From Slavery to Freedom

FREE online history talk on Wednesday, 3 December, at 6pm (GMT).

St Helena 1792-1840: Slavery to Freedom - The Enslaved Person's Experience

We are delighted to welcome author Colin Fox to our online history talk series with an exploration of St Helena's journey from reliance on enslaved labour to free labour, focusing on how enslaved people themselves experienced the almost 50-year process. 

Colin is the author of A Bitter Draught: St Helena and the Abolition of Slavery (2017), a comprehensive study that grew out of his own family history. His maternal grandmother’s great grandfather was Captain James Bennett of the East India Company's service who served in the garrison during Napoleon’s exile. In the course of researching and writing The Bennett Letters (2006), Colin discovered that James Bennett had owned eight slaves. This prompted the further research that resulted in A Bitter Draught, which was published by the Friends of St Helena. Colin is an active member of the Friends of St Helena and served for eleven years as editor of their journal Wirebird. 

Colin has also edited and published (with Edward Baldwin) A Precarious Livelihood, a report written in 1833 to document and propose changes to the administration of St Helena during its change of sovereignty from the East India Company to the Crown. 

The talk is free to attend. Join us online on Wednesday, 3 December, at 6pm (GMT). All welcome.