'Chords of freedom' : commemoration, ritual, and British transatlantic slavery

Oldfield, John

Abstract

How should we as Britons remember transatlantic slavery? How has slavery been remembered in the past? 'Chords of freedom' sets out to answer these questions and, in doing so, traces the way in which British transatlantic slavery has been absorbed into the nation's collective memory.

By combining two current historiographical preoccupations - the construction of public memory and British transatlantic slavery - this fascinating book focuses on the way in which the British traditionally have been taught to view transatlantic slavery through the moral triumph of abolition. The author traces the construction of this national history through a number of case studies, including visual images, literary memorials (the competing accounts of the anti-slavery movement produced by Thomas Clarkson and Robert and Samuel Wilberforce), monument-memorials, galleries and museums, and commemorative rituals from the nineteenth century to the present day. A separate chapter also considers how Britain's example in abolishing first the slave trade (1807) and then colonial slavery (1833-34) impacted on the rituals of the American anti-slavery movement, and served as a convenient symbol of the potential of freedom in the British West Indies.

Citation

Oldfield, J. (2007). 'Chords of freedom' : commemoration, ritual, and British transatlantic slavery. Manchester University Press

• Book Type: Authored Book
• Publication Date: Feb 8, 2007
• Deposit Date: Nov 17, 2020
• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• ISBN: 9780719066641; 9780719066658
• Keywords: Slavery; Abolition; Museums; Rituals
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3663643