0:10:31 > 0:10:34In the 1850s, the West Africa Squadron
0:10:34 > 0:10:36began to change its tactics.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39They landed forces and attacked the bases
0:10:39 > 0:10:41of European and African slave traders.
0:10:41 > 0:10:43Now these attacks were justified
0:10:43 > 0:10:45in that they helped suppress the slave trade,
0:10:45 > 0:10:49but bit by bit and year by year what was happening
0:10:49 > 0:10:53on the coast of West Africa began to become more colonial.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56The anti-slave trade mission began to merge
0:10:56 > 0:11:00with the opening phases of the colonisation of West Africa.
0:11:03 > 0:11:08As well as force, the West Africa Squadron employed diplomacy
0:11:08 > 0:11:12to persuade local African leaders to abandon the slave trade.
0:11:13 > 0:11:18In 1850, when Frederick Forbes, a captain in the West Africa Squadron,
0:11:18 > 0:11:23visited King Gezo of Dahomey, they exchanged diplomatic gifts,
0:11:23 > 0:11:27but one of those gifts was not what Forbes was expecting.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32On the 5th of July, Forbes tells us
0:11:32 > 0:11:36he receives on behalf of Queen Victoria ten heads of cowries,
0:11:36 > 0:11:42shells, a keg of rum and, in the middle of a list, a captive girl.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47Forbes had a picture of the child printed.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52And that gives her new name - Sara Forbes Bonetta.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55Forbes, after Captain Forbes,
0:11:55 > 0:11:58and Bonetta, after his ship, the HMS Bonetta.
0:12:00 > 0:12:04So Captain Forbes, this rather famous, very well-respected officer
0:12:04 > 0:12:06in the British West Africa Squadron,
0:12:06 > 0:12:10whose task in life is to suppress the African slave trade,
0:12:10 > 0:12:12now finds himself sailing back to Britain
0:12:12 > 0:12:16with a slave child on board his ship,
0:12:16 > 0:12:19and this little girl on her way to Britain
0:12:19 > 0:12:22was to lead an absolutely remarkable life.
0:12:27 > 0:12:29Cracking shot.
0:12:31 > 0:12:33Soon after she arrived in Britain,
0:12:33 > 0:12:36Sara was presented to Queen Victoria.
0:12:38 > 0:12:40Go on. Beautiful shot.
0:12:42 > 0:12:43Second.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47She was just six years old.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56Sara makes her first appearance in the private journals
0:12:56 > 0:12:59of Queen Victoria on the day the two of them meet for the first time,
0:12:59 > 0:13:02which is the 9th of November 1850.
0:13:02 > 0:13:03The Queen describes her as,
0:13:03 > 0:13:06"Sharp and intelligent and speaks English.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10"She's dressed as any other girl but, when her bonnet was taken off,
0:13:10 > 0:13:14"her little black woolly head and big earrings
0:13:14 > 0:13:16"gave her the true negro type."
0:13:16 > 0:13:20Now, what Sara made of this encounter,
0:13:20 > 0:13:23this meeting with the most powerful woman on earth,
0:13:23 > 0:13:25the woman to whom she had been given as a gift,
0:13:25 > 0:13:27is something that we'll never know because,
0:13:27 > 0:13:31like most of the black people who were drawn into British history
0:13:31 > 0:13:34in this period, her words are lost to us.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43Grandmother used to tell us about this ancestor
0:13:43 > 0:13:47who was the adopted daughter of Queen Victoria,
0:13:47 > 0:13:50but we didn't believe her because we just thought
0:13:50 > 0:13:54this was an old lady rambling on about the past.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05The Queen agreed to become Sara's protector.
0:14:05 > 0:14:07She paid for her education,
0:14:07 > 0:14:12which was undertaken by missionaries here at Palm Cottage in Kent,
0:14:12 > 0:14:15which is now the local social club.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21In the eyes of some people, Sara's life was to become
0:14:21 > 0:14:24a social experiment and a rather patronising one.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30This clearly bright child was to be used to demonstrate
0:14:30 > 0:14:34that under British guidance an African could become educated,
0:14:34 > 0:14:39Christianised and, in the buzz word of the 19th century, civilised.
0:14:47 > 0:14:51In less than a year, Sara had made the astonishing transition
0:14:51 > 0:14:53from being an enslaved orphan...
0:14:53 > 0:14:55"Lieutenant Colonel North."
0:14:55 > 0:14:58..to become a royal protege.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01"Lieutenant Colonel Sir Jackson."
0:15:03 > 0:15:06By the time she was an adult,
0:15:06 > 0:15:11Sara had taken her place in Victorian high society.
0:15:11 > 0:15:16And in this book, among all of these eminent Victorians,
0:15:16 > 0:15:21there are arch dukes and members of the aristocracy,
0:15:21 > 0:15:24you turn the page and suddenly
0:15:24 > 0:15:28there's a page of these black Victorians.
0:15:30 > 0:15:34These pictures of Sara were taken just after her wedding
0:15:34 > 0:15:37to James Davies, a trader from Freetown
0:15:37 > 0:15:40whose own parents had been liberated slaves.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46About a month after they were married, Sara and James
0:15:46 > 0:15:50came to London to attend the studio of Camille Silvy.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53He was an aristocratic French portrait photographer
0:15:53 > 0:15:55who was just the star of the day,
0:15:55 > 0:15:58so to be in these books was a real statement.
0:15:58 > 0:16:00It said that you had arrived,
0:16:00 > 0:16:02that you were part of the Victorian elite.
0:16:03 > 0:16:08And here are Sara Forbes Bonetta and James Davies.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12James and Sara are the poster children of the Moral Mission.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16They both could have been victims, in one way or another,
0:16:16 > 0:16:19of the Atlantic slave trade and here they are in a book
0:16:19 > 0:16:23with the rich and the powerful of 1860s London.
0:16:24 > 0:16:28They're hybrid people. They're as much British as they are African.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31They are in some ways living the lives that millions of people
0:16:31 > 0:16:35live today, where we're not quite one thing and not quite the other.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38It must have been incredibly disorientating
0:16:38 > 0:16:42for a 19-year-old girl whose benefactor
0:16:42 > 0:16:44is the Queen of Great Britain.
0:16:58 > 0:17:03Today, members of Sara's family have come to Palm Cottage Social Club
0:17:03 > 0:17:05to honour her life.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10Hello there, members. Thanks very much for coming this afternoon.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17I am glad to be here today to commemorate the life
0:17:17 > 0:17:19of my great-great-grandmother.
0:17:20 > 0:17:25She was a very accomplished person
0:17:25 > 0:17:31and very strong willed to be able to survive in the situation.
0:17:32 > 0:17:36I think she'd approve of everything we're doing today.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54Sara and James had three children and they named their first
0:17:54 > 0:17:59daughter Victoria after the Queen, who became the child's godmother.
0:17:59 > 0:18:03She's been discovered for the first time for a lot of local people,
0:18:03 > 0:18:06so hopefully we'll get enquiries about her history and members that
0:18:06 > 0:18:10have been here today will pass on what they've learnt about her life.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18Thank you all for coming to help me to unveil this plaque
0:18:18 > 0:18:21to my great-great-grandmother,
0:18:21 > 0:18:25who lived in a house on this very spot in 1855.
0:18:30 > 0:18:32APPLAUSE
0:18:39 > 0:18:43She has been written out of history,
0:18:43 > 0:18:47but this will bring her back into history.
0:18:52 > 0:18:55People should be proud that we are part of her life...
0:18:56 > 0:18:59..that we are a part of history and hopefully we'll keep our club going
0:18:59 > 0:19:01for many more years to come.
0:19:09 > 0:19:15I feel very proud of her and I hope she is looking down on us
0:19:15 > 0:19:17as we celebrate her life now.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30During the years Sara was growing up in Britain,
0:19:30 > 0:19:33the main focus of the Victorian Moral Mission was America.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45Eloquent speakers who had escaped from slavery in the American South
0:19:45 > 0:19:49captivated audiences the length and breadth of Britain
0:19:49 > 0:19:52with shocking stories of life under slavery.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00To British audiences, most of whom had never seen a slave before,
0:20:00 > 0:20:04the arrival of these passionate, eloquent Black Americans
0:20:04 > 0:20:06was an electrifying experience.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10But in the 1840s, one clear superstar emerged on the anti-slavery scene
0:20:10 > 0:20:13and that was Frederick Douglass,
0:20:13 > 0:20:16who was one of the best speakers of his age or of any age.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28Frederick Douglass arrived in Britain in 1845.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35He'd just published his autobiography...
0:20:36 > 0:20:40..and people flocked to his sell-out tour of Britain and Ireland.
0:20:51 > 0:20:55By the time he arrived here in Dundee, in early 1846,
0:20:55 > 0:20:58Frederick Douglass had already been on the road for six months.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00So many people in this city wanted to hear him speak
0:21:00 > 0:21:04that he had to give four separate lectures just to meet demand
0:21:04 > 0:21:06and one of them took place here
0:21:06 > 0:21:09in what was then the Bell Street Baptist Chapel.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15"I came here because the slaveholders do not wish me to be here.
0:21:15 > 0:21:19"I came here because those in slavery knew that this monster of darkness,
0:21:19 > 0:21:24"which hates the light and to which the light of truth is death,
0:21:24 > 0:21:28"could only live by being permitted to grope away in the darkness,
0:21:28 > 0:21:30"crushing human hearts."
0:21:33 > 0:21:35Glasgow-based poet Tawona Sithole
0:21:35 > 0:21:39has been inspired by Frederick Douglass' work.
0:21:39 > 0:21:41He was a confident speaker.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45When he was in a room, people were definitely enchanted
0:21:45 > 0:21:47by what he was saying.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51He had a serious message but he also found a way of putting that
0:21:51 > 0:21:56in a humorous way and I feel that breaks down so many barriers,
0:21:56 > 0:21:59you know, so people are able to actually listen and engage.
0:22:01 > 0:22:06"I came here because slavery is the common enemy of mankind.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11"And to do all in my power to induce the humanity,
0:22:11 > 0:22:15"morality and Christianity of the world
0:22:15 > 0:22:19"to rise up and crush this demon of iniquity."
0:22:21 > 0:22:24At the heart of the abolitionist message in the 1840s was a very simple idea -
0:22:24 > 0:22:29it was that slavery wasn't a political issue, it was a moral issue.
0:22:29 > 0:22:32And because it was moral, it could not be constrained behind borders.
0:22:32 > 0:22:37Slavery anywhere was an affront to moral people everywhere,
0:22:37 > 0:22:41but slavery in America WAS Britain's business.
0:22:41 > 0:22:44It wasn't a national domestic issue for America -
0:22:44 > 0:22:46it was a global moral crisis.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52He was tall, broad and it was said he could turn women's heads.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58Dr Peggy Brunache has studied Frederick Douglass' life and work.
0:22:59 > 0:23:01When you saw him up there,
0:23:01 > 0:23:05he was no different than everyone else in the room.
0:23:05 > 0:23:07That was his point.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09That there was a commonality to all of them.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13Douglass' speeches compelled the sympathy and understanding
0:23:13 > 0:23:17for the enslaved men and women in the southern states.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20Even if you may have not supported slavery,
0:23:20 > 0:23:23there were still built up stereotypes
0:23:23 > 0:23:26of what a Black person was, a slave was,
0:23:26 > 0:23:28and he crushed them all.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36So now it's my great pleasure to invite everyone
0:23:36 > 0:23:40to join us outside as we unveil the plaque.
0:23:45 > 0:23:47He had a vision
0:23:47 > 0:23:49and it's difficult carrying a vision
0:23:49 > 0:23:52because not everyone around you can see.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58His fight was unending.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00He was unyielding.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04He was for Black rights, he was for women's rights
0:24:04 > 0:24:07and that alone is inspiring.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12If one of us is not free then none of us are free.
0:24:14 > 0:24:16APPLAUSE
0:24:43 > 0:24:47In 1856, two of the most famous women in the world
0:24:47 > 0:24:49arranged a secret rendezvous.
0:24:52 > 0:24:57Almost every detail of it remains a mystery to this day.
0:25:01 > 0:25:05We think it took place here, at King's Cross,
0:25:05 > 0:25:08and one of those women was Queen Victoria.
0:25:12 > 0:25:16The reason Queen Victoria was sneaking about in her own kingdom
0:25:16 > 0:25:19was because, like pretty much everybody else in the 1850s,
0:25:19 > 0:25:21she was fascinated by a new book
0:25:21 > 0:25:23and she'd arranged to have a secret meeting
0:25:23 > 0:25:26with its American author, Harriet Beecher Stowe.
0:25:26 > 0:25:30This book was the bestselling book of the entire Victorian age.
0:25:30 > 0:25:34It sold 1.5 million copies in Britain and the Empire.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37It outsold every major work by every Victorian author -
0:25:37 > 0:25:41Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, the Bronte sisters -
0:25:41 > 0:25:43only the Bible sold more copies.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46And yet, this is a book about Black people.
0:25:46 > 0:25:50It's a book about slaves in the deep south of America.
0:25:50 > 0:25:53It's a book that hardly anybody reads these days
0:25:53 > 0:25:54and yet everybody's heard of -
0:25:54 > 0:25:56it's Uncle Tom's Cabin.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05"What is freedom to a nation but freedom to the individuals in it?
0:26:09 > 0:26:12"What is freedom to that young man who sits there
0:26:12 > 0:26:14"with his arms folded over his broad chest,
0:26:14 > 0:26:19"the tint of African blood in his cheek, its dark fires in his eye?"
0:26:22 > 0:26:25"No, no, no.
0:26:25 > 0:26:28"My soul ain't yours, mas'r. You haven't bought it.
0:26:28 > 0:26:30"Ye can't buy it.
0:26:30 > 0:26:33"It's been bought and paid for by one that is able to keep me."
0:26:36 > 0:26:39"And there was such a silence that the tick of the old tock
0:26:39 > 0:26:42"could be heard measuring with silence touch
0:26:42 > 0:26:47"the last moments of mercy and probation to that hardened heart."
0:26:55 > 0:26:58The plot of Uncle Tom's Cabin is relatively simple -
0:26:58 > 0:27:00it tells the story of a group of slaves from Kentucky
0:27:00 > 0:27:03whose lives are turned upside down when some of them are sold
0:27:03 > 0:27:05and others escape to avoid that fate.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08One group does reach British Canada and freedom,
0:27:08 > 0:27:12but Uncle Tom is murdered by the wicked slave owner Simon Legree.
0:27:12 > 0:27:14And these Black characters -
0:27:14 > 0:27:19Uncle Tom and Chloe, George and Eliza Harris, Topsy,
0:27:19 > 0:27:23they become some of the most famous characters of the Victorian age.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26They are every bit as famous as Oliver Twist or Jane Eyre
0:27:26 > 0:27:28or David Copperfield.
0:27:28 > 0:27:30They've been forgotten today,
0:27:30 > 0:27:32but at the time everybody knew who they were.
0:27:32 > 0:27:37Queen Victoria's meeting with Beecher Stowe was kept secret
0:27:37 > 0:27:40because it was feared that it be seen as a royal intervention
0:27:40 > 0:27:44in the battle against slavery in the United States.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49Like many of her subjects, Victoria was deeply moved by the novel,
0:27:49 > 0:27:52but its portrayal of Black people
0:27:52 > 0:27:57is full of poisonous racial stereotypes.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01Gary Young has written about its impact on the Victorian audience.
0:28:02 > 0:28:06For Britain in the 1850s, this book's got everything going for it.
0:28:06 > 0:28:09It's about American slavery rather than British slavery,
0:28:09 > 0:28:11it's melodramatically written,
0:28:11 > 0:28:14it's about the family, what we now call Victorian values,
0:28:14 > 0:28:16so it's got hit written all over it.
0:28:16 > 0:28:17Yes.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21I mean, there's something about the crudeness of it,
0:28:21 > 0:28:28the simplicity of it, the fact that it's like a targeted strike.
0:28:29 > 0:28:31The strike is against slavery.
0:28:31 > 0:28:34It's not against inequality, it's not against racism,
0:28:34 > 0:28:36it's not against White supremacy.
0:28:36 > 0:28:42It's against a specific institution and therefore, if your society
0:28:42 > 0:28:46had gotten rid of slavery already, even if it was relatively recently,
0:28:46 > 0:28:53then you have the capacity, if you so wish, to feel smug.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56One way that one might understand that smugness, people looking
0:28:56 > 0:28:59at Black Lives Matter in America and thinking at least in Britain
0:28:59 > 0:29:02we don't shoot Black people dead in the street.
0:29:02 > 0:29:05Now the fact that there's vast inequalities with unemployment,
0:29:05 > 0:29:10the fact that people are dying in police custody and so on,
0:29:10 > 0:29:12well, yeah, yeah, yeah, they're...
0:29:12 > 0:29:14but we're not doing that.
0:29:14 > 0:29:18And if you look at the success of the book, it hit its mark.
0:29:27 > 0:29:32While a novel about slavery became the bestselling book of the age...
0:29:36 > 0:29:40Victorian popular music was adopting musical styles and instruments
0:29:40 > 0:29:45that had been pioneered by enslaved Africans in the American South.
0:29:50 > 0:29:55This is one of the first pieces of moving film shot anywhere in Britain
0:29:55 > 0:29:58and it was shot on these streets here in Soho
0:29:58 > 0:30:01about 120 years ago, back in the 1890s.
0:30:01 > 0:30:03It's a scene of Black-faced minstrels.
0:30:03 > 0:30:06These are White guys who have blacked up their faces
0:30:06 > 0:30:09and they're performing African-American music
0:30:09 > 0:30:11on instruments like banjos and guitars.
0:30:11 > 0:30:17Now to us this music, this phenomena, is really uncomfortable.
0:30:17 > 0:30:19But if we can put that aside for one moment,
0:30:19 > 0:30:24there is an amazing story because this was a global entertainment
0:30:24 > 0:30:27and it was as popular in this country as it was in America.
0:30:35 > 0:30:39Minstrel music became the sound of the Victorian Street...
0:30:42 > 0:30:46..and the toxic racial stereotypes in minstrelsy
0:30:46 > 0:30:47took root in our culture.
0:30:52 > 0:30:54The Black and White Minstrel Show
0:30:54 > 0:30:58was a staple of British television right up until 1978.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09Rhiannon Giddens is reclaiming the African-American origins
0:31:09 > 0:31:13of this hugely influential musical tradition.
0:31:15 > 0:31:19Those are all 1855 tunes.
0:31:19 > 0:31:23I know from everything I've read that Black-faced minstrelsy,
0:31:23 > 0:31:25in its early stages, could be anti-slavery,
0:31:25 > 0:31:27could be opposing slavery,
0:31:27 > 0:31:30and yet I know that intellectually and emotionally
0:31:30 > 0:31:32I find that really difficult to accept.
0:31:32 > 0:31:34Yes. I mean, I think that's the most important thing
0:31:34 > 0:31:37to get across about minstrelsy is that it was complicated
0:31:37 > 0:31:39and it wasn't, I mean...
0:31:39 > 0:31:42It wasn't wholly evil.
0:31:42 > 0:31:46A lot of the early songs, even though they still contain a lot of offensive language,
0:31:46 > 0:31:50a lot of the early songs are lots of pining for lost love
0:31:50 > 0:31:52or, you know, not being treated well.
0:31:52 > 0:31:56On the one hand, it's like there is a lot of that longing melancholy
0:31:56 > 0:32:01and, on the other hand, there is still horrible racist statements.
0:32:01 > 0:32:05So, for me, there's something that's very healing about writing songs
0:32:05 > 0:32:08that are actually from a slave's point of view,
0:32:08 > 0:32:10or enslaved people's point of view,
0:32:10 > 0:32:13on this instrument that really is America's first instrument.
0:32:13 > 0:32:17That was the language that they helped create, that they were allowed.
0:32:17 > 0:32:19I feel like I could do a lot worse
0:32:19 > 0:32:23than be in a line of Black banjo players,
0:32:23 > 0:32:27you know? I mean, it's like...the more I learn about it,
0:32:27 > 0:32:29the more proud I am of being of colour.
0:32:38 > 0:32:42# Julie oh Julie won't you run
0:32:42 > 0:32:47# Cos I see down yonder the soldiers have come
0:32:47 > 0:32:51# Julie oh Julie can't you see
0:32:51 > 0:32:56# Them devils have come to take you far from me?
0:32:58 > 0:33:02# Mistress oh mistress I won't run. #
0:33:02 > 0:33:05There's this whole lost chapter of Black music
0:33:05 > 0:33:07that is inaccessible to us because of Black-faced stuff,
0:33:07 > 0:33:10but a lot of people don't want to go there.
0:33:10 > 0:33:11We can't let it be inaccessible.
0:33:11 > 0:33:15# And I'll stay right here till they come for me. #
0:33:16 > 0:33:21There's this whole area of 50 or 60 years that we're leaving out
0:33:21 > 0:33:23and it's like, that's the important stuff.
0:33:23 > 0:33:26It's deeply in the culture and I think that,
0:33:26 > 0:33:31if we want to get to the heart of it, that's a big piece.
0:33:31 > 0:33:35# Mistress oh mistress I wish you well
0:33:36 > 0:33:38# But in leaving here
0:33:40 > 0:33:45# I'm leaving hell. #
0:34:06 > 0:34:09This is the state of Mississippi.
0:34:20 > 0:34:23In the mid-19th century, it was one of the richest places in the world...
0:34:30 > 0:34:33..and much of this wealth was built on the backs
0:34:33 > 0:34:35of millions of enslaved Africans.
0:34:41 > 0:34:45Today, the Deep South seems like a rather genteel sort of place
0:34:45 > 0:34:49but in the 1840s and the 1850s this was one of the most dynamic,
0:34:49 > 0:34:52most fast-moving and most brutal places in the world
0:34:52 > 0:34:55and it was the centre of an absolutely globalised industry.
0:34:55 > 0:34:58Cotton from the Mississippi Valley made up more than half
0:34:58 > 0:35:00of all America's exports
0:35:00 > 0:35:04and the slaves themselves, their lives and their bodies,
0:35:04 > 0:35:07they were the most valuable commercial asset
0:35:07 > 0:35:09in the American economy.
0:35:09 > 0:35:13So people who lived in houses like this used to have a phrase that they
0:35:13 > 0:35:18liked to use to remind everyone just how important their industry was.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21They used to say, "Cotton is king".
0:35:26 > 0:35:30Cotton and slaves were shipped down the Mississippi by paddle steamer...
0:35:33 > 0:35:36..to be sold in the markets of places like New Orleans.
0:35:40 > 0:35:44But the plantations of Mississippi were just one half of
0:35:44 > 0:35:46a global industry.
0:35:46 > 0:35:49And that's because the vast majority of the cotton that came off
0:35:49 > 0:35:52these fields and that was shipped down this river
0:35:52 > 0:35:55went to the mills and factories of Britain.
0:35:55 > 0:35:57And the slaves, the people who worked these fields,
0:35:57 > 0:36:00the people who were bought and sold in the slave markets of
0:36:00 > 0:36:04New Orleans, their labour wasn't just making their owners rich,
0:36:04 > 0:36:08it was fuelling Britain's Industrial Revolution.
0:36:17 > 0:36:21American cotton was spun and woven into cloth in the great mills
0:36:21 > 0:36:24and factories of Lancashire and Cheshire.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31By the 1860s, nearly half a million people
0:36:31 > 0:36:33were employed in the cotton mills.
0:36:38 > 0:36:40And, for each direct employee,
0:36:40 > 0:36:43another three people were supported by their wages.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53And that is the great contradiction within the Victorian Moral Mission
0:36:53 > 0:36:56because abolitionist anti-slavery Britain
0:36:56 > 0:36:59was economically dependent upon American cotton,
0:36:59 > 0:37:03which meant she was up to her neck in American slavery.
0:37:05 > 0:37:07Across Britain, four million people
0:37:07 > 0:37:10were to some degree reliant upon cotton.
0:37:11 > 0:37:14When I was growing up in the North of England, THIS is the history that
0:37:14 > 0:37:17I was taught at school - the history of the Industrial Revolution,
0:37:17 > 0:37:20and I was told that this was MY history
0:37:20 > 0:37:22because it was the heritage of the white
0:37:22 > 0:37:24working-class side of my family.
0:37:24 > 0:37:25And I came on school trips to
0:37:25 > 0:37:29places like this and I learnt about Spinning Jenny's and water frames
0:37:29 > 0:37:31and the terrible conditions,
0:37:31 > 0:37:33but I was never told, not once,
0:37:33 > 0:37:37that the cotton that made places like this so incredibly profitable
0:37:37 > 0:37:41was produced by slaves 3,000 miles away in the Deep South.
0:37:41 > 0:37:45And we talk about the Industrial Revolution and Black history
0:37:45 > 0:37:48as if they are completely separate, but in the middle of
0:37:48 > 0:37:52the 19th century, cotton clothes, produced with cotton picked
0:37:52 > 0:37:56by Black people in the Deep South, were Britain's biggest exports.
0:37:56 > 0:38:00The Black slaves of America never set foot on British soil,
0:38:00 > 0:38:03but they ARE part of British history.
0:38:08 > 0:38:12This was the great blind spot of the Victorian Moral Mission.
0:38:15 > 0:38:21Britain was making a fortune from cotton grown by enslaved Africans.
0:38:24 > 0:38:28In 1861, the slave-owning southern states of America
0:38:28 > 0:38:31went to war against the anti-slavery north.
0:38:41 > 0:38:45The northern government established a naval blockade on the
0:38:45 > 0:38:46southern cotton trade...
0:38:48 > 0:38:51..and the free flow of cotton from the Mississippi Valley
0:38:51 > 0:38:53came to an abrupt halt.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08What followed was a social and economic disaster.
0:39:08 > 0:39:11Lancashire fell into the grip of what became known as
0:39:11 > 0:39:13the Cotton Famine.
0:39:19 > 0:39:24Relief committees were set up, riots broke out and, by the end of 1862,
0:39:24 > 0:39:30nearly half a million people were in receipt of some form of charity.
0:39:33 > 0:39:37And the Northern American states came to Lancashire's aid.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49If you want to get a picture of just how bad things got for
0:39:49 > 0:39:54the people of Lancashire then this barrel can tell you that story
0:39:54 > 0:39:58because it talks to you, it tells you its own story in its own words,
0:39:58 > 0:40:00it even speaks in the first person!
0:40:00 > 0:40:05"I am one of the thousands of barrels that was filled with flour
0:40:05 > 0:40:09"and sent by the free states of America in the ship
0:40:09 > 0:40:13"the George Griswold to the starving people of Lancashire,
0:40:13 > 0:40:17"whose misery was caused by the aggressive Civil War
0:40:17 > 0:40:19"of the slave owners."
0:40:19 > 0:40:23This is a relic from what we would today call humanitarian aid -
0:40:23 > 0:40:26food that was sent by the northern states to the people of the
0:40:26 > 0:40:30North West of England to help them survive the Cotton Famine.
0:40:30 > 0:40:35But, more than that, this is also a piece of propaganda.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38It's there to remind everybody, on both sides of the Atlantic,
0:40:38 > 0:40:41that what this war was about is slavery.
0:40:55 > 0:40:58The British Government remained officially neutral
0:40:58 > 0:41:00in the American Civil War.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08But many people in Britain, both rich and poor,
0:41:08 > 0:41:11supported the southern, slave-owning states...
0:41:12 > 0:41:14..nowhere more so than in Liverpool.
0:41:17 > 0:41:20The city had grown rich as a slave-trading port.
0:41:23 > 0:41:28But following abolition, Liverpool's shipping magnates had swapped
0:41:28 > 0:41:30their human cargo for cotton.
0:41:33 > 0:41:37By the time of the Civil War, 85% of all the cotton that left
0:41:37 > 0:41:41New Orleans flowed up the Mersey and was landed in these docks.
0:41:43 > 0:41:47Now, many of the city's merchants and traders were facing
0:41:47 > 0:41:51financial ruin and they were willing to do whatever it took
0:41:51 > 0:41:53to break the blockade.
0:41:54 > 0:41:58The arms manufacturers of Liverpool simply ignored their own
0:41:58 > 0:42:02government's declaration of neutrality and, in this shipyard,
0:42:02 > 0:42:06warships were constructed for the Confederate Navy.
0:42:06 > 0:42:08One of them, the CSS Alabama,
0:42:08 > 0:42:10intercepted 65 northern ships.
0:42:10 > 0:42:13Not only had it been built on Merseyside,
0:42:13 > 0:42:16many of its crewmen were local men.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33Arming the Confederate states made the traders and manufacturers
0:42:33 > 0:42:36of Liverpool a fortune.
0:42:36 > 0:42:39The Government, for the most part, turned a blind eye.
0:42:42 > 0:42:46And as the mills shut their doors and thousands of people lost
0:42:46 > 0:42:49their jobs, it's hardly surprising
0:42:49 > 0:42:52that most of Lancashire's mill towns came out in support
0:42:52 > 0:42:55of the cotton-producing states of the South.
0:42:57 > 0:42:59Most, but not all.
0:43:00 > 0:43:04The town of Rochdale was one of the towns worst hit
0:43:04 > 0:43:05by the Cotton Famine.
0:43:05 > 0:43:08What was happening here was happening right across the
0:43:08 > 0:43:11Lancashire Valley - people were leaving their homes and
0:43:11 > 0:43:15travelling from town to town, desperate to find work.
0:43:17 > 0:43:21Even when they were hungry and destitute, thousands of workers
0:43:21 > 0:43:25in Rochdale stood in solidarity with the slaves of America.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29But the Cotton Famine was a mounting crisis.
0:43:30 > 0:43:34One response to the crisis was to start schemes of public works
0:43:34 > 0:43:36and this road is a result
0:43:36 > 0:43:38of one of those schemes.
0:43:38 > 0:43:41What happened is that unemployed mill workers from down there
0:43:41 > 0:43:45in the Lancashire Valley were brought up here, onto the moors,
0:43:45 > 0:43:49with spades and shovels and pickaxes, and they cut this road
0:43:49 > 0:43:51right across the valley,
0:43:51 > 0:43:53right across the landscape.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56This is still called by the name it was given back then,
0:43:56 > 0:43:59in the 19th century, it's the Cotton Famine Road.
0:44:00 > 0:44:04JAUNTY FOLK MUSIC PLAYS
0:44:12 > 0:44:16This is slavery, this is Black history as we think of it,
0:44:16 > 0:44:19colliding into the lives of White working-class people.
0:44:22 > 0:44:24And it's for that reason, for that sacrifice,
0:44:24 > 0:44:28that the people here are rightly proud of what their ancestors did.
0:44:42 > 0:44:45I very much look at the road as really
0:44:45 > 0:44:48a sort of scar that's been left in the landscape.
0:44:52 > 0:44:56But whilst they were suffering, they were very clear about what
0:44:56 > 0:44:58was right and what was wrong
0:44:58 > 0:45:01and, clearly, slavery was wrong.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05I'd like extend a special welcome to the Lord Mayor and
0:45:05 > 0:45:08the Lady Mayoress of Rochdale.
0:45:12 > 0:45:16My ancestors worked in the cotton mills in Rochdale and they
0:45:16 > 0:45:20were badly affected by the Cotton Famine.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23"We have fathers sitting in the house at midday,
0:45:23 > 0:45:26"silent and glum,
0:45:26 > 0:45:28"while children look wistfully about and
0:45:28 > 0:45:32"sometimes whimper for bread which they cannot have."
0:45:33 > 0:45:36There was a young child in the family, she was only six-month old
0:45:36 > 0:45:41in 1861, so it would have been a very difficult time for them.
0:45:44 > 0:45:48Everyone knew what was going on and they knew the reason that
0:45:48 > 0:45:52they were fighting this, and they just buckled to and went through it
0:45:52 > 0:45:56and said, "It's tough, but it's not as tough for us as it is for them".
0:45:58 > 0:46:02It gives me the greatest pleasure that we unveil this in the memory
0:46:02 > 0:46:06of the hardships of the past and the future of this new group and
0:46:06 > 0:46:10committee who've made this happen today. Well done. Thank you so much.
0:46:11 > 0:46:14APPLAUSE
0:46:23 > 0:46:25I'm from Rochdale.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28There's something about Rochdale that it's just got that certain
0:46:28 > 0:46:30"je ne sais quoi". It's that grit,
0:46:30 > 0:46:33determination and guts to say, "This is the right thing",
0:46:33 > 0:46:36you know, "This is the right thing - let's do it".
0:46:38 > 0:46:41And I'd like to say I would do it, I'd like to say I would.
0:46:41 > 0:46:46- Well, you're from Rochdale, so history says you would!- Yes!
0:46:46 > 0:46:48I probably WOULD, yeah!
0:47:11 > 0:47:14While the Cotton Famine was undermining the Moral Mission...
0:47:17 > 0:47:20..another crisis had been growing in Jamaica.
0:47:24 > 0:47:26In the decades after the abolition of slavery,
0:47:26 > 0:47:29the sugar islands of the British West Indies that had once been
0:47:29 > 0:47:32so incredibly profitable started to go into decline.
0:47:32 > 0:47:35There was competition from other producers and, here on Jamaica,
0:47:35 > 0:47:38much of the soil was exhausted and some of the planters started
0:47:38 > 0:47:41to go bankrupt. They went back to Britain,
0:47:41 > 0:47:45leaving the old houses and the old factories to fall into ruins.
0:47:45 > 0:47:47What you had on Jamaica by the 1860s
0:47:47 > 0:47:50was thousands of acres that no-one was farming
0:47:50 > 0:47:52and hundreds of thousands of former slaves
0:47:52 > 0:47:55who had no work and no land.
0:47:58 > 0:48:02To make matters worse, Jamaica suffered the worst drought
0:48:02 > 0:48:05that anyone could remember - people were desperate.
0:48:08 > 0:48:15The spark that ignited the flame took place in the small town of Morant Bay.
0:48:16 > 0:48:20It began with a case in this courthouse over the eviction
0:48:20 > 0:48:23of a man who'd been farming on an abandoned estate.
0:48:25 > 0:48:29It's really hard to work out, 150 years later, exactly where
0:48:29 > 0:48:33everything took place, but we do know that a crowd of about 500 to
0:48:33 > 0:48:37600 local people had gathered here in front of the courthouse and that,
0:48:37 > 0:48:40on the stairs of the courthouse, the local militia had gathered.
0:48:40 > 0:48:44They are local White men, a form of territorial Army.
0:48:44 > 0:48:47And up there, the local magistrate
0:48:47 > 0:48:50began to read the riot act to the crowds.
0:48:50 > 0:48:54At some point, people in the crowd began to throw stones and,
0:48:54 > 0:48:57at that point, the militia opened fire on the crowd,
0:48:57 > 0:49:01but the crowd then attacked this building and began to burn it down.
0:49:19 > 0:49:21The militia killed seven people
0:49:21 > 0:49:24and another 18 were killed by the crowd,
0:49:24 > 0:49:26including the local magistrate.
0:49:29 > 0:49:32But, shortly after, the violence subsided.
0:49:39 > 0:49:42This had been a serious local incident,
0:49:42 > 0:49:44but, in the grand scheme of things,
0:49:44 > 0:49:47this was a riot in a backwater town in a part of the Empire
0:49:47 > 0:49:50that no longer mattered very much.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53The reason why every Jamaican has heard of Morant Bay is
0:49:53 > 0:49:55because of what happened next.
0:50:01 > 0:50:05On the orders of the Governor of Jamaica, Edward Eyre,
0:50:05 > 0:50:06the Army was unleashed.
0:50:09 > 0:50:12The militia swarmed into the region
0:50:12 > 0:50:15and hundreds of innocent Jamaicans were killed -
0:50:15 > 0:50:18some were executed.
0:50:28 > 0:50:31It was a brutal act of vengeance,
0:50:31 > 0:50:35even by the low standards of the 19th century.
0:50:39 > 0:50:43Professor Clinton Hutton has spent years researching what many
0:50:43 > 0:50:47Jamaicans call the Morant Bay War.
0:50:48 > 0:50:53What had happened at Morant Bay was still very localised,
0:50:53 > 0:50:55not that many people had been involved,
0:50:55 > 0:50:59- but the governor didn't see it that way, did he?- No.
0:50:59 > 0:51:03He saw it in the context of Black insurrection
0:51:03 > 0:51:06against White authority.
0:51:06 > 0:51:10Eyre was responding to Black fear,
0:51:10 > 0:51:13the fear of Black uprising.
0:51:13 > 0:51:16The basis for somebody being punished,
0:51:16 > 0:51:18for somebody being killed,
0:51:18 > 0:51:22for somebody being whipped or somebody's house being burnt
0:51:22 > 0:51:24was the colour of your skin.
0:51:25 > 0:51:28The slave-owning class in Jamaica
0:51:28 > 0:51:31were still in power after emancipation
0:51:31 > 0:51:36and so the policy of the colonial government was to do
0:51:36 > 0:51:41everything to prevent people of African descent from owning the
0:51:41 > 0:51:46means and acquiring and accessing the means of their own livelihood.
0:51:46 > 0:51:50The idea that Black people should have the right
0:51:50 > 0:51:52to rule their own destiny...
0:51:55 > 0:51:59..that was the furthest thing from their mind.
0:52:07 > 0:52:11After Morant Bay, old ideas that claimed Black people
0:52:11 > 0:52:16were innately savage were revived and they were given greater potency
0:52:16 > 0:52:20by new pseudoscientific theories about race.
0:52:24 > 0:52:27LIVE MUSIC PLAYS
0:52:32 > 0:52:35It's largely been forgotten in Britain,
0:52:35 > 0:52:37but, for Jamaicans everywhere,
0:52:37 > 0:52:40Morant Bay remains a raw memory.
0:52:44 > 0:52:47It's so painful that that pain will never go away.
0:52:47 > 0:52:51I grieve and mourn the loss of my ancestors.
0:52:54 > 0:52:57At Stony Gut, a Jamaican village that was burnt to the ground
0:52:57 > 0:53:02in the reprisals, people are gathering to remember the victims.
0:53:04 > 0:53:06This ceremony is a reminder
0:53:06 > 0:53:11that we should be the bearers of the torch for freedom.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17And, in Britain, an identical plaque will be unveiled
0:53:17 > 0:53:20at the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton.
0:53:21 > 0:53:25This idea of "celebrate" is an interesting one.
0:53:25 > 0:53:27Of course we can say "celebrate",
0:53:27 > 0:53:30but, actually, to celebrate doesn't quite do it.
0:53:32 > 0:53:37I remember my grandmother telling me about the streets running with
0:53:37 > 0:53:42blood in Morant Bay and about the slaughter of many Black Jamaicans.
0:53:43 > 0:53:47My ancestors were killed by British forces...
0:53:49 > 0:53:53..that came to Stony Gut shooting,
0:53:53 > 0:53:56burning houses, killing people,
0:53:56 > 0:54:00slaughtering young babies and pregnant mothers.
0:54:01 > 0:54:07That is what I call total annihilation of a set of people.
0:54:09 > 0:54:12I think it's important to remember stories like this
0:54:12 > 0:54:15because Black British history is British history.
0:54:15 > 0:54:17You know, Britain wouldn't be what it is
0:54:17 > 0:54:20if it wasn't for the transatlantic slave trade.
0:54:20 > 0:54:24Remembering this history means that I can place myself
0:54:24 > 0:54:26in the community that I live in.
0:54:29 > 0:54:32If we can see ourselves in the history books,
0:54:32 > 0:54:35reflected back positively,
0:54:35 > 0:54:40it has a direct impact on our sense of self,
0:54:40 > 0:54:43on our sense of what we can achieve.
0:54:46 > 0:54:49Those more uncomfortable histories can often be difficult things
0:54:49 > 0:54:51for people to take on board,
0:54:51 > 0:54:55but it's very important that we do commemorate the difficult parts
0:54:55 > 0:54:58of history as well as the more celebratory ones.
0:54:58 > 0:55:04I now have the great pleasure of unveiling this plaque.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10One, two...three!
0:55:12 > 0:55:16APPLAUSE
0:55:24 > 0:55:27We are stronger by doing things like this as we have done today
0:55:27 > 0:55:31and we will galvanise the community around such things,
0:55:31 > 0:55:34create the energy that propels us forward.
0:56:10 > 0:56:15The rise and fall of the Victorian Moral Mission sheds new light
0:56:15 > 0:56:18on some defining moments in our history...
0:56:23 > 0:56:25..from the abolition of slavery...
0:56:27 > 0:56:30..to the Industrial Revolution...
0:56:34 > 0:56:38..and it reminds us of those who were caught up in
0:56:38 > 0:56:42the great battle of ideas that divided the country and Empire.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04More than 150 years after Morant Bay,
0:57:04 > 0:57:07these stories can now be retold and remembered.
0:57:09 > 0:57:12The people of Jamaica remember Morant Bay as
0:57:12 > 0:57:15a pivotal moment in their history, but it's also a watershed
0:57:15 > 0:57:18in British history because it is the moment in which
0:57:18 > 0:57:22new racial ideas are unleashed and given their full voice.
0:57:22 > 0:57:26It is a moment in which the old ideas, the old Moral Mission,
0:57:26 > 0:57:29is declared dead and over.
0:57:37 > 0:57:39Next time...
0:57:39 > 0:57:41the fall of Empire
0:57:41 > 0:57:44and the century of struggle...
0:57:44 > 0:57:47He could have been my brother, he could have been your son.
0:57:47 > 0:57:49..to be both Black and British.
0:57:52 > 0:57:56If you'd like to find out how to research Black history in your
0:57:56 > 0:57:58area, there's an iWonder guide
0:57:58 > 0:58:04with links to our partners at...