Leeds has a rich, though still under-discussed, history of anti-slavery activism. For instance, the Leeds Anti-Slavery Association was established in 1853 at The Leeds Library on Commercial Street by an interdenominational group in which women outnumbered men. Local Quakers Mary and Wilson Armistead were, respectively, its librarian and president.

During the nineteenth century, the Armisteads and their fellow abolitionists were at the heart of a transatlantic network of Black and white activists that both corresponded and travelled between the industrial North of England and the United States. In 1851 the couple hosted Ellen and William Craft at their house in Leeds when they were lecturing in the UK including each of them on the census return as a 'fugitive slave'.

Rochester too, on the other side of the Atlantic in New York state, was the home of Frederick Douglass from 1847 to 1872. The formerly enslaved activist, orator and founder of abolitionist newspaper The North Star, visited Leeds and lectured on abolition on 23 December 1846, and then in 1847, 1859 and 1860.

Join us for this special online event that brings together a panel from universities in these two cities, separated by the Atlantic Ocean while joined by a common history. We’ll hear from academics and archivists with an interest Black history and how libraries and archives support these histories.

Our speakers are:

Melanie Chambliss, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Rochester

Bridget Bennett, Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of Leeds

Autumn Haag, Assistant Director, Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation at the University of Rochester

Kate Dossett, Professor of American History at the University of Leeds