The December talk in the DDHS session was given by Dr Hanita Ritchie who is the Local History Officer at the John Gray Centre in Haddington. Dr Ritchie has sent 3 slides from her talk, with annotation and this will give a flavour of her very well received talk to those unable to attend. Text by the speaker and additional links by Dr James Herring.
The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was a period that lasted for nearly 250 years, affecting generations of people. British ships carried just over 3.4 million Africans to slavery in the Caribbean and America. Scotsmen and women, including those connected with East Lothian, played a strong part in its development as well as its abolition. The slide below shows a sketch and a painting of the very overcrowded conditions on the slave ship and many of those transported died in what was called The Middle Passage. You can read more about the ships and conditions aboard them here. (Click on all images to enlarge – recommended).
Thomas Kirkwood, a surgeon owned six enslaved people on the estate of St. James in the island of Jamaica. The sale of his possession of land, tenements, people, etc. in Jamaica as well as land on the west side of the Burgh of Dunbar and property on the High Street, benefitted his relatives, namely Marjory & Margaret Kirkwood as well as their heirs. You can read more about the St James estate here. The slide below shows an entry in the Dunbar Register of Deeds for 1778.Thomas Kirkwood and mention is made of his father Andrew Kirkwood as being a tenant farmer in Eastbarns.
George and James Miller, printers and publishers of Dunbar supported various charitable schemes including campaigns against slavery. The slide below shows, on the left, a book printed by George Miller of Dunbar – source: The Millers of Haddington, Dunbar and Dunfermline : a record of Scottish bookselling / by W.J. Couper, London : T Fisher Unwin, 1914. In the enlarged slide, you can see that Miller’s shop sold Pamphlets, Ballads, Children’s Books, Pictures and Catechisms etc. Dr Ritchie cited other East Lothian anti-slavery proponents and you can read about them in the website Dr Ritchie designed here.
Dr Ritchie sent the following links for those wishing to read more about slavery and the anti-slavery movement.
Centre for the Studies of the Legacies of British Slavery, University College London
National Library of Scotland: Scotland and the Slave Trade
University of Glasgow: Historical Slavery Initiative
Hon. John Hamilton and Hon. Thomas Hamilton with a black servant: by William Aikman 1728
National Records of Scotland: Slavery and the Slave Trade
The Church of Scotland: Legacies of Slavery
Histories of Colour: Scotland and Slavery
National Museum of Scotland: The Matter of Slavery in Scotland Project
The National Gallery: Legacies of British Slave-ownership Research Project
University of Aberdeen: Scotland, Africa and Slavery in the Caribbean
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