Dr Angelina Osborne: Re(Imagining) the life of Joanna Vassa

During Black History Month, Abney Park Trust is pleased to welcome Dr. Angelina Osbourne to speak about the life of Joannas Vassa.

Little is known about the life of Joanna Vassa, the last surviving daughter of abolitionist and author Olaudah Equiano. Joanna's sister, father and mother all died when she was a child. She married the congregational minister Henry Bromley, and lived with him in Devon, Essex and finally Hackney, where she died in 1857. Joanna Vassa is buried in Abney Park, with a memorial that has a Grade II heritage listing.

Using what has been unearthed about her life, Dr. Angelina Osborne explores it within the context of the key events that took place in Britain and the Caribbean over the period of her life between 1796 and 1857.

Biography: Dr Angelina Osborne

Dr Angelina Osborne is an independent researcher and heritage consultant. She received her PhD in History from the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation, University of Hull in 2014.

Her interests focus on Caribbean enslavement and proslavery discourses, and the history of community and education activism.

Angelina's book co-written with Patrick Vernon: 100 Great Black Britons, was recently published in 2020. In 2003, Patrick Vernon launched a landmark campaign on 100 Great Black Britons, which was one of the most successful movements to focus on the role of people of African and Caribbean descent in British history. This book successfully relaunches this campaign with an updated list of names and accompanying portraits – including new role models and previously little-known historical figures.