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Press Releases
Voices from Â鶹Éç archive mark abolition of the slave trade
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Black role models and historic icons have been resurrected from the Â鶹Éç archives as part of programming to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.
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Nine films, dating back almost 70 years, some of which have been seen only once on television, have been reclaimed for viewing.
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And the gems include one of the earliest documentaries on British television with a black man as both interviewer and subject, a 1958 series exploring the desire for independence in the former colonies of the Caribbean and Africa, and the first and only ever edition of Blackcurrent - a "black Top of the Pops" filmed at a nightclub in Brixton in 1978.
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Elonka Soros, Project Editor for the Â鶹Éç Black Archives, which will tour the country at special screenings, says the programmes capture some of the defining moments in modern black history.
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"What's wonderful is that in many of the films it's Black British, Caribbean and African people that are taking the lead," she says.
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"We see powerful, intelligent and successful men and women articulating their hopes for the future that we are living today. It's incredibly moving to watch with the hindsight of the intervening years."
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Archivist Carolyn Julyan and producer Karen Gabay were commissioned by Soros to make the 60-minute film which was produced in partnership with Â鶹Éç Entertainment Manchester.
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The Â鶹Éç Black Archive is just one of a huge range of radio and TV programming across the Â鶹Éç English Regions commemorating the signing of the Act of Abolition.
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A Hollywood star who finds out that he's descended from slaves, an exploration of the Methodist communities of Cornwall still following Wesley's 200-year-old decree to boycott sugar, and folk musicians writing a new anthem for an abolitionist, are just some of the stories to be told.
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And there will be plenty more gems to uncover when the English Regions arm of an Abolition website goes live on Monday 12 March at bbc.co.uk/abolition.
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Soros is hoping there will be a new legacy left behind after 2007.
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"We asked Â鶹Éç people in every corner of England to find their slavery and abolitionist stories, and despite many being hidden for generations, they were there," she says.
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"It has touched the lives of people from all sections of our communities and now we have them telling their family histories, revealing the secrets of local mysteries and discussing how the impact of this history is still being experienced by them today.
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"This will be a powerful archive for future generations."
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Some of the highlights include:
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Leeds
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Â鶹Éç Yorkshire's Inside Out team and Â鶹Éç Look North in Yorkshire uncover the story of a Hollywood star whose ancestors were exploited on a plantation owned by a local aristocratic family. The cameras follow him back to the fields in Barbados on which they toiled (to be broadcast Friday, March 23, Â鶹Éç One in Yorkshire).
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Shropshire
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"Am I not a man and a Brother"- Josia Wedgewood's famous campaign slogan is the inspiration for one of a series of new folk songs for Shropshire and the West Midlands marking slavery and Abolition links in the region and beyond. Commissioned by Â鶹Éç Radio Shropshire, The New Scorpion Band created an hour-long set of new material compiled by songs and stories of the time. The songs of protest and human strength and resilience in the face of a major terror will be a lasting legacy for the folk community of Britain (to be broadcast on Sunday 18 March).
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Birmingham
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The West Midlands is home to one of Britain's largest Black communities outside London. Â鶹Éç Radio WM hosts a major debate into the legacy of slavery in the region with a panel drawn from a wide spectrum of contemporary black writers and commentators including educationalist Tony Sewell, reparations activist Esther Stanford and Chair of Black Led Churches Bishop Joe Aldred (recorded for broadcast on Sunday 25 March).
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Humber
The Venture Smith Story
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Â鶹Éç Look North in North Yorkshire and Lincolnshire tells A Slave's Story which follows the work of scientists from Hull's Wilberforce Institute of Slavery and Emancipation as they attempt to document the life of one of America's most intriguing slaves. The story involves the exhumation of Venture Smith, with the support of his living ancestors. His story exists only because he found a teacher willing to write it down before his death.
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Â鶹Éç South
Amazing Grace
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One of the nation's favourite hymns, Amazing Grace, was written by John Newton, a reformed slave trader, and has been claimed as the song of the Abolitionists. Here Â鶹Éç South (Â鶹Éç Radio Solent, Â鶹Éç Radio Berkshire, Â鶹Éç Southern Counties Radio and Â鶹Éç Radio Oxford) have joined forces to re-record the hymn Amazing Grace, with contributions from people across the region. The final version will be available as part of a series of features to include poetry, story-telling, music and debate recorded in the shadow of HMS Victory at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard at a special event on Sunday 25 March 2007.
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Leicester
Rothley Court Re-enactment/ Interactive news
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Rothley Court in Leicestershire is where the charter for the abolition of the slave trade was written and signed 200 years ago. Â鶹Éç Radio Leicester stages a reconstruction of the period in an interactive event at Rothley Court. Young people from local schools will work with Radio Leicester staff to create interviews and features as if covering a current news event. The results will be available online for students to use in their future research on the topic. (to be broadcast Friday 23 March 2007).
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Liverpool
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Europe's first newsroom, the Lyceum Newsroom and Library, was founded in a gentlemen's club by Liverpool Abolitionists. Â鶹Éç Radio Merseyside has worked with young people to create a series of bulletins recreating the issues and debates of the time. The bulletins will be available via the portal and you can see pictures of the building as part of a gallery of famous Liverpool landmarks connected to slavery and the Abolition movement.
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Bristol and across England
Maroon Queen
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A radio drama made in Bristol and commissioned as part of the Roots project, the story of Jamaica's national heroine, Nanny Maroon, who led successful slave uprisings against the British Army. The radio drama Maroon Queen has been written by Edson Burton, based on stories handed down through the generations to British people of Maroon descent. There is also a photo exhibition including some of the contributors, and more information on Maroons in Britain (to be broadcast week beginning 19 March).
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Wales
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Â鶹Éç Wales has uncovered stories that stretch from Welsh piracy and slave ships, to abolitionists and the Welsh pro-slavery lobby, documenting the life of some extraordinary individuals who profited enormously from the trade, including Nathaniel Wells, a Welsh slave owner who by 1800 was the richest black man in Britain. Ìý
Â鶹Éç Birmingham Press Office
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