Description:The following pages give an introduction to some of the black abolitionists who came into contact with Birmingham. They not only campaigned against slavery and for the rights of their own race, but for the civil and religious rights of all.
At the present moment, Equiano's visit to Birmingham in 1790 makes him the first known black antislavery activist in the area. But the story does not end there. We are now starting to recover the histories of other black abolitionists who passed through our town. However long or brief these visits were, they were important symbolic events in a city that was already growing in cultural diversity and commitment to social justice.
Many of the black abolitionists who spoke in Birmingham would be African- Americans. The reason for this lay in a 'fugitive slave law' passed in American in the mid-nineteenth century. This law meant that even if a slave did manage to escape from a southern plantations to the 'free' north, the owner of the slave had a right to 'catch' and return his former property. No-where was safe for the slave in America at this time.
As a consequence, there was a trend of African-American slaves and abolitionist speakers who fled to Britain. You will discover some of their portraits in the next pages. However, historical sources on black abolitionists in Birmingham are difficult to discover. Much more research needs to be done to find out more about this important area of our social history.