Monica Cousins, Contributor

Monica Cousins photo

'Abolition 200' is being celebrated all over England where hundreds of families got very wealthy on the back of the horrendous slave trade. Much has been recorded about this period of history, which is sometimes referred to as some of 'England's finest hours.'

The bicentenary of the abolition of the transatlantic trade in Africans is allowing generations of British people time to reflect on the history that changed England for ever. But now there are questions! "Are those years of prosperity drawing to a close?"

Like the Jewish holocaust, some people have gone as far as to suggest Slaves were never sold in England. And the once 'Great' Britain is now overrun with immigrants, legal and illegal, from all over the world.

No longer are immigrants prepared Storr's Hall, now a luxury hotel. to look for work in large industrial cities, they are settling in the most unlikely places, and doing work British citizens are not prepared to do, for the barest of minimum wages.

But, like the rest of the country, cities and towns in the north-west of England still carry the trade mark of slavery for good or ill. It seems at last the effects of the 'big bang' is showing signs of meltdown 200 years after the bill for the abolition of the slave trade was passed.

"We realised that something was wrong and wondered whether it had to do with our past," Councillor Geoff Blackwell of Copeland Borough Council in West Cumbria, with great passion, told a BBC reporter last year. He went on to say, "In 2007, on the anniversary of the Wilberforce agreement, we intend to apologise for our involvement in the slave trade." Councillor Blackwell is determined to do all in his power to attract minorities to this little corner of England. He knows that Cumbria will always be linked to the West Indies, despite the fact that a census shows Cumbria has one of the lowest ethnic minority populations in the country (England).

Formal apology for slavery

Following Councillor Blackwell's bold statement, Copeland Council took the decision to issue a formal apology for slavery, made on behalf of the people of Copeland to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade.

The town of Whitehaven in Cumbria falls withinCopeland Borough Council, and one of its most popular tourist attractions, 'The Rum Story', takes visitors on a virtual tour of a sugar plantation. The Rum Story's museum depicts life for African slaves as it was during the period of the slave trade, and Councillor Blackwell, along with many of the county's ethnic minorities, finds that despicable. In his interview with the BBC, he turns his attention to the black figures in shackles and says angrily, "How could someone do this to them?" It would appear the museum which features Jefferson Rum from Antigua is still profiting largely from the slave trade 200 years after the bill was passed. It is evocative of an era that many of its own citizens would like to forget.

Whitehaven lies on the most north-westerly tip of England's border with Scotland, and is just over 50 miles from the Isle of Man, and is probably the most unlikely town to attract people from different ethnic backgrounds. But Cumbria has in the past had its fair share of black residents, as the entire county benefited from its involvement with slavery. Whitehaven in the west, like Dent and Sedbergh over 100 miles away in the east, saw many slaves brought from the West Indies by their masters.

But the slaves in and around Whitehaven seemed to have fared much better than their colleagues in Dent. They had names, were registered, baptised, allowed to marry and when they died, were given proper burials according to records from the town's St. Nicholas Church. The slaves brought back to Whitehaven from the West Indies appear to have been treated as servants rather than slaves.

First black policeman

There have been no records of them in chains. Church records list dozens of names between the middle of the 1700s to the early 1800s referring to their baptisms, marriages and deaths as a "Black Man", a "Negress", or a "Black Boy". A 'white' family in Whitehaven recently discovered that an ancestor known as 'Black Kent' was the first black policeman in England.

Windermere mustbe one of the best-known areas in Cumbria, and is England's largest lake. On its banks sits Rayrigg Hall, the house in which abolitionist William Wilberforce chose to live for eight years during the summer months. Here he found the peace and tranquillity of 'the lakes' inspiring as he pondered the plight of Africans caught up in the slave trade, and often rowed out to Lady Holmes island in the lake to contemplate 'his' bill for the abolition. The house and gardens are delightful and the added backdrop of steamers cruising lazily on the lake conjures up the mood that Wilberforce would have experienced. Except for the front porch and a few other minor changes to Rayrigg Hall, the present owner, Mrs. Diana Matthews, says, "It is just as it was when Wilberforce came here."

Unlike Rayrigg Hall, which remained a private house, Storr's Hall, a few miles south, is now one of the Lake District's most prestigious hotels. It occupies an enviable position on the shores of Windermere, not far from the maddening crowd of tourists queuing in the town to join lake cruises. Storr's Hall was once the domain of John Bolton who owned property (including slaves) in Jamaica. Parties on cruises around the islands in the lake are told of Storr's Hall: "The chains are still in the cellars from the days when slaves were brought here on their way to the West Indies."

However, Jan van Stripriaan, general manager of Storr's Hall, takes delight in dispelling that popular myth. On my visit to Storr's Hall to see the 'chains', he very kindly took me on a tour of the cellars. They are impressive, but there are no chains! Instead, the cubicles, which are fairly large, are now used for storage. There are hooks on the original walls, but Mr. Stripriaan could not confirm whether they had been a relic of slavery. There are stories of a tunnel with a link to the lake from the mansion.

Took full advantage

Storr's Hall was owned and developed by John Bolton who was born in Ulverston, another town in Cumbria. The son of an apothecary, he became involved in the slave trade and like other businessmen with property in the West Indies, he took full advantage of the thriving slave trade which swelled his fortune.

Bolton, it is said, had a 'family' in Jamaica, but in 1780, he arranged to return to England unknown to his family. "The negress found out" and tried to stop him leaving by holding on to the rowing boat which was to take him to the ship on his way to Liverpool. Bolton ordered one of his crew members to have her fingers chopped off with a machete. A curse was then put on Storr's Hall by a slave girl. It is that "the mansion should never pass from father to son," Mr. Stripriaan says. "Even to this day, it never has."