1840s Anti Slavery Convention Walking Tour with Alan Gartrell:

1840, the year Abney Park Cemetery opened, also saw the twelve day Anti-Slavery Convention in London. Its meeting, with some 500 delegates, is recorded in Benjamin Haydon's magisterial painting. 

Amongst the scores of identifiable portraits there are at least half a dozen people who are buried at Abney together with other prominent anti-slavery campaigners who lived in Stoke Newington.

The tour will use the painting as a starting point to discuss the role of the of the British anti-slavery movement and  the importance of the 'slave narrative' such as Olaudah Equiano's memoir and other campaigns. 

Speaker Bio

Alan Gartrell has given tours of Abney Park for many years now. His topics spread a huge range from the history of Hackney's MPs to Abney Parks missionary links. He very modestly says he is not a historian, just a few clicks ahead of everyone else on Wikipedia.

Please meet five minutes before the start time at the Stoke Newington High Street Gates