Wakefield Museums and Castles: Black History Month 2022

Friday, October 21, 2022

Black History Month 2022 - Anti-slavery campaigning

In the second of our series of four blog posts highlighting Black History in the Wakefield district, we're looking at these anti-slavery campaigning leaflets found in our collections.

In the mid-1800s Wakefield was very active in anti-slavery campaigning, promoting human rights and organising meetings and lectures in various venues across the district.

Please note: an historical term used to describe Black people is used in the second leaflet. This is not language that to be used or condoned today.

Frederick Douglass, 1847

Leaflet advertising an anti-slavery meeting, which reads: What ho! our countrymen in chains! The whip on woman's shrinking flesh! Our soil still reddening with the stains, Caught from her scourging, warm and fresh! What! mothers from their children riven? What! God's own image bought and sold! American's to market driven, And barter'd, as the brute, for gold! (Whittier). Frederick Douglass, recently a slave in the United States, now one of the most talented Orators in the Cause of Emancipation, will, in connection with other Members of the Anti-Slavery League, address a Public Meeting, to be held in the Corn Exchange, Wakefield, on the Evening of Friday next, the 15th instant. Chair to be taken at half-past Seven o'Clock. Reserved seats, sixpence. Admission, to the body of the hall, free. Wakefield, January 9th 1947. Printed by Nichols & Sons, Printers, Northgate, Wakefield.

A leaflet advertising a talk by Frederick Douglass at the Corn Exchange in Wakefield on 15th January 1947 (full transcription available in image alt text)

Frederick Douglass (1818? - 1895) was an anti-slavery campaigner and social reformer. He had escaped slavery himself and dedicated his life to campaigning against the practice and sharing his experiences. Douglass became the first Black U.S. Marshal and is famous for his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself.

You can read his full speech given at this lecture here.

William Howard Day, 1860

Leaflet for an anti-slavery talk. Reads: Slavery. The Committee of the Wakefield Anti-Slavery Society have pleasure in announcing that W. Howard Day, Esq., M.A., A Coloured Gentleman, of Canada West, will deliver a Lecture in the Music Saloon, on Friday Evening, Dec. 7th, 1860, Subject: "Slavery in the United States, and the Social & Moral Improvement of the 40,000 Fugitive Slaves in Canada." The Chair will be taken at half-past Seven o'clock, by The Worshipful The Mayor. Admission Free. Posted by William Grace, Junr. Hon. Sec. Printed by Stanfield & Son, Printers and Lithographers, Wakefield.

Leaflet advertising a lecture by W. Howard Day in the Music Saloon, Dec 7th 1860 (full transcription available in image alt text)

This leaflet advertises a lecture given by William Howard Day in the Music Saloon on Wood Street in Wakefield in December 1860. Day (1825-1900) was born in New York City, and was the only Black graduate from Oberlin College in 1847 where he received his M.A. in 1859. He was an abolitionist, editor, publisher, printer, teacher, lecturer, civic leader and clergyman.