Anti-slavery movement - a model for domestic reform
Anti-slavery movement
A special Barry-based exhibition to mark the 200th anniversary
of the abolition of slavery in the former British Empire attracted
hundreds of visitors.
Organised by the equalities section at the Vale of Glamorgan
Council, the week-long exhibition, "Slavery Past and Present," was
staged at the new County Library.
Opened by Vale Mayor Cllr Nic Hodges, the exhibition looked at
the history of slavery and also acknowledged practices existing
today in the form of modern slavery such as bonded labour, forced
recruitment of child soldiers and human trafficking.
Cabinet Member for Human Resources and Equalities Cllr Margaret
Randall Cllr Randall, who spoke on the transatlantic slave trade,
said: "It is essential that we celebrate this bicentenary by
remembering the victims of the slave trade, the ordinary people who
campaigned for change, and the abolitionists, led by William
Wilberforce.
"The anti-slavery movement served as a model for domestic reform
in such matters as working conditions, minimum wages, voting rights
and the right to join trade unions."
Wales and the Vale played its part in the abolition movement,
she added, with abolitionists including the poet and antiquarian,
Iolo Morgannwg, which was the bardic name of Edward Williams, from
Llancarfan. Iolo, a friend of Wilberforce, was fiercely opposed to
slavery and wrote many poems in Welsh and English denouncing the
traffic in human beings.
Britain should not be complacent, warned Cllr Randall. "Slavery
is not something that happens elsewhere and, according to
government estimates, thousands of women and children are
trafficked to the UK into forced labour including prostitution,
domestic slavery, agricultural work and food processing."
Cllr Randall ended with a quote coined by another leading
abolitionist, Josiah Wedgwood, which, she said, was as relevant
today as it was in the 18th Century. "Am I not a man and a brother?
Am I not a woman and a sister?"
Caption: Pictured at the opening of the
exhibition, "Slavery Past and Present," at the County Library in
Barry are Vale of Glamorgan Council Leader Cllr Margaret Alexander,
Cabinet Member (Human Resources and Equalities) Cllr Margaret
Randall and Barry Citizens' Action Group secretary Dilys Colbourne,
MBE.