Stories of slavery to 'challenge and surprise' visitors
This year's bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire was an opportunity to commemorate the millions of slaves who died and renew efforts to help the trafficked people of today, David Lammy, the Culture minister, said yesterday.
He welcomed the diversity of events and exhibitions across Britain marking the anniversary as a chance to tell the stories of all those involved in, and affected by, the "evil trade". "Our national museums and galleries are the underpinning of our Britishness and they hold the stories that make up who we are as a nation. The events of 2007 provide the perfect way in which to take these stories to new audiences," Mr Lammy said.
Mr Lammy was speaking at the National Portrait Gallery, which will launch a new trail tomorrow that traces the history of the slave trade through the pictures on its walls.
Caroline Bressey, a historian who has advised the project, said the trail began in the Tudor gallery with the story of a black trumpeter in the court of Henry VIII and then highlighted how Queen Elizabeth I proclaimed there were too many black people in Britain and ordered their expulsion...
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He welcomed the diversity of events and exhibitions across Britain marking the anniversary as a chance to tell the stories of all those involved in, and affected by, the "evil trade". "Our national museums and galleries are the underpinning of our Britishness and they hold the stories that make up who we are as a nation. The events of 2007 provide the perfect way in which to take these stories to new audiences," Mr Lammy said.
Mr Lammy was speaking at the National Portrait Gallery, which will launch a new trail tomorrow that traces the history of the slave trade through the pictures on its walls.
Caroline Bressey, a historian who has advised the project, said the trail began in the Tudor gallery with the story of a black trumpeter in the court of Henry VIII and then highlighted how Queen Elizabeth I proclaimed there were too many black people in Britain and ordered their expulsion...