Remembering Cornwall’s role in the slave trade on Black History Month – Cornwall Live

Every year in October, the UK celebrates Black History Month with events and activities to teach people more about Black history and celebrate the impact of Black people across the country and the world.

For centuries, Black history has been an integral part of British history - yet many argue that it has been overlooked over the decades. The aim of the month is then to discuss and learn more about those missing history chapters.

Read more: Sewage warnings at 23 Cornish beaches after heavy rain

It's also to celebrate Black people who have changed the lives of many, such as Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Muhammad Ali, Nelson Mandela, Harriet Tubman, Maya Angelou and many, many more.

At CornwallLive, we believe it's essential to remember Cornwall's involvement in Britain's colonial past and role in the slave trade.

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It is estimated that, between 1525 and 1866, 12.5 million Africans were shipped to America.

Britain was one of the most active slave-trading countries. According to the National Archives, Britain and Portugal accounted for 70% of all Africans transported to America. They were used as slaves and forced to work on plantations or as domestics and oppressed for centuries.

And Cornwall is no exception as many people across the county played a part in the slave trade between the 16th and the 19th century, when slavery was abolished.

The slave trade benefited Cornish merchants and landowners who sometimes owned hundreds of slaves - while others across Cornwall campaigned for the abolition of slavery.

With its ports, the county had easy access to the waters and Africa. Slave ships were coming into places such as Truro, Falmouth and St Ives.

October 9: Black History Month- Talks, Spoken Word, Jamaican Food in Truro, by Inspiring Women Network. More information here.

In Truro, the land now known as Walsingham Place was called Caribee Island or Cribby Island at the end of the 1600s.

The name is thought to derive from the Caribbean due to the large number of slave ships docking in the city's port.

England's first slaving expedition, led by John Hawkins who was Sir Francis Drake's cousin, was from Plymouth. It left the port in 1562 and captured 300 Africans before selling them in the Caribbean.

Since then, Cornwall had its fair share of slave traders and owners.

One of them was Thomas Corker, of Falmouth.

Corker, who lived approximately between 1669 and 1700, was an agent of the Royal African Company in Sierra Leone, West Africa.

He married an African woman there and had two sons. Together they developed a family dynasty which supplied slaves up until the 19th century.

Down in Penzance, one particular family was known for owning slaves.

Sir Rose Price and his family, who owned country house and garden Trengwainton, made their fortune from sugar plantations in Jamaica.

Penzance East Councillor Tim Dwelly previously highlighted his story in the hope of raising awareness on the distressing past of the estate.

"I am sorry to say this is not a bit of local history we can be proud of," he wrote on his Facebook page. "The Price family from Penzance made its fortune from its Worthy Park Estate sugar plantation in Jamaica. Price was forced to sell Trengwainton in 1833 when slavery was abolished in the colonies and his ill-gained profits came to an end.

"The well-known walled garden at Trengwainton was funded on the back of slave labour. Records show his slaves were treated abysmally, beaten and neglected, often dying young."

The slave trade in Britain and the British colonies was abolished in 1807. But reports say Price continued to practice slavery for decades.

Mr Dwelly continued: "Price, who was often seen around Penzance with his livery-dressed black servants (also thought to be slaves), continued to practice slavery for a full 26 years.

"Jamaica Terrace in Heamoor was named at this time."

Rose Price was eventually knighted.

In 1833, one year before his death, the Slavery Abolition Act was passed and abolished slavery throughout the British Empire.

You can read Mr Dwelly's full post here.

The will of his father, John Price the younger, of Penzance, shows the extent of the familys link with slavery.

Price Snr lived between 1738 and 1797. He owned several estates in Jamaica, as well as a plantation called Spring Garden, for which Sir William Lemon Lemon Quay and Lemon Street in Truro are named after him - is reported to have been a co-mortgagee.

In his will, which is now in the public domain, Price mentioned all my plantations, sugar works and estates in Jamaica with all and singular Negro and other slaves, mules, horses, stock and all buildings, etc.

Sir William Lemon, who was an MP in Cornwall for 54 years, is one of several local people mentioned in the will as trustees.

It is not clear if Lemon was a slave owner himself. The History of Parliament website describes him as a staunch friend to the abolition of the slave trade.

A map, created by CartoDB and shared by the University College London (UCL), shows that 17 addresses across Cornwall were linked to slave ownership or to people who received a payout after slavery was abolished in 1833.

Each address can, of course, be linked to several people.

The following addresses have been identified - note many streets have been renumbered since then. All details can be found on the website for the UCL's Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership

The property is linked to Samuel Long, who owned properties in Jamaica. It is also estimated that he owned 222 male slaves and 221 female slaves.

Park, Landulph, Saltash

The property is linked to George Cotsford Call, who lived between 1784 and 1855. His father was MP for Callington for 17 years.

It is not clear whether he actually owned slaves, however he received a compensation after the abolition of slavery for being the trustee of the marriage settlement of his sister Catherine and Henry Mackinnon, who owned slaves in Antigua.

Bodmin

Two people linked to slave ownership have been identified in Bodmin.

Eldred Lewis Blight Pearse, who lived between 1808 and 1878, received a compensation.

William Michell (1796 - 1872) received some compensation for the slaves on Cradley estate on Tobago and for 122 slaves on another estate.

"William Michell was identified in the will of Rev. William Sloane Wilson as the MP for Bodmin in Cornwall," the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership reports.

Pencarrow, Egloshayle

Sir John Molesworth 4th Bart. (1705 - 1766) is linked to this address. He was the MP for Newport and for Cornwall.

His great-uncle, Hender Molesworth, was a slave owner and Governor of Jamaica.

Sir John and his son William were the owners of 3,269 acres of land in St Dorothy.

Truthan, St Erme

Edward Collins the younger, who lived between 1782 and 1855, is linked to this address.

As mortgagee, he received, with other people, compensation for the slaves on the Whim estate on Tobago.

Rectory, St Allen

Rev. George Kemp, who lived between 1799 and 1842, was granted compensation for two slaves in Barbados.

Rectory, Tregassick Road, Gerrans

Judith Campbell Longlands (ne Pendrill) and Rev. William David Longlands (1792 - 1866), who inherited New Milns in Hanover, Jamaica , of Judith's grandfather William Campbell.

They and Judith's sisters received compensation for the slaves on the estate.

Mylor

Two people have been identified for this address - George Webbe and his son Charles. Charles (1799 - 1839) unsuccessfully claimed a compensation for slaves on Stoney Hill, Nevis.

Flushing

Thompson Spottiswood, who passed away in 1796, owned slaves.

Penryn

Rev. George Kemp is also linked to a Penryn address.

Falmouth

Anna Binny (ne Marshall) has links to Jamaica. Her parents married there and baptised their children there.

"Enslaved people on Mount Moses were registered by Rev. Edward Marshall as owner and natural guardian to his children Anna and Lucy Marshall in 1817," Legacies of British Slave-ownership reports.

"It's not clear why only two of Edward Marshall's children are mentioned in the earlier registers. They may have inherited a small number of enslaved people rather than a share in the estate."

Richard Bosanquet (1735 - 1809), known as 'Richard the Rake', is also on the list. He was a director of the East India Company and a partner in Bosanquet and Fatio, Hamburg merchants which also had West Indian interests.

Robert Henry Church, who died in 1848, was a slave owner and attorney on Grenada.

Legacies of British Slave-ownership reports: "He left his estate to be divided six ways, including two shares to two daughters of Jane Sangster deceased a free woman of colour."

George Munro (1766 - 1824) owned slaves. William Ross and Robert Robertson were granted compensation, as the administrators of Munro, for Plantation Alness in British Guiana.

Budock

George Cavell Webbe was the son of George Webbe - mentioned above. He was named 'tenant-for-life' of his father's unnamed estates on Nevis.

Madron

George Pinnock (1801 - 1880) received compensation for nine slaves on the Esher estate in St Mary.

Trengwainton, Penzance

This property, as mentioned above, is linked to Sir Rose Price (1768 - 1834).

He was granted compensation for the Spring Garden estate and his executers were given compensation for the main family estate, Worthy Park, and for Mickleton Pen.

2 Wellington Terrace, Madron, Penzance

This address is linked to Rev. William Sloane Wilson, who was granted compensation for the slaves on the Cradley estate, Tobago, and on another Tobago estate which is currently unknown.

2 Penrose Terrace, Penzance

Elizabeth Bryan (1792 - 1859) was given a compensation for six slaves on Hall's Delight in Clarendon, Jamaica.

Penzance

John Price of Penzance, the elder, was listed as the owner of 225 acres of land in St Catherine, 500 acres in St Ann and 2869 acres in St John.

Mary Elizabeth Pennant Bryan is also on the list for Penzance. She died in 1890.

Many stories of African people taken away from their countries before being brought to Cornwall were actually shared at the time.

The published diary of John Tregerthen Short (JTS) of St Ives, narrates how, on Decembre 9, 1825, a French ship called Perle docked in St Ives harbour from St John's, on the coast of Africa, having on board five slaves.

According to the African Institution, the ship initially had on board 244 slaves, including 30 or 40 children. Most of them were transferred into another boat at sea, and two boys died.

By the time Perle arrived in St Ives, most of the crew had perished.

Penwith Local History Group reports that two of the five slaves on board did not survive their time in England. The other three were freed in 1826. Their names are not known.

A very famous former slave and abolitionist who visited Cornwall was Olaudah Equiano, also known as Gustavus Vassa.

According to his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African, published in 1789, he was from the Eboe region of the Kingdom of Benin.

He was born in 1745 and enslaved as a child and taken to a Caribbean. He was subsequently sold several times before purchasing his freedom in 1766.

Olaudah visited Falmouth when he was about 12 years old.

He wrote: "All my alarms began to subside when we got sight of land; and at last the ship arrived at Falmouth, after a passage of thirteen weeks.

"Every heart on board seemed gladdened on our reaching the shore, and none more than mine. The captain immediately went on shore, and sent on board some fresh provisions, which we wanted very much: we made good use of them, and our famine was soon turned into feasting, almost without ending.

"It was about the beginning of the spring 1757 when I arrived in England, and I was near twelve years of age at that time. I was very much struck with the buildings and the pavement of the streets in Falmouth; and, indeed, any object I saw filled me with new surprise."

Olaudah's owner was staying with a Falmouth family, whose young daughter befriended Olaudah very quickly.

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Remembering Cornwall's role in the slave trade on Black History Month - Cornwall Live