Local historian to deliver Black History Month lecture about Northampton Great Fire and the slave trade
Northamptonshire Rights & Equality Council invites you to their Black History Month lecture on former king Charles II, the Great Fire of Northampton, and the Atlantic Slave Trade delivered by local historian-sociologist and creative Tré Ventour-Griffiths (me). It will be on 25th October from 1pm at the Thomas Elgar Centre in Upton.
Over the last several months, there have been many events and initiatives celebrating the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of Northampton as part of our local heritage, including the role The Crown played in rebuilding All Saint's Church in the town centre. In 1672, former king Charles II formed a slave-trading corporation called the Royal African Company with his brother James Duke of York (the future James II).
What's been overlooked in local celebrations, is the role empire and colonial money or assets may have played in the rebuilding and reshaping the town. In 1712, sculptor John Hunt completed the statue of Charles that sits on All Saints Church nearly 40 years after the king's death in 1685. In fact, Charles employed Edward Colston whose statue in Bristol was pulled down by activists in 2020 – put there nearly 175 years after his death. So, what might this say about how we Northamptonians remember our history?
On one side, there have been efforts to remember a king's good deeds. But on the other, we have a darker history of our past where Northamptonshire's residents of African and Caribbean heritage may have something to say about the means through which Charles is remembered, further to the relevance of the yearly Oak Apple Day. For those of us of Caribbean descent whose elders arrived in Northants after the war, many are direct descendants of enslaved people and can tell family histories of slave plantations.
With Northamptonshire Rights & Equality, this talk will be followed by a Q&A session where we hope to open a conversation about our local heritage. This talk sheds light on a history of an English king linking what's past with present-day conversations about how we remember history. If this sounds of interest to you, a friend, a colleague, a family member, and so on, do sign up via the link. It would be nice to see you there.
25th October, 1pm, at the Elgar Centre (Upton). Sign up here