Black History Month

October is ‘Black History month’ allowing a focus on resources related to Black History – see the  Black History Month Scotland  site for information  relating to Scotland,  the UK Black History Month website  and  have a look at this clip on ‘The Social ‘ from BBC Scotland, introducing ‘Black History month’.

Online University of Dundee events for October 2021 are listed on this page – including Dr. Susan Mains  on ‘ Scotland’s colonial geographies and the country’s role in the slave trade’, as well as more recent UK-Caribbean connections, and Matthew Jarron (Curator, University of Dundee Museums) on ‘Black Hollywood’.

Other  online events are  bookable via the downloadable  programme on the Black History month Scotland website –  Thursday 7th October 2021 ‘Emancipated African Children in Scotland’, some Scottish events  are also listed  via the National Listings  page  ( filter by location) on the Black History month website.  On 31st October, there’s a ticketed webinar  ‘Black History of the British isles: Scotland, Ireland, Wales, hosted by Black History Studies.

Other Scottish Pages

The Scottish History Society has a page ‘Scotland and Black slavery to 1833‘ with links to further reading on the slave trade and abolition, and the National Library of Scotland (NLS)  has a page on their resources – including manuscripts- relating to Scotland and the Slave Trade.  To quote from the section ‘Slavery in Scotland’ on this  page “It did not become illegal to own a slave in Scotland until 1788”. “Scottish newspapers such as the  ‘Edinburgh Evening Courant‘ and the ‘Caledonian Mercury‘ from the 1740’s to the 1770’s carried adverts offering ‘slaves for sale’, or rewards for the capture of escaped slaves”. They show  an advert from the Edinburgh Advertiser, 20 January 1769 headed “To be DISPOSED OF, A handsome Black-Boy, about 13 years of age” on the page Slave advert‘ (NLS)

University of Dundee

So,  where does the University of Dundee fit in, in terms of Black History sources?  The University of Dundee  was founded as ‘University College Dundee’ in 1881, then  affiliated with the University of St. Andrews in the 1890’s.  In 1954 it became Queen College Dundee, in 1967,  became independent of St. Andrews as the University of Dundee.   University of Dundee Archive Services hold the archives of University College Dundee (1882-1954) , as well as material from 1967- . Other records (1871-1953, also 1953-67) are held at the University of  St. Andrews.   If you’re interested in the University of Dundee Archives, contact details are on the Archive Services page.

 

 

University of Dundee Library Resources

The History Subject Guide will give you an overview of history sources for your research, including journals and indexes.  Below are some media  resources we have which can be used as sources of evidence for  Black History in Scotland/the UK – find them on the A-Z of Library resources , or in the History Subject Guide

Media Resources

Box of Broadcasts (BoB)  – a chance to look at TV & radio programmes on Black History,  but also to record contemporary material from drama, (e.g. Small Axe, 2020)  news, science  & cultural programmes, on TV and radio,  creating playlists and clips that can be used in presentations or assignments.   See this playlist  Black & British/Scottish– (UoD  Login required )

Newspaper Archives

NEXIS

UK (and NI)  national and local newspapers  (and international newspapers) – search the Mail online, Independent, Guardian, Times Telegraph, Scottish Mail on Sunday, Scotsman, The Herald  for e.g. ‘Black Lives matter’.  It also includes smaller local papers.

Times & Scotsman Digital archives

The Times Digital Archive (1785-2012), and the Scotsman Digital archive (1817-1950) allow you to search and browse amongst contemporary news reports. The results are presented as a facsimile of the original newspaper page.  Both the Times and the Scotsman  will cover the Abolition of the Slave Trade  Act (1807) and the Abolition of Slavery  Act (1833),  issues to do with the British Empire, trade.

 

 


Posted

in

,

by

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Share via
Copy link