The Lost and the Saved

A big story in 2020 was the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis was the spark and in Britain the statue of slave trade magnate Edward Colston was tipped into Bristol Harbour as the realisation became widespread that many of our large towns and cities owe their original fortunes directly or indirectly to the transatlantic slave trade. Growing discomfort and knowledge of how this money was made began as early as the 1780s with the dilemma being that abolition of slavery would have a major economic impact, hence the fudged solution of abolition of the slave trade by Britain and the USA in 1807. However, slavery itself was not abolished in the Empire until 1833 and the States only resolved the issue with the Civil War.

Meanwhile slavery continued elsewhere and amazingly is featured on Edwardian postcards. A Raphael Tuck postcard on Morocco has an artist’s impression of the slave market in Marrakesh and even worse the publisher’s description of how the market operates which ends: ‘The buyers squat round the walls of the market making bids for such as take their fancy.’

The second illustration is a card sent by Amy to Bella apologising ‘This is not a very nice card but it is the only one I have in the house’. It’s published by the Universities Mission to Central Africa, established by the Anglican Church with the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Durham and Dublin called to do so by David Livingstone. H.M.S. Philomel served on the Cape of Good Hope Station and spent many years intercepting slave traders along the coast of Africa. Freed by the Royal Navy, the slaves were then a captive audience for the missionaries and when converted were resettled at the mission station at Masasi in today’s Tanzania.