Campaigning for the Abolition of Slavery: Central London Landmarks

This walk reveals where many key London events took place in British campaigns against slavery and slave-trading between the mid-1800s and mid-1900s. Fugitive and former slaves, white lawyers and activists, black activists, orators, authors and musicians come alive in a walk from Chancery Lane to Fleet Street, Lincoln’s Inn and Covent Garden ending at Embankment Gardens. The capture in London of escaped slaves led to legal cases espoused by campaigners. Slaves were given as gifts by West Indies travellers to wealthy Londoners who often considered them fashion-accessories. There were small communities of free blacks, many working as servants, and blacks made free by fighting on the British side during wars thronged to London, some becoming beggars but others got by and even moved into the middle classes. On the walk you meet Olaudah Equiano, James Somerset, Granville Sharp, Billy Waters, Sarah Parker Remond, Thomas Clarkson, Mary Prince, Ottobah Cuguano, Elizabeth Heyrick, Samuel Johnson, the Fisk Jubilee Singers and more names now usually forgotten.