October is Black History Month in the UK & this year’s theme has been “Salute Our Sisters”:
“Black women have been at the heart of social justice movements throughout history, courageously battling oppression and advocating for change. However, their accomplishments have frequently been neglected or forgotten. Black History Month 2023 offers a significant opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the outstanding achievements of black women by focusing on honouring the matriarchs of movements and saluting our sisters.”
From the Black History Month UK website – read more about the theme there & about the history of this month here.
Scotland has much more Black history than many realise. For example, did you know that a Black woman fighting for the right to have her marriage recognised ended up causing a change in Scots Law, defining the requirements of ‘marriage by cohabitation with habit and repute’? Read Dorothea’s fascinating story on The Historic Environment Scotland website. (This type of marriage was recognised right up until 2006 as a form of ‘irregular marriage’ – you can read a bit more about the history of marriage in Scotland in this previous article on Handfasting) 🏴
I thought I’d also highlight some of the posts shared on Facebook this month here too, as well as some resources I’ve been adding to here that are available year round ⬇️
📺 Watch Bruce Fummey, who was invited to speak at University of Aberdeen earlier this month, teach us about just how entangled the history of slavery is with our lives in Scotland on YouTube.
💻 Have a look at OnFife’s fab webpages highlighting local Black history as well as general resources, books etc on their website.
📜 Historic Environment Scotland have also got many more brilliant articles highlighting various lesser known stories from Black history in Scotland, such as: “The Moorish Lassies”, Peter Burnet (you can also watch a short film about his life in Paisley on Vimeo) & “The More Taubronar”.
🎧 The brilliant Heal & Harrow Podcast also did a brilliant episode featuring a woman called “Doll” – a different Doll from the mother of the Dorothea mentioned earlier – this character was inspired by another real, documented enslaved woman – listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.
🐍 You can then contrast the above story with that of Eliza, the free daughter of a Scottish enslaver & either the descendant of enslaved people or an enslaved woman, who was brought back to Scotland along with her brother (but not her mother) – find out more about her here.
📚 Lastly, for more stories & resources have a look at the ‘Scotland’s Role in the British Empire & the Slave Trade’ section of the Resource Pages & the ‘Empire & Slavery’ topic tag 🏷️
📸 Featured Photo credit: Pexel
Scottish history, archaeology, folklore & more~ 