The 23 August is International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. Designated by UNESCO, the date marks the world’s first successful uprising by enslaved Africans in Haiti (then St Domingue) in 1791.
“This day enables us to remember our connection to one of the ugliest chapters in human history and celebrate the power of collective resistance. The uprising in 1791 empowered Africans throughout the Caribbean and Americas to resist their enslavement and played a significant role in ending the Transatlantic Slave Trade,” Mary Cunneen, Director of Anti-Slavery International said.
Anti-Slavery International, the world’s oldest international human rights organisation, the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich and Society of Black Lawyers are commemorating Britain’s link to the slave trade with a day of events in Greenwich, London. Central to Britain’s involvement in the trade, Greenwich was home to some of England’s most prestigious slave traders and slave trading companies; many of the ships that carried enslaved Africans across the Atlantic left from its port. It was also where some of Britain’s most important abolitionists lived, including former slaves Olaudah Equiano and Ignatius Sancho, who contributed to ending the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
“This day enables us to remember our connection to one of the ugliest chapters in human history and celebrate the power of collective resistance. The uprising in 1791 empowered Africans throughout the Caribbean and Americas to resist their enslavement and played a significant role in ending the Transatlantic Slave Trade,” Mary Cunneen, Director of Anti-Slavery International said.
Anti-Slavery International, the world’s oldest international human rights organisation, the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich and Society of Black Lawyers are commemorating Britain’s link to the slave trade with a day of events in Greenwich, London. Central to Britain’s involvement in the trade, Greenwich was home to some of England’s most prestigious slave traders and slave trading companies; many of the ships that carried enslaved Africans across the Atlantic left from its port. It was also where some of Britain’s most important abolitionists lived, including former slaves Olaudah Equiano and Ignatius Sancho, who contributed to ending the Transatlantic Slave Trade.