Views from the Reading Room

Today, August 1st, is Emancipation Day in Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Bermuda, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Turks and Caicos Islands (list from Wikipedia). It commemorates the implementation, in stages, of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.

Here's a black historical figure I only heard of recently: William Cuffay, 1788-1870. I heard this radio programme about him last week: Britain's Black Revolutionary (available for 3 more days if you can use the BBC's iPlayer). His father had been a slave. William had a physical disability, and worked as a tailor in London. He was blacklisted after being involved in a strike, and joined the Chartist movement, becoming one of its leaders in London.

As a union organiser, Cuffay addressed his fellow workers as "fellow slaves"; Chartists referred to him as a brother Chartist. The mainstream press, though, were more inclined to stress his colour and his "deformity". The establishment were busy portraying the Chartists as dangerous revolutionaries; note that all their demands except for annual elections are now taken for granted as part of our political system. In 1848, Cuffay was involved in organising a march which was intended to present a Chartist petition to the House of Commons. The march never happened, but on the evidence of police spies, Cuffay was sentenced to transportation to Tasmania.

When the political prisoners in Tasmania were pardoned, Cuffay elected to remain there. (I don't know how voluntary that was: how did you get back?) He returned to his trade as a tailor, and remained involved in radical politics for the rest of his life.

bio on 100 Great Black Britons