A University of Worcester History lecturer has been helping local school pupils to learn about the transatlantic slave trade.
Professor Suzanne Schwarz giving a presentation to pupils at Hagley Catholic High School
Professor Suzanne Schwarz, a renowned expert on the topic, gave a talk to year 13 students at Hagley Catholic High School. She told them about her current research to reconstruct details of the life histories of enslaved Africans and, using letters written by James Irving, a Liverpool slave ship surgeon and captain, as source material, commented on the nature and organisation of the transatlantic slave trade in the 18th century. After her talk, there was a question and answer session, in which students raised a wide range of interesting topics.
Professor Schwarz said: “It was very exciting to work with Hagley pupils who raised many fascinating questions about the human impact of the transatlantic slave trade and its present-day relevance.”
The visit was part of a reciprocal arrangement with University of Worcester History and PGCE graduate Abi Leyland, who now teaches history at Hagley Catholic High School. She recently returned to the University to give a presentation to current final year History students on some issues to consider when teaching troubling events of the past, particularly the transatlantic slave trade.
Professor Schwarz’s research interests focus on the transatlantic slave trade and abolition in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Her current research on Freetown, in Sierra Leone, examines the ways in which abolitionists attempted to undermine the slave trade and reform African economy and society. She is Principal Investigator for a British Library Endangered Archives project to preserve rare documentary sources in the Sierra Leone Public Archives, which contain extensive evidence on the identities of Africans uprooted and displaced by the Atlantic slave trade. She is also currently part of an international collaborative research project that draws together scholars from across four continents to trace the ‘Testimonies of West Africans from the Era of the Slave Trade’.
Andrew Fitzpatrick, Deputy Director of Sixth Form at Hagley Catholic High School, said: "Our Sixth Form students are currently studying the impact of the Transatlantic Slave Trade for their A-level unit ‘Origins of the British Empire’, so it was a wonderful opportunity to have Professor Schwarz deliver a workshop on the topic. Using primary source material from a surgeon on one of the slave ships allowed our students to find out about the attitudes of those people directly involved in the trade. The students really enjoyed the opportunity to find out what undergraduate study is like and hopefully the session will inspire some of them to study History at degree level."