 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Our Heritage
With the bicentenary of the abolition of transatlantic slavery, (see Abolition timeline) 2007 is a special year for the African Caribbean Community. With financial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Arts Council, CCoM are celebrating and commemorating the bicentenary with a large scale carnival project. The theme of the project is Echoes of Freedom, reflecting the the bicentneary.
The outcomes of the project will be:
- local carnival trainers working with an expert carnival maker to sustain and revive traditional carnival skills in Manchester.
- the creation of a total of seven new carnival troupes in Manchester.
- heritage workshops re the abolition and carnival traditions for participants.
Download heritage handouts.- 200 Years of Heritage - The slave trade triangle, and invlovement of UK based Africans in the abolition
- A short history of the shiny drum - the origins of the steel pan
| Abolition Timline | ||
 Toussaint L’ Overture |
1798 |
British expelled from St Domingue/Haiti in uprising led by Toussaint L’ Overture, inspired by the French Revolution slogan, Liberty, Fraternity and Equality. |
1755 |
Quakers forbid their members to own slaves and establish The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade. |
|
1772 |
Granville Sharp brings about Lord Mansfield’s high court ruling on the case of James Somerset, an abandoned slave, which results in slavery being declared illegal in England. |
|
1787-
92 |
Branches of the Abolition Society founded in large towns. Widespread pamphleteering and campaigning against the atrocities of slavery. Hundreds of petitions sent to Parliament. |
|
 Granville Sharp |
1804
- '05 |
William Wilberforce, MP for Yorkshire, has two abolition bills ejected by Parliament. |
1807 |
Abolition Bill finally passed. |
|
1808 |
Last English slave trading ship leaves Liverpool. Other nations continue to trade in slaves until the American Civil War. Slavery still exists in the Caribbean plantation societies. |
|
1833 |
Emancipation Act passed. Slavery to be abolished in all British Colonies from 1st August 1834. |
|
1834 |
The Apprenticeship System implemented to keep ex-slaves working on the estates. Domestic workers to be freed in 1838; field workers in 1840. Payment for work over 40 hours. |
|
 William Wilberforce |
1838 |
Full Emancipation on 1st August 1838, two years early for field workers, due to the failure of the Apprenticeship System. Ex-slaves leave the plantations where possible and turn to small farming, running hostels and shops, working as skilled craftsmen and as jobbing workers. |
1838-1917
|
A variety of attempts to find replacement labour particularly in Jamaica, Trinidad and British Guiana. This included free Africans and Europeans but especially Chinese and Indian labourers under organised government supported schemes |
|
| Source:
The Making of the West Indies : Augier, Gordon, Hall and Reckord. Longmans. London: 1960. |
||
