Fenland anti-slavery hero is featured in BBC documentary with Hollywood film legend
A local hero's fight against slavery has been featured in a prime-time TV documentary with a Hollywood film legend.
The pivotal role Wisbech hero Thomas Clarkson played in turning the tide of British public opinion against slavery was featured in the final part of 'Enslaved' with Samuel L Jackson on BBC 2 on Sunday night.
The documentary series that has ranged across three continents to find the untold stories of enslaved Africans came to Wisbech and Fenland Museum to film Clarkson's campaign chest which travelled thousands of miles across Britain with him on horseback, making the case for abolition.
Part Four first shows the thousands of signatures of the ordinary people of Manchester on one of many hundreds of petitions to end the slave trade sent to parliament in the 1790s onwards.
At Wisbech museum, local historian Dr Maureen James tells journalist Afua Hirsch how Clarkson didn't stop campaigning when the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was passed in 1807: “He spent the rest of his life dedicated to the cause of ending slavery.
“He'd be this figure turning up in towns talking to groups of people to set up societies to abolish firstly the slave trade, and then slavery itself.”
Dr James shows on different shelves inside the chest examples of fine African craftsmanship and raw materials that could be traded from Africa instead of trafficking people, and hideous examples of the cruelty involved in slavery – a spiked iron neck collar and a long iron ankle chain to tie people together.
Over the last four weeks the documentary's team of Divers with a Purpose have been filmed scouring the ocean floor for traces of the two million enslaved Africans known to have died crossing the Atlantic, and Hollywood star Samuel L Jackson is reunited with the Benga people of Gabon from where his ancestors were trafficked 250 years ago.
Wisbech Museum curator Robert Bell said: "We were delighted to welcome Afua Hirsch and Dr James to the museum to film Thomas Clarkson's campaign chest.
“When the producers explained the concept to us we thought this was such a groundbreaking project.
“We are thrilled to have had a small part in this amazing production and have been watching the series; if you haven't seen it the series is available on BBC iPlayer."
