‘Richer Histories: Black British Lives in the 18th Century’ at the Foundling Museum

Wednesday 8th February 2023, 19:00-20:00.

Richer Histories is an in-person panel discussion about the presence and diverse experiences of Black people in Georgian Britain, organised by and held at the Foundling Museum in London. By the late eighteenth century, it is estimated over 15,000 Black people lived in Britain – the result of free and forced migrations; the transatlantic slave trade and oppressive colonial activities.

Yet the intricacies of their lives and achievements, beliefs and attitudes, and the spaces that ordinary Black people lived and worked in, remain obscured. To mark Black History Month, this panel discussion will reveal how the presence and diverse experiences of Black people in Georgian Britain began to shape this country into the multicultural place it is today.

Dr Caroline Bressey, Reader in Cultural and Historical Geography at UCL along with an expert panel including Associate Professor Dr Meleisa Ono-George (University of Oxford), Montaz Marche (University of Birmingham) and Dr José Lingna Nafafe (University of Bristol), will delve into this rich and important history.