05/02/2024
The Anti-Slavery Belfast tour season starts this Sunday, 11th February at 10.30am.
Tours run every second week.
www.antislaverybelfast.com
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Walking tour exploring Belfast’s involvement in the slave trade. www.antislaverybelfast.com
19/06/2023
The end of a warm but damp tour on Saturday.
www.antislaverybelfast.com
18/05/2023
Amazing Grace and the Ulster Connection
Sung at funerals, performed by gospel choirs, adopted by anti-Vietnam War protestors and civil rights activists and covered by artists from Elvis to Bocelli, Amazing Grace is one of the most powerful and recognisable hymns of the Anglophone world. It is a divine fusion of John Newton’s verse with the stirring melody of an unknown Appalachian harmonist. It is also inextricably linked to Lough Swilly and County Donegal.
Many people readily identify with Newton’s account of his tortuous journey from spiritual desolation to unmerited redemption. During a fierce tempest, on 21st March 1748, Newton believed that Providence intervened to deliver his foundering ship to the sanctuary of Lough Swilly. Newton, ‘lost’ but ‘found’, embodied the very essence of the First Great Awakening. Such evangelical fervour helped birth the abolitionist movement that would lay siege to the transatlantic slave trade.
In truth, History and faith journeys seldom run along neat lines. Newton remained tied to slavery for the next 5 years, praying above deck whilst his human cargo festered in irons below. He left the trade primarily due to ill health. It was not until at least the mid-1750s that he renounced the slave trade and later still when he wholly lamented being “an active instrument in a business at which my heart now shudders”. His redemption was not immediate but it began after that shipwreck and close to Buncrana.
From the late 1400s to the 1800s, many slave owners and theologians had used their own interpretation of the Bible to justify the ‘peculiar institution’. The Catholic empires of Portugal, Spain and France and the Protestant empires of England and Holland were all culpable. Apologists contended that a free African pagan faced eternal damnation, whereas a baptised Christian slave was assured of salvation. The Atlantic slave trade began with Portugal in 1444 and its one-time colony of Brazil was the last to give up slavery in 1888. The Portuguese were responsible for over one-third of the 10 million fettered West African ‘chattels’ who survived the Middle Passage to the New World.
Newton did indeed ultimately commit to the abolitionist cause and this helps explain why Amazing Grace is so anthemic. He acutely understood the full horrors of the transatlantic slave trade - the slave barracoons on Plantain Island, the criminal neglect of those both above and below deck on the Middle Passage, and the casual cruelties of plantation life. Newton became part of one of the first successful mass movements of modern times - abolitionism. It prevailed against formidable vested interests in the Atlantic seaports and amongst the Caribbean slavocracy. This evangelical crusade, founded by the Anglicans Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp, aligned Quakers, parliamentarians like William Wilberforce, highly articulate former slaves such as Olaudah Equiano and John Wesley the founder of Methodism. Their moral assault on slavery was relentless and devastating.
But back to Lough Swilly. If Newton had not experienced his own awakening in the wake of that ferocious storm, washed up, still breathing on Inishowen peninsula, he may not have penned one of the greatest hymns of the English language.
Text by Keith Williamson
14/05/2023
Muhammad Ali was born in Kentucky in 1942. His father was Herman Heaton Clay, a descendant of slaves who had been owned by a white man named Cassius Marcellus Clay. Herman named his son after the owner of his ancestors. This slaveowner was inspired to free his slaves by the leading US abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. The former slaver became a very active aboltionist, and sometimes had to fight for his life against those who violently supported slavery. The original Cassius Marcellus Clay became a supporter of Abraham Lincoln. He was a general in the Union Army and protected the White House during the civil war. As minister to Russia he was involved with the purchase of Alaska, and he donated his Kentucky land holdings which were used to build the first inter-racial college in the southern states.
12/05/2023
Frederick Douglass was a very articulate and emotive speaker and one of the most effective of the American abolitionists who succeeded in eradicating slavery from the US. In 1845 and 1846 he visited Belfast 3 times. Join this inspiring tour to learn more.
www.antislaverybelfast.com
04/05/2023
An old photograph of the Assembly Rooms at the 'Four Corners'. Learn how this area of town became 'anti-slavery central'.
www.antislaverybelfast.com
02/05/2023
You will hear many fascinating stories on this unique walking tour, including about the abolitionist watchmakers of Belfast.
www.antislaverybelfast.com
27/04/2023
Belfast played a role in promoting the abolition of slavery in the US, with regular communication across the Atlantic. Come along and hear about the remarkable locals who helped change the world.
www.antislaverybelfast.com
25/04/2023
Frederick Douglass, while still a fugitive slave, stayed in Belfast at the end of his 1845 visit to Ireland. Come on this tour to hear what he thought of the city and its people.
www.antislaverybelfast.com
25/04/2023
This is a scale model of Mary Ann McCracken, a famous Belfast anti-slavery campaigner. It shows her a few weeks before her 89th birthday, handing out anti-slavery leaflets to emigrants at the dockside in Belfast. Join our tour to find out more about her life, and where the full-size statue will be located.
www.antislaverybelfast.com
20/04/2023
When Britannia ruled the waves. Find out how Britain moved from slave trading to actively ending the African slave trade, with a surprising Belfast connection.
www.antislaverybelfast.com
18/04/2023
Learn what happened in 1830 when a fugitive slave came to Belfast as a stowaway on a shipload of cotton from New Orleans.
www.antislaverybelfast.com
16/04/2023
Join this tour to visit inspiring places and learn about inspiring people.
www.antislaverybelfast.com
14/04/2023
Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves. Were Britons ever slaves? Come along and hear the answer.
www.antislaverybelfast.com
13/04/2023
Walking tours start at the Big Fish, between the Customs House and the River Lagan. Our Belfast stories start here, at the site of the original docks.
www.antislaverybelfast.com
06/04/2023
Visit some of our most historic buildings and learn how Belfast abolitionists contributed to the ending of slavery in the United States.
www.antislaverybelfast.com
04/04/2023
The first freed slave to visit Belfast spoke in this building in 1791. Come along and hear his amazing story.
www.antislaverybelfast.com
01/04/2023
Today, we stood before Clifton House - Belfast's finest Georgian building, constructed for the city's oldest charity. The first former African slave to visit Ireland spoke in the boardroom of this institution in 1791. Join this tour to hear his remarkable story and about the history of this building.
www.antislaverybelfast.com
30/03/2023
Say hello to St. Patrick, a former slave, during this thought-provoking and informative tour.
www.antislaverybelfast.com
28/03/2023
Find out about the noted abolitionist who visited behind this golden door in 1841.
www.antislaverybelfast.com
25/03/2023
A lovely little group for today's tour.
www.antislaverybelfast.com
25/03/2023
Learn inspiring stories of Belfast abolitionists in some lovely locations on a walking tour that shows a different side of the city.
Early season tours every Saturday morning.
www.antislaverybelfast.com
21/03/2023
Join our tour and visit some beautiful places in Belfast while learning about our slavery and anti-slavery history.
www.antislaverybelfast.com
17/03/2023
Eight facts about St Patrick (thanks to Becky Garry Yates). Note nos.7 & 8...
1. He was not Irish. He was born in Britain in 386AD ( most likely Scotland or Wales) and his name was Maewyn Succat. His father, Calphurnius was a deacon from a Roman family. His grandfather, Pontius was also a member of the clergy.
2. When he was 16 he was captured by Irish raiders and sold into slavery to work as a shepherd.
3. After learning the Irish language and encouraged by a vision, he was able to escape 6 years later and was eventually reunited with his family.
4. He sought refuge in a monastery and studied Christianity several years and traveled Europe for 16 years before answering his deep seated call to return to Ireland to convert the then-pagan Irish to Christianity, abolish slavery, build monasteries and churches and ordain priests. He spent the last 30 years of his life in Ireland accomplishing these things.
5. He chose the name Patrick which is Padraig in Irish and means Patrician or noble and was never officially canonized by a Pope as a Saint due to the era he lived in. Patrick most likely was proclaimed a Saint by popular opinion.
6. By the 7th century he was revered as the Patron Saint of Ireland. He died on March 17th at the age of 78.
7. He was among the first identifiable anti-slavery activists in Western civilization.
8. Saint Patrick condemned the bo***ge of women while taking note of their bravery and resilient spirit.
9. Legend has it he drove the snakes out of Ireland but according to scientists, snake fossils have never been found in Ireland and it’s doubtful they existed.
This is the largest statue of St. Patrick in Belfast. See it on our tour!
www.antislaverybelfast.com
16/03/2023
This lovely old engraving shows the original St. Patrick's Church on Donegall Street, with the Poor House (now called Clifton House) at the top of the street. Join this tour to learn of the abolitionists who visited these lovely buildings in 1791 and 1841.
www.antislaverybelfast.com
09/03/2023
This plaque in Westminster Abbey recalls a remarkable man. Join this tour and learn about his visit to Belfast.
www.antislaverybelfast.com
08/03/2023
On International Women's Day we remember the remarkable Sarah Parker Remond. Born in the US to freed slaves, she toured as an abolitionist lecturer with her older brother, Charles Lenox Remond. Charles visited Belfast in 1841 when his sister was still very young. When he returned to the States, Sarah would sometimes lecture alongside him. She became a very compelling speaker, and eventually toured Britain & Ireland (though she did not come to Belfast).
She completed various courses at English universities and went as a qualified nurse to a prestigious medical college in Italy. There she qualified as a doctor and married an Italian man. She lived in Florence, later moving to Rome, where she was buried after her death in 1894.
When speaking of his desire for human rights for all, regardless of colour or gender, Charles said 'All I ask for myself, I claim for my wife and my sister.'
Join our tour and learn more about women abolitionists.
www.antislaverybelfast.com
Address
Donegall Quay
Belfast
BT13NG
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