By Annabelle Gilmore, Project Co-ordinator
The intention for Black History Month is to emphasise the histories of Black people that have had an impact in Britain. The impact does not always need to be on a grand scale, like the impact of Jocelyn Barrow or Stuart Hall, sometimes simply stating ‘we are here’ and ‘we have always been here’ is enough. Not to mention that Black history is being done at all times of year by so many different communities, individuals, and organisations, including the global majority movement.1 But October is a time for particular focus, to speak even louder about this Black history that is British history. So people don’t forget the achievements of figures like Olaudah Equiano and Claudia Jones, whose experiences helped create lasting impacts today through the Sons of Africa movement and the creation of Notting Hill Carnival.
Whilst these examples include difficulties and hardships, experiences of racism and abusive authority, ultimately, they are stories that are encouraging in Black British history. Archives across the UK hold stories which speak to moments, events, and lives that show the strong and uplifting Black history.2 But what about the past which is not that?
The archives of the Church of England contain records relating to Black History but much of this material does not reflect the aims of Black History Month, particularly this year’s theme which is ‘Standing Firm in Power and Pride’.3 These records are more often connected to the Church of England’s ties to transatlantic enslavement and involve the subjugation and objectification of Black people. The Church of England offered an apology for its role in African chattel enslavement in 2006 and the Church Commissioners for England have stated that they are ‘deeply sorry’ for their links with African chattel enslavement, through their predecessor, Queen Anne’s Bounty. But this does not change the materials in the archive, including the minutes of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG), colonial administrative documents of the Christian Faith Society (CFS), and various pieces of written correspondence to and from the successive Bishops of London, who also had responsibility for the colonies in the West Indies and North America.
These range from clinical observances over the catechism and baptism of free and enslaved Black people, the management of the SPG’s plantations and enslaved people in Barbados, and legally required documents which speak about enslaved people as property. Very few are written by a Black person. The prominent example is a plea from an anonymous enslaved person in Virginia in 1723 (FP XVII ff. 167-168) who asked the Bishop of London for freedom. Their letter featured in the exhibition ‘Enslavement: Voices from the Archives’.
The content of this letter is sad, the writer fears to pen their name in case of the consequences if they are caught, they state they are enslaved by their brother, and they note they can only snatch moments of time to write this short three-page letter because of the conditions they live in. And so arises the issue of working within the archive at Lambeth Palace Library with the goal to be uplifting for Black History Month. The material is extremely relevant and important to telling Black History. It provides a wealth of information on how African and African-descended people were treated in the British colonies with particular reference to religion. When exploring the archive for Black histories in connection with the Church of England, these objectifications, and de-humanisations are prominent and loom large in reading the archival material. On one level, whilst they provide that evidence of life, the tones used to describe day-to-day events dismiss the trauma experienced by Black people and potentially re-inflict that violence.
In many cases the objectification of Black people is plainly visible but alongside this same objectification is the need from the clergy to Christianise the ‘heathen’ population. Heathen is not used exclusively for Black people, it is also used to describe the Indigenous population in America, whilst ‘dissenter’ is used to describe people of other Christian churches, including Baptists, Moravians, and Quakers. The use of heathen does suggest a rather racialised descriptor for any person who doesn’t fit within the European Christian ideal, leading to an othered status on top of the objectification already experienced, particularly by enslaved people.4 How can this be viewed through a lens that is uplifting for Black History month?
Whilst work is still ongoing, the records in the archive are, for the most part, not overtly traumatic. There are some explicit references to acts of physical violence, but much of the language speaks to Christianising done to a collective people, or is in the language of encouragement when catechising has been successful. But the little cumulative traumas of enslavement paint a much larger picture of Black history within the Church of England. References to poor food provisions and the expressed views of the clergy towards African beliefs carried over to the British colonies by the enslaved people swell into a storm of dark clouds.
How then can the Black history in the stacks of Lambeth Palace Library be used to stand firm in power and pride?
By using the knowledge of this history to begin a process of healing. An acknowledgment of these histories in the archive has been the first step to working towards the Church of England recognising its role in the history of enslavement. Ensuring that the records are accessible to the public, in a format that recognises the traumas that were inflicted and still could be inflicted by reading these histories, gives an opportunity to gain power from that knowledge and understanding of the history. With that knowledge is the ability to speak to these events and reconcile them with the present.
Moreover, there is opportunity to uplift those Black lives that are evident in the stacks. This may be through un-homogenising the Black people who have been described in the records, seeking to view people as complex individuals whose lives had been purposefully flattened by the authors of the archive. Finally, where we see the voice of Black individuals in the record, like the anonymous Virginian, do not only see a victim of enslavement but see the power of this person who, against the odds, learned to write and petitioned to the high authority of the Bishop to make their case. If we imagine this Black Virginian stealing away moments to write this plea, who used their understanding of the Bible to make their case, we can build an idea of who they might be and give space for both the trauma and for the power it took to write that letter.
- Some examples include Black History Walks; Young Historians Project; Black History Studies; The Investigator ↩︎
- Black Cultural Archives; George Padmore Institute ↩︎
- Black History Month 2025 ↩︎
- See Kathryn Gin Lum, Heathen: Religion and Race in American History, (Harvard University Press, 2024) ↩︎
A Monument of Fame 