Slavery and the City

London was a leading actor in – profited enormously from – the slave trade.  But a few good men and women took the evil on and saw it off. Their names ring down the centuries, the great and the good who fought for freedom: Wilberforce, Wedgewood, Wesley, Blake, John Newton, Cowper. And that’s not to forget the lesser-known who began the cause: Granville Sharp, Thomas Clarkson, James Phillips and Oladouh Equiano. Truly, here in the bosom of the City beat the heart of compassion, answering the slave’s cry, “Am I not a man and a Brother?” Amazing Grace indeed. “Spots of time” (and place) don’t come any more important than this one. Which is why it’s important to go and see where – to go over the ground, literally and figuratively – to travel back.  To bear witness.