Our new venue is proving popular with our members with another good turn out even though it was half term. Last month we mentioned a possible project about Slavery and its connections to Newcastle, we have had several diligent members look into this and we had quite a good discussion. Some of their work can be seen below. We are also looking to continue this for our next meeting. Planned for our next meeting is a short quiz about the Medieval Period which in Europe began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and lasted from the 5th to the 15th century Merging into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. Thinking caps on!
Michael replied to Mike Combes reference to German Pork Butchers in the North East. Its great to see Local History relived in peoples memories, talks and images.
Very interesting and excellent work. There was a German pork butcher family in Consett, spanning over 100 years, surname Yager. It was a very popular business from I think the 1880's and was well renowned for their pork sandwiches.
The
business is still in operation now and has kept the original name and
is located on Victoria Road, however.,the Yager family are no longer
involved having retired approx 3 - 4 years ago.
I
feel the Yager family business was an important part of Consett's
social and retail history adding culture, diversity and real tasty food -
ham, pease pudding, saveloys and pork sausages were real favorites.
Kind regards
Michael
Moira collected some interesting facts about the Slave connections in the North East:
One of the first North East connections with slavery was William Hylton who belonged to a Sunderland family with ancient roots. Through an association with Sir Edwin Sandys a counsellor of James 1, he went to New England as part of a rescue mission for the Mayflower Settlers. He was the first settler in what became New Hampshire. There are a number of County Durham place names in this area, which suggests that more North Easterners were attracted to the area. Anthony Hylton a relative followed in 1623. He acquired a tobacco plantation and was appointed governor of St Kitts and Nevis in 1625. Hyltons descendants settled in Maryland Carolina and Jamaica before 1700. Like many of the first settlers, involvement in the slave trade and slavery grew out of acute labour shortages in their new lands. Members of several North East families were early arrivals in America and the Caribbean, the Pinkneys of West Auckland, the Howards of Brampton, the Corvilles of Newcastle and branches of the Northumbrian Fenwicks, Ogles and Ordes.
During the 18th Century, many of the regions gentry had acquired colonial interests. Among the most significant were the Trevelyan's of Wallington Northumberland. Sir John Trevelyan had married Louise Marianne daughter of West Indian Merchant, Peter Simond and became a plantation owner. By the time of the abolition of slavery in 1833, the family had become major sugar producers in Granada, they were paid £35,000 in compensation for the loss of slaves under Parliaments compensation award.
There were a number of attempts to abolish slavery and the North East took the lead in numerous meetings and petitions. On Thursday May 15 1828 a meeting was held in the Newcastle Guild Hall, amongst professional clerymen. They advocated the gradual rather than the immediate abolition of West Indian Slavery. James Losh a lawyer, reformer and Unitarian, believed this would protect the trade and property of slave holders, secure the empire to Britain and give time for education and missionaries to prepare slaves for freedom.
One speaker said the idea of 800,000 of our fellow subjects being doomed to interminable slavery, is most revolting to every hum and mind, but he also said 'our object is not to injure the property of the planters, but to protect it and not to excite to rebellion but to prevent it.' They also seemed to have been fired by a missionary agenda.
In 1834 the British government replaced slavery with a system of apprenticeship. Losh and his colleagues would have welcomed the fact that slaveholders were compensated for loss of their propery-slaves by the British tax payer. In 1853 William Wells Brown, who had been a slave in the US, visited Newcastle and remarked on the kindness of Geordies, he is quoted as saying, 'in no place in the United Kingdom has the American slave warmer friends than in Newcastle
Maureen found some more interesting local facts:
Every town and city had anti-slavery societies, Newcastle was no exception. Women were involved almost from the beginning. Amongst the area's most enthusiastic supporters was the Richardson family. They founded 25 groups of both working and middle class families, 13 of which were in the North East. A petition was presented in Parliament in 1822 signed by 5,956 people from Newcastle and Gateshead demanding the abolition of West Indian Slaves.
Anna Atkins was born in Chipping Norton and educated in West Yorkshire, she married Hery Richardson a fellow student at the Society of Friends Ackworth School, they settled in Newcastle along with hery's sister Ellen. They worked closely with their American campaigners, The Newcastle Ladies Emancipation Society was revised by them. Anna Richardson served as a prison visitor and worked to aid refugees. The Richardson were friends and mentors to Frederick Douglass who was born a slave February 1818 in Talbort County Maryland. Frederick Douglass was a social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer and statesman. There were concerns for him that his owner would re-enslave him as soon as he returned to the US. Anna and Ellen announced a meeting in Edinburgh October 29 1846 of activists to raise money to legally Free Douglass from his owner, £159 was raised. In December 1846 papers were filed in the USA which gave the escaped slave freedom from his owner Thomas Auld. The decision to buy Douglass's Freedom was not without critics; they felt it legitimised the idea any human being could ever be owned by another to be bought and sold like property.
On the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther Kings visit to Newcastle to receive an Honoury Doctorate in 1967, a plaque was unveiled as a tribute to Douglass and the Richardsons Family in Summerhill Grove Newcastle. The Richardsons had four houses in Summerhill Grove interconnecting with each other where Douglass stayed for a short time. He said the two ladies Anna and Ellen were instrumental in giving him a chance of devoting his life to freedom. The plaque contains one of Douglass's quotes:
I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong.
Val provided us with some interesting print outs from the following web sites:
SEGEDUNUM ROMAN FORT
Our next meeting will be at the Into Newcastle Cafe, part of Newcastle University opposite the Haymarket Bus Station. We will be meeting up on Wednesday 9 May 10:30, we will be continuing the Slavery in The North East project and we will have a generic quiz on the Medieval Period.
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