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International Slavery Remembrance Day at the National Maritime Museum

The National Maritime Museum marks 2013’s International Slavery Remembrance Day with a series of free family-friendly events. Taking place throughout the Museum and around Greenwich on Friday 23 August, the programme includes music, workshops and talks and culminates in a commemorative ceremony by the river Thames.

This year’s events explore the National Maritime Museum’s vast collections relating to the trade of enslaved people, as well as focusing on the many local connections to be found in the Greenwich World Heritage Site. Actor and broadcaster Burt Caesar will act as Master of Ceremonies for the day, which will also see art historian Dr Temi Odumosu discussing the controversial Cruickshank caricature The New Union Club; composer Dominique LeGendre giving a talk on black composers from the period of enslavement; and historian S. I. Martin revealing the hidden impact of the transatlantic slave trade on a walk around Greenwich.

On 23 August 1791, the first successful slave uprising in the western hemisphere took place in Haiti. This event led to the island’s independence and was a major step towards the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. Now designated by UNESCO as International Slavery Remembrance Day, the National Maritime Museum has marked 23 August for the past 15 years to highlight transatlantic slavery as a maritime history.

The Museum is located a short walk from the Cutty Sark DLR, and Maze Hill and Greenwich train stations. The closest tube stations are North Greenwich (to change to local buses) and Canary Wharf (to change to DLR), both on the Jubilee line.

For updated information prior to visit please visit: www.rmg.co.uk or phone 020 8858 6565.