The Stewartry Museum, Kirkcudbright

Black Heritage Award for Transatlantic Slave Trade Exhibition

An exhibition commissioned by Dumfries and Galloway Council Museums has won a national award for making the most outstanding contribution to Black Heritage in Scotland in 2007. The award was for the 'Dumfries and Galloway and the Transatlantic Slave Trade' exhibition, which was commissioned from social historian Frances Wilkins and her company Franscript. Frances collected the award at a prestigious ceremony at the Black Heritage Fair at the ThinkTank, Millennium Point, Birmingham on Saturday, December 8th. The project was judged the best of several nominations from Scotland. It was one of 12 regional awards made across the UK by the Black History Foundation.

The exhibition aimed to enhance the public's understanding of Scotland's involvement in the transatlantic slave trade by taking one area and looking at all the different aspects of the trade from sending ships on the triangular voyage to owning plantations in the Americas, exporting their produce to Britain and becoming part of the abolition movement.

The 14 panels were based on contemporary 18th and 19th century information. They emphasised the fact that although a few slave trading voyages sailed directly from Dumfries and Kirkcudbright, merchants from the area went to both Liverpool and London, where they were deeply involved in the trade. Ship captains and crew from the area also sailed on Guinea ships from Liverpool and London. Local families owned plantations in Virginia (where there is a town called Dumfries), the Carolinas and the West Indian islands. Sugar, rum and cotton from Grenada were imported into Kirkcudbright. William Dickson from Moffat was part of the abolition movement, in 1792 journeying from Inverness to Kirkcudbright with pamphlets to make people aware of the slave trade and encourage them to petition their Members of Parliament to discuss abolition. The panels were supported by a display of original documents which added further information. A book was published to support the exhibition and there were public lectures at each of the venues: Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Stranraer. The glass award will be on display in The Stewartry Museum in late January. The book, 'Dumfries and Galloway and the Transatlantic Slave Trade' by Frances Wilkins is currently available from The Stewartry Museum.