|
|
Dorset's
Hidden
Histories
By Louisa Adjoa
Parker.
Although
at first glance Dorset appears to be largely mono-cultural, with a
majority of the population coming from white British backgrounds, if
you dig
a little deeper you will find that people with roots in countries all
over
the globe live and work here. And it goes much further back than most
people
think, with people from Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and many other
places
coming to Dorset, willingly or not, for hundreds if not thousands of
years.
One reason why black people came to Dorset in the past was because of
the
African slave trade, with many Dorset people being involved in selling,
shipping and owning slaves in the Caribbean. Often traders brought
'servants' back with them when they returned to Dorset, and it was
popular
at that time in the UK for white upper classes to own a black servant,
usually young boys. Much of the wealth used to build manor houses and
the
local infrastructure in fact came from the sale of slave-grown sugar.
Dorset people were not just involved in slave-trading, however, and many
well-known abolitionists such as MP Thomas Fowell Buxton, from
Weymouth, as well as Quakers and a range of others played a part in
bringing the
terrible
trade to an end. There are descendants of several famous abolitionists
living in Dorset today.
In Edwardian times a number of African-American entertainers performed
in
Dorset, and Bournemouth was home to Thomas Lewis Johnson, an ex-slave
and missionary who wrote about his life. But it wasn't just slaves who
came
here, and a great range of people from doctors, royalty, students,
teachers,
soldiers and other backgrounds came here to live and settle, or just to
pass
through.
In the Second World War thousands of American GIs came to the
Westcountry,
and many left from Weymouth to fight in France. Many of these GIs were
African-American, and in spite of the segregation enforced by the white
soldiers, some of the black GIs managed to meet local people, and a few
'brown babies' as they were then known were left behind. There is
anecdotal
evidence to suggest that several of the black GIs were killed in Dorset
by
their white colleagues.
This history has been 'hidden' over time, and only recently collated in
a
book by Louisa Adjoa Parker and Development Education in Dorset, called
'Dorset's Hidden Histories.' (1)
The book explores the presence of African
and
Caribbean people in Dorset over the past 400 years, and includes
testimonies
of black and minority ethnic people in Dorset today. However this book
is
only a beginning, and there are many more stories waiting to be
uncovered.
Louisa Adjoa Parker is holding two lectures to be held in Bournemouth
and
Dorchester. (2) These will
look at this hidden history, and make parallels
with
the situation in Dorset today.
For more details click here
to contact Chris Hammond (Dorset REC Community Development Officer).
These lectures are sponsored by Dorset Race Equality Council. We also
acknowledge the generous assistance of Bournemouth University and
Dorset County Council. A truly community effort.
References
1)
"Dorset's Hidden Histories". To learn more about the book click here. To
find out how you can bring it to your locality as an exhibition click here.
2)
Click here for
full details of the lectures. Use you back button to return to this
page.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|