Cocoa dancing on the Rowntree Estate, Dominica, c. 1890s: courtesy of the

Borthwick Institute for Archives, University of York

12-14 April 2007

Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies

King’s Manor, University of York

Abolitions, 1807-2007: ending the slave trade in the transatlantic world is the centrepiece of the series of events being hosted by the University of York to mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. The city and county of York became a crucial political arena for the campaign led by William Wilberforce, and in more recent times York historians have pioneered scholarship on the history of slavery and played a leading part in the development of black studies in the UK.

Our aim in this international conference is threefold: to look afresh at the voices of abolition, to explore the impact of 1807 for Africa, for the Caribbean, and for the European slaving powers, and finally to understand the longer-term meaning and legacy of abolition the 20^th and 21^st centuries.

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Conference programme

Thursday 12^th April

12.30pm onwards: Registration

2.00: Welcome from The Vice-Chancellor

2.15: James Walvin (York): Opening Address

2.30-4.00: 1. Rethinking Abolitionism

Chris Brown (Rutgers) Introduction

Parallel Session A

Brycchan Carey (Kingston Univ.),

Abolition before abolitionism in Quaker Pennsylvania

Katherine Paugh (Pennsylvania),

To make breeding the prime object of their attention: British

abolitionism and the rationalization of the reproduction of the

plantation labor force in the British Caribbean

Christer Petley (Leeds Metropolitan),

Transatlantic links and British pro-slavery arguments

Geoff Plank, (Ciccinnati),

The first person in anti-slavery literature:

John Woolman's Journal and the politics of the British slave trade in the 1780s

Parallel Session B

Maartje Janse (Leiden),

Abolitionism in the Netherlands, a failure?: a new approach to Dutch anti-slavery, 1840-63

Cassandra Pybus (Sydney),

The abolitionist response to self emancipated slaves in Sierra Leone

Jon Senbach (Florida),

Black Christianity and anti-slavery in Denmark and Britain

Edlie Wong (Rutgers),

The meaning of black freedom after abolition: Mary Prince and the slave, Grace

4.00: Tea

4.30: 2. Abolition and after in Africa

Plenary lecture 1

Joseph Inikori (Rochester),

The Economic Impact of the 1807 British Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade

5.30-7.00: Adiele Afigbo (Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, Nigeria),

The bight of Biafra: the forgotten abolition

Kwabena Akurang-Parry (Shippensburg),

Rethinking African agency in the global abolition epoch in the Atlantic world: the case of the African intelligentsia in the Gold Coast

Jeffrey Fortin (New Hampshire), African-American imperialism and the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade, 1807-60

Lisa Lindsay (North Carolina), A South Carolinian in colonial Nigeria, or one man's attempt to reverse the Atlantic slave trade

Koya Ogen (Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria),

Abolition and the Ikale-Yoruba country, 1807-50

Friday 13^th April

9.00-10.45: 3. The Caribbean Crucible

Manuel Barcia (Leeds),

Illegal migration and enforced slavery in the Caribbean: the Kelsall slaves' story

Kate Ferris (UCL),

Models of abolition: the US in Spanish political culture and the question of the abolition of slavery in Cuba, 1868-74

Dick Geary (Nottingham),

A long time dying: the slow death of Brazilian slavery

Alejandro Gomez (EHSS Paris),

My friends Brissot, Raynal and Wilberforce: Francisco Miranda's position towards slavery in his emancipation projects for Spanish America, 1788-1811

Shaun Regan (QUB), Abolition, amelioration, evasion: Matthew Lewis' Journal of a West India Proprietor

10.45: Coffee

11.15: Plenary lecture 2

Verene Shepherd (University of the West Indies) Bicentennial Blues: Slavery, Shame & Pride in Contemporary Jamaica

12.15: Christopher Webb, (Borthwick Institute for Archives, Univ. York)

Conserving the records of slavery: Harewood House

1.00: Lunch

2.00: Plenary lecture 3

Philip Morgan (Princeton), Ending the Slave Trade: the

Caribbean and Atlantic Context

3.00-4.30: 4: The Slaving Powers

Christiane Chivallon (CEAN, Bordeaux),

Slavery and its racialised inherited order in the French republican model

Madge Dresser (Univ. West England),

Abolition in Bristol: a reinterrogation

John Oldfield (Southampton),

'Our Hands are Full of Blood': Benjamin Flower, the Cambridge Intelligencer, and Abolition of the Slave Trade

Carl Pedersen (Copenhagen),

Slavery, abolition and Danish collective memory

Marika Sherwood (Inst. Commonwealth Studies),

Liverpool and slavery after 1807

4.30: Tea

5.00: Plenary lecture 4

Catherine Hall (UCL),

Zachary Macaulay and the politics of abolitionism

7.00: Reception

7.30: Conference Dinner

Saturday 14^th April

9.00-10.45 5. Representing anti-slavery

Editha Jacobs (University of the West Indies),

A reproach to humanity: images used to influence the campaign to end the slave trade, 1787-1807

Alan Rice (Univ. Central Lancs),

Naming the Money and Unveiling the Crime: Contemporary British Artists and the Memorialisation of Slavery and Abolition

Anita Rupprecht (Brighton),

A limited kind of property: representing the Zong

John Wood Sweet (North Carolina),

After origins: Venture Smith's Narrative and the politics of the slave trade in post-colonial New England

10.45: Coffee

11.15: Plenary lecture 5

Vincent Carretta (Maryland),

Olaudah Equiano and the Black Voice of Abolition

12.15: Sponsors’ presentation

1.00: Lunch

2.00: 5: The Legacy and Memory of 1807

Plenary lecture 6

James Campbell (Brown),

'We leave for future generations to investigate …': the slave

trade, abolition and the politics of memory in Rhode Island

3.00: Tea

3.30-5.00: Jean Allain (Queen’s University, Belfast),

Suppression of the transatlantic slave trade through international law: from the 1890 Brussels Act to the present

Ana Lucia Araujo (Quebec),

Heroes or victims: memory of slavery and slaves in museums and monuments of the republic of Benin

Amalia Ribi (Lincoln College, Oxford),

To finish the work Wilberforce began...'. British anti-slavery activism, c. 1927-1934

Susan Skedd (English Heritage),

Commemorating the anti-slavery movement: the role of blue plaques

5.00: Conference closes

Abolitions, 1807-2007: ending the slave trade in the transatlantic world has been made possible by the generous support of our sponsors:-

Susan Joyce

The Shepherd Building Group, York

The Mollie Croysdale Trust

The Centre for Lifelong Learning, University of York

The Enterprise & Innovation Office, University of York

Adam Matthew Publications

Oxford University Press

Taylor & Francis

Eurospan

www.york.ac.uk/conferences/abolitions2007/abc.htm

e-mail: cecs500@york.ac.uk

01904 432974 (voicemail) or 01904 432981