News Feed - Bristol Radical History Group

The Invisible Abolitionists And The Slaves Who Abolished Slavery

Adam Hochschild: A multi-award winning author, his first book Half the Way Home: a Memoir of Father and Son, was published in 1986. It was followed by The Mirror at Midnight: a South African Journey, The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin, Finding the Trapdoor: Essays, Portraits, Travels, King Leopold's Ghost: a Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa and Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves. His widely read books have won numerous […]

Scandal! The Slave Profiteers

Jim McNeill's contribution concentrated on how the Emancipation Act of 1833 awarded Bristol-based slave owners compensation of over £500,000 for the 'loss' of their slaves. Jim looked at how this money was invested to stimulate the establishment and growth of industrial development, including Gas, Cotton and Railways in the city. Listen to this talk: Part 1 Part 2 Download Part 1 (10 Mb mp3 file) Download Part 2 (7.3 Mb mp3 file) See a pdf file containing the power point slides for this lecture

La Ultima Cena

Directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1976, 120 minutes, Colour. (Spanish with English subtitles) Attempting to fulfil a religious obligation, the Count of a sugar mill in Cuba at the end of the eighteenth century decides to recreate the Last Supper, playing Jesus Christ himself and randomly selecting twelve slaves as his disciples. Tensions break out between Don Manuel, a cruel, hardened overseer who believes that slaves have nothing to do with God and that letting slaves eat at the master's table […]

Opening The Archives: The Abolitionist Movement In Bristol

Jane Bradley and Dawn Dyer kindly complied a selection of books, posters and newspapers from the Reference Library's collection charting both the slave trade and its abolition. These included an early edition of Equiano's An Interesting Narrative, election posters from 1832 (for and against the continuation of slavery) and adverts in newspapers offering rewards for runaway slaves.

Black And Blue: The Social History Of Bristol Glass

Jim McNeill, local historian, storyteller and member of Living Easton will lead us on a walk that explores the history of Bristol Blue glass and reveals its links to slave money. From Ye Shakespeare Public House, (Victoria St) to The Ostrich Public House. A walk along the River Avon, through the districts of Redcliffe and Temple, Bristol, to explore the sites of the city's glasshouses and how they were sustained by colonial expansion and Bristol's involvement in the slave trade. Read an […]

Miscellaneous 2009

Thursday 1st January to Thursday 31st December, 2009

Miscellaneous events from 2009.

Hanging At Kenn & Bristol At War

The Hanging At Kenn tells of historian Steve Poole's quest for the reasons behind Britain's last public hanging to be carried out at the "scene of the crime". It happened at Kenn in North Somerset in the early 1830's. A bitter tale of the power of law and order in pre-Victorian Britain. The film will be followed by a question and answer session with Steve Poole. Not in World War II but Bristol in the English Civil War (Revolution). Bristol At War follows Professor Ronald Hutton's search to […]

The Turnips Unplugged

The Surfin' Turnips played a raw and acoustic set as a treat for Sunday afternoon. The Surfin' Turnips played a fully amplified gig on Wednesday 1st November.

The New Model Army’s Relief of Bristol

History Walk from St Werburghs City Farm to the centre of Bristol focusing on The New Model Army's relief of Bristol in 1645 Meet at 12noon at the St. Werburghs City Farm Cafe for breakfast (to cure hangovers from the Sea Shanty night at the Cube). Leaving at 1.00pm, Jim McNeill, local historian, storyteller and member of Living Easton, retraced the steps of the New Model Army's relief of Bristol in 1645. We found out why Cromwell Hill is so named, why the Royalist Prince Rupert cared more about […]

A Riot Of Colour

Nanoplex brings you a workshop extraordinaire! Children (5+) are invited to interact with works of art and connect to historical events from Bristol's past. Using b/w copies of sketches by Bristol colourist W.J.Muller (1812-45) of the 1831 Bristol riots, the children will help bring to life segments that will be filmed/animated and put together to make up the original like a giant multicolored jigsaw.