Headstone and footstone, with shaped tops. The freshly painted memorial stands out amongst unpainted stones. Carving includes winged Black cherubs, and flowers. The headstone carries the details of the subject’s life; the footstone carries a verse.
Memorial to Scipio Africanus, Churchyard of St Mary, Bristol: Born into slavery, this boy lived as a servant in an aristocratic household, and upon his death was given an elaborate tomb. The epitaph highlights the complexity of attitudes to slavery and race in 18th century England. © Historic England
Memorial to Scipio Africanus, Churchyard of St Mary, Bristol: Born into slavery, this boy lived as a servant in an aristocratic household, and upon his death was given an elaborate tomb. The epitaph highlights the complexity of attitudes to slavery and race in 18th century England. © Historic England

Legacies of Slavery and Abolition in Listed Places

The National Heritage List for England is a record of sites of special interest for our national story, which Historic England maintains on behalf of the government. We are committed to increasing under-represented heritage on the List, illustrating the powerful connection between people and place.

In 2007, we helped commemorate the bicentenary of the 1807 Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade by ensuring that connections with both slavery and abolition were reflected in the List. The project resulted in over 40 new listings, upgrades and amendments, where new research was added about these connections.

The project highlighted the lives of a number of Black people, living in England in a wide range of circumstances, whose histories now have a presence on the List.

There is more work to do in telling the important story of Black presence in England on the List beyond the slavery and abolition context. More recent listings like the Brixton Markets and Platforms Piece, are examples. We welcome listing applications from the public and we encourage people to enrich the List.

Churches

We looked at several churches with links to slavery and abolition. Christian faith inspired many of those who fought for an end to slavery, and many enslaved people brought to England became Christians; it was widely believed that baptism would bestow freedom.

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Substantial stone plaque set between windows. The text reads, "Near this place lies interred Anna Maria Vassa daughter of Gustavus Vassa the African. She died July 21 1797 aged 4 years." Below, a verse describes her background, and laments her loss. Imposing Baroque church of unusual design, on the corner of a busy London street. A red bus to right. The entrance bay is framed by plain columns, with deep rustication. Above, the broad rectangular tower has tall columns, and two square turrets. Stone plaque in brickwork. The plaque pitted with holes, partly obscuring the text. This includes the headings, Let us praise God and The Clapham Sect, with the names of the members ‘who…rested not until the curse of slavery was swept away’. The west end of a church with a tall 14th-century pointed broach spire. The aisle wall in the foreground has pointed Gothic windows with tracery, and battlements. A stormy sky.

Graves

Graves provide an important record of the role slavery played in England’s history. Each grave considered as part of this project remembers someone thought to be directly connected with slavery or the slave trade: some people had been enslaved, one was a redeemed trader in enslaved people, and others had campaigned to end slavery.

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Headstone with scrolled detail to the top, the brown stone mottled with lichen. The indistinct inscription begins ‘Here lieth the body of Myrtilla negro slave’ and ends ‘baptised October 20th, buried January 6th 1705’. Modestly-sized headstone in a grassy churchyard; behind are other graves. An arched, shouldered, top, filled with foliate carving. The inscription is in a mixture of Roman and italic scripts; the date ‘Sept 9th 1801’ can just be made out. Headstone and footstone, with shaped tops. The freshly painted memorial stands out amongst unpainted stones. Carving includes winged Black cherubs, and flowers. The headstone carries the details of the subject’s life; the footstone carries a verse. Large flat grey stone with moulded edge, seen from the bottom end, surrounded by autumn leaves. The inscriptions are at the top end of the stone, first the one for Harriet Long, then the one for Jacob Walker, who is described as ‘an honest man’. Portland stone chest tomb, with inscription framed by reeded pilasters

Houses

We updated the List entries of a wide range of houses, from those financed by slavery, to those which shed light on the lives of people living and working in England who had formerly been enslaved – as well as the homes of prominent abolitionists.

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Symmetrical two storey 18th-century house, three windows wide, with additional bay to right. Built of brick, painted white. The central doorway has a doorhood. On the right-hand bay, a green plaque commemorates Cesar Picton. Zebra crossing to right. Stone tympanum, carved with figures in relief. Centre, a slave master stands holding a whip. Left, a woman and child kneel by a heap of cotton; behind a man carries a basket on his shoulders. Right, a man kneels emptying cotton from a basket. Four-storey red brick town house, four windows wide, with doorway to right. The sash windows painted white. On the ground floor, to left, a brown plaque commemorating Dr Johnson. On the railings in front, a black plaque commemorating Francis Barber Large 17th-century house in Artisan Mannerist style. Two storeys, with a three-storey tower porch. Red brick with stone dressings. To right, a stone statue of William Wilberforce, seen from the side, standing and leaning on a column.

Public buildings

The prosperity Britain gained from slavery and the commodities produced by enslaved people is demonstrated by many striking civic and commercial buildings. The wealth that funded them was amassed at a terrible human cost. Our updated List entries focus on connections with the slave trade, putting these buildings into context.

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Carved frieze at the top of an 18th-century building, with Corinthian pilasters below a balustraded parapet. At centre, an African woman wearing a feather headdress, surrounded by swags of fruit, tusks, and a parasol. An elephant head to right. An 18th-century ashlar building in Classical style. It has a portico with four columns above a rusticated basement, with steps to either side. A flag flies from the pediment. Beside it to right is a tall rubblestone warehouse, of similar date. Tympanum with Rococo plasterwork, colourfully painted. Central roundel with head of a young African person in headdress. To left, an ostrich and a horse. To right, an elephant, lion and crocodile. Around, scrolled motifs with fruit, leaves and shells. Tall 18th-century warehouse, of functional but elegant design, the red brick blackened in places. The street elevation has a pediment, below which the central bay has full-height windows below an arched window, where taking-in doors used to be.

Memorials and statues

During the 19th century, public and private monuments and statues of campaigners were erected to help commemorate the momentous historic event of abolition. However, no known historic memorials in Britain honour the many Black abolitionists who did so much to end slavery. There is a 2008 monument to Olaudah Equiano in Telegraph Hill Park, Deptford.

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Freestanding stone archway. Arch flanked by coupled Doric pilasters, with cornice above. Between arch and cornice is a rectangular plaque, the inscription beginning Erected to commemorate the abolition of slavery. Behind, 20th-century housing. Late-19th or early-20th century pencil drawing of a rural scene. To right, an obelisk on a stepped plinth raised on a bank. To left a path winds up a hill. A man and a boy in the distance, walking uphill towards the memorial. Elaborate Victorian Gothic pavilion, octagonal with a spire roof. Below, a stone arcade with pointed trefoil arches on red granite shafts. Above, the roof covered with bright enamelled decoration – pink, white, blue, green and yellow. Stone figure of a man in Victorian dress, standing with his hand resting on a Bible. Below, to either side, a seated female figure. To left, Charity holds one infant and comforts another; to right, Peace holds an olive branch, a lamb at her feet.

Other memorials addressing the Slave Trade and Abolition

More recent memorials won’t be eligible for listing, but they still play an important part in telling the story of England's connections with the transatlantic slave trade and its abolition.

'Captured Africans' memorial sculpture, St George's Quay, Lancaster

Unveiled in 2005, the Captured Africans memorial on St. Georges Quay is a memorial to the enslaved people transported on ships originating out of Lancaster. It was created by artist Kevin Dalton-Johnson with support from mosaic artist Ann McArdle. Lancaster’s prosperity depended on the slave trade, her ships taking enslaved people from West Africa to the West Indies and South Carolina. In addition to sugar, rum and cotton, the ships brought back mahogany to supply the town’s thriving cabinet makers.

'The Gilt of Cain', Fen Court, City of London

Unveiled by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in 2008, this bicentenary memorial sculpture was created by Michael Visocchi in collaboration with poet Lemn Sissay. The project was initiated by Black British Heritage and the Parish of St Mary Woolnoth and commissioned by the City of London Corporation and the British Land Company.

The sculpture stands in the Parish of St Mary Woolnoth, where reformed slave trader John Newton was rector from 1780–1807. It consists of a group of posts representing sugar cane surrounding a podium, which suggests a pulpit, or slave auctioneer’s rostrum. Inscribed on the podium are the words of Sissay’s poem ‘The Gilt of Cain’, weaving the coded language of the stock exchange with Old Testament references.

Olaudah Equiano monument, Telegraph Hill Park, London

This ceramic monument, with a symbolic triangular plinth, was created by pupils of Edmund Waller Primary School in 2007, and installed in 2008. Equiano was captured as a young boy in Nigeria and enslaved in Virginia. He bought his own freedom in 1766 and settled in London, becoming part of the influential abolitionist group, Sons of Africa.

Equiano published his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, in 1789 and, knowing the power of his story, toured the country raising awareness of the horrors of slavery. Sadly, Equiano died in 1797, so didn’t live to see the triumph of the 1807 Act.

Find out more about Olaudah Equiano at The Historic Dockyard, Chatham.

Also of interest

The Slave Trade and Abolition
Another England - Mapping 100 Years of Black and Asian History
Immortalised