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On 23 August, International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave
Trade and its Abolition, Anti-Slavery International launches
its newest website. Recovered
Histories: Reawakening the narratives of enslavement,
resistance and the fight for freedom provides insight into the Transatlantic Slave
Trade and the struggle between those seeking to maintain the trade
and those fighting for its abolition.
Containing over 40,000 digitised pages of literature on the slave
trade, Recovered Histories makes Anti-Slavery International's
collection of literature on the Transatlantic Slave Trade widely
available on the internet for the first time. www.recoveredhistories.org will be live from Thursday 23 August 2007.
It covers over 100 years of campaigning in Europe and the Americas,
capturing the voices of the enslaved, enslavers, slave ship surgeons,
abolitionists, parliamentarians, clergy and rebels.
The website chronicles enslavement as an institution and an enforced
way of life; the Middle Passage; and Triangular Trade. Included
are arguments condemning and supporting the slave trade, evidence
gathered to present to Parliament in the 18th and 19th centuries,
illustrations of life on the plantations, and details of slave uprisings
in the Caribbean and the attempts by many enslaved Africans to liberate
themselves and determine their own futures.
"In this bicentenary year of Britain's abolition of the
slave trade, it is important to recognise the significance of slave
resistance to the success of this crucial struggle. Recovered Histories sheds light on the realities of this brutal chapter and the legacies
that affect our world today," Jeff Howarth of Anti-Slavery
International said.
A clear and simple layout enables the reader to navigate easily
through texts, access explanatory background pages, activities and
a glossary of terms.
A hardcopy exhibition based on the Recovered Histories website
will be available from October 2007 and will support a comprehensive
outreach programme for community groups, schools and the general
public. Educational resources will be available from November 2007.
This project was supported by the National Lottery through the
Heritage Lottery Fund.
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