(Image and research for Thornton Thomas courtesy of Ilfracombe Museum)
Today (1st October) sees the start of Black History Month whose theme this year is Reclaiming Narratives marking a major shift towards recognising and correcting the narratives of Black history and culture.
This theme is echoed by Telling Our Stories, Finding Our Roots, a Devon-based multicultural history project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and run by Devon Development Education, which for the past 15 months has been unearthing the unknown or unspoken stories of diversity in the towns of Honiton and Ilfracombe.
Two Community Heritage Coordinators in each town, together with a team of dedicated volunteers, have been researching, writing and recording stories that are often not part of the school History curriculum and include the history of the transatlantic slave trade and enslaved peoples.
Hilda Kalap Project Coordinator said: “The ‘winning side’ is the one that gets to record history. That history up to recent times has often been one-sided and speaks of how, for example, colonisation led to the ‘civilisation of native people’. The vast majority of history that is taught in schools and appears in exhibitions doesn’t speak of the experience of those who were colonised – the loss of land, of a richness of culture, of language, extreme exploitation, the millions of deaths and how that legacy affects people to this day.”
Just one of Honiton’s project discoveries is that the town had both residents who benefited from slavery whilst others were part of the anti-slavery movement.
Honiton’s connections to the anti-slavery movement: The Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was formed in 1787, led by campaigners such as Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp. As well as raising awareness of the terrible conditions experienced by enslaved people, the Society encouraged people to boycott slave-produced goods, including cotton and sugar, and to petition Parliament. Public meetings were held, including in Honiton.
On March 8th 1792, a petition signed by a hundred of Honiton’s principal citizens, including the Portreeve (the equivalent of the Mayor) was sent to the House of Commons. A national petitioning campaign took place between 1791 and 1792, when documents signed by an estimated 400,000 people were submitted to Parliament. The campaign peaked between February 9th and March 14th 1792, when no fewer than 154 petitions, including that from Honiton, were laid before the House of Commons.
The campaign in Parliament for abolition was led by the MP William Wilberforce. It was only after many failed attempts that in 1807 the slave trade in the British Empire was finally abolished. However, slaves in the colonies were not freed until 1838, and only then after slave-owners, rather than the slaves themselves, received financial compensation.
Owners of enslaved peoples with links to Honiton include:
Hugh Duncan Baillie, MP for Honiton 1835-1847 claimed, along with his brother, over £40,000 (equivalent to about £6 million in 2024) for the loss of 1600 slaves on 17 plantations in the Caribbean and British Guiana (now Guyana). Bailee was a merchant and banker in Bristol for much of his career.
Janie Garnett (1861-1949) Jane Drake (née Garnett) appeared on the 1911 census, living with her husband at Broomhills, Honiton (now St. Rita’s Church).
They lived at Broomhills from about 1907 until at least 1915. Her place of birth was Demerara, British Guiana.
Her father, Alexander Garnett (1826-1903) also born in Demerara, was a West India merchant and banker in Georgetown, British Guiana. Her grandfather Abraham Garnett (1786-1864) was originally a Liverpool merchant but after successive bankruptcies, rebuilt his fortune as a slave plantation owner. He jointly received (with his father-in-law Thomas Mewburn) compensation of £11,834 for 218 slaves at Cummings Lodge plantation (equivalent to about £1.8 million in 2024).
In Ilfracombe
Stories unearthed include that of half African-American and half White footballer Thornton Thomas, the Ilfracombe football team’s star player, father of Ann Thomas, who is still alive and lives in the town. Thornton helped bring electricity to North Devon.
Further findings related to the sinking of the HMS London in stormy weather off Rapparee Cove in 1796, killing almost a hundred people. Some claim many of those who died were slaves chained below decks, while others say they were prisoners of war.
The project will leave a legacy of archive research, oral history recordings, educational resources, an exhibition and heritage trails, playing a part in the growing modern movement towards a more diverse and inclusive view of history.
For further information please contact Hilda Kalap, Project Coordinator, hildatosfor@gmail.com or Tel: 07983216793
https://www.tellingourstoriesdevon.org.uk/
Notes to Editors
The Telling Our Stories, Finding Our Roots project began in July 2023 and will take 18 months to complete, finishing at the end of 2024. It is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
It continues two previous Telling Our Stories projects in Exeter, Tiverton, Bideford and Okehampton.
Examples of some previous oral histories are here:
https://www.tellingourstoriesdevon.org.uk/tiverton-community-stories/2021/ana-lodge
https://www.tellingourstoriesdevon.org.uk/tiverton-community-stories/2020/mac-mudabbir-ahmed
https://www.tellingourstoriesdevon.org.uk/bideford-community-stories/2020/rose-young-french
The project is run by Devon Development Education a global education charity (reg 1102233), based at The Global Centre, 17 St David’s Hill, Exeter, EX4 3RG, with over 20 years’ experience of providing expertise to schools and communities in Devon.
We develop and run projects with groups throughout the county. We aim to provide a ‘window on the world’, to enable children and adults to understand links between their own lives and those of others worldwide; and to develop skills, attitudes and values which enable people to work together to bring about change to create a just and sustainable world.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund was set up in 1994 to fund projects of all sizes that connect people and communities to the UK’s heritage. In that time it has invested £8.8 billion in heritage and supported 51,000 heritage projects.