NEWS RELEASES
Horsham MP in Slavery Controversy
20th March 2007
Nestling in the heart of the Sussex Weald the medieval market town of Horsham is the last place one would imagine that the issue of slavery would strike a chord. After all, it lies many miles from the slavery ports of Bristol and Liverpool. Probably for that reason its part in one of the great debates of the regency period has been forgotten. But not any more; marking the bi-centenary of the Abolition of Slavery Act, Horsham Museum is exposing the true story of the local issues and the involvement of Horsham’s MPs.
The exhibition Out of Africa: Slavery’s End draws on contemporary accounts and documents, including a very rare anti-slaver squib printed in Horsham as well as illustrating both sides of the trade, the rich artistic culture of West Africa from where most of the slaves traded by Britain came from, and the riches that wealth brought to Britain, including its still popular taste for sugar.
In many ways it shouldn’t be surprising that Horsham, a town whose votes were in the pocket of whoever owned it and a town noted for its parliamentary corruption, should have MPs on both sides of the debate, for pro-slavers could afford the high price set by Lady Irwin to buy the seat, whilst the Duke of Norfolk, a keen Abolitionist, would actively support those who opposed. The exhibition, using original documents drawn from the town archives, retells this story from election papers by the pro0-slaver James Baillie through to a magnificent portrait of the other pro-slaver Joseph Marryatt, a portrait paid for by the wealth of his West Indian trade.
The exhibition is not all documents and images. Drawn out of the Museum’s stores are a number of items made by the tribes who supplied the slave traders with a large number of slaves. Such traders would exchange the slaves for Cowry shells and then use these shells in adorning hats and jewellery, examples of which are on display. Exhibits also include samples of everyday objects, objects that reveal the rich culture and belie the propaganda of those involved in slavery that the African was only suitable as a slave.
Today Horsham District Council uses Park House, an early 18th century house, as its offices. In its past the building was home to James Baker, a Solicitor from the Leeward Islands, who employed a black cook, Eudosia, to work in his kitchens, having made his wealth in one of the islands at the centre of the slavery trade. As the exhibition shows with a diverse range of objects, the artistic culture that we admire so much, through the novels and books of the regency period, was to a large extent paid for through slavery.
The abolition of Slavery though doesn’t end in 1807, the exhibition also shows how people in Horsham continued to press for further reform in 1814, 1832 and then in the 1860s - 80s the children of Horsham sponsored two children in Zanzibar who were rescued from slavery.
The exhibition runs from 29th March to 2nd June at Horsham Museum in the Arts and Craft Gallery.
For further information please contact Jeremy Knight, Curator.
Horsham Museum
9 Causeway, Horsham, West Sussex RH12 1HE
Tel: (01403) 254959 Fax: (01403) 282594
Email: museum@horsham.gov.uk
www.horshammuseum.org