<
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/jul/18/manchester-tribute-abolitionist-frederick-douglass>
"He was one of the most important figures of his time, an author, orator and
American statesman who was born enslaved. But some of the most important years
in the civil rights leader Frederick Douglass’s life were spent in Britain.
This month marks the 180th anniversary of a series of lectures Douglass gave in
Manchester, speaking at venues across the region.
Despite the connection between Manchester – a city at the apex of the global
cotton trade that depended on enslaved African workers in the 19th century –
and Douglass, there is no commemorative blue plaque marking his presence in the
city.
The building where he stayed in St Ann’s Square in Manchester city centre is
now occupied by a branch of Holland & Barrett. But Manchester Literary and
Philosophical Society (Lit and Phil), with whose members Douglass had
connections in the 1840s, has begun annual lectures celebrating his legacy.
The inaugural Fredrick Douglass lecture was in June, staged by Lit and Phil in
collaboration with the Manchester peacebuilding organisation Carisma and the
University of Manchester research platform Creative Manchester.
Titled
Frederick Douglass: A Global Life, the lecture told the story of how
Douglass arrived in the UK as a 27-year-old “fugitive, the enslaved property of
a man called Thomas Auld” and left a free man.
Douglass was as dedicated to women’s suffrage and Irish liberty as he was to
the anti-slavery cause that brought him across the Atlantic. “It was his time
here in Britain, free from the fear of re-enslavement, able to live a quite
expansive existence in an unsegregated society, that gave him the emotional
space to evolve intellectually,” the historian David Olusoga said, giving the
inaugural lecture.
Dr Dhun Daji, a trustee of Lit and Phil, said the lecture was brought about “by
our society feeling the life and times of Frederick Douglass needed to be
better known – he left a template for a kind of activism that is still needed
today”."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
