Virtual Black American Literary Tour of London

A virtual walking tour of central London highlighting sites where Black American freedom fighters wrote or published their autobiographies!
About this Event

Welcome to my VIRTUAL tour of Black Abolitionist London!

This tour completely focuses on Black Literary London. During the nineteenth century, African Americans and survivors of slavery wrote about their experiences in autobiographical narratives, letters and pamphlets. Black activists published their life histories in Britain and Ireland too, selling thousands of copies – often more than the famous Victorian authors we know about today. In this tour, we’ll visit some key locations in London where some of these important radical and abolitionist documents were published, and learn about the history of survivors writing themselves into history.

African American activists travelled to the British Isles during the c19th to educate audiences about the brutalities of slavery, to write and publish their narratives, raise money to legally purchase themselves or family members, or to settle and work here. In their radical and politicised journeys of freedom, they travelled thousands of miles to give lectures in large cities like London and Edinburgh, to small villages like Bakewell, Keswick and Pembroke.

Whilst some of the buildings visited by these individuals do not remain, it is impossible to deny that we walk past important Black history sites on a daily basis, without realising the impact these men and women had on British society.

Here are the links to my other tours:

Black Abolitionist Virtual Walking Tour: https://virtualblackabolitionisttour.eventbrite.co.uk

Black Literary London Virtual Walking Tour: https://virtualblackliterarytouroflondon.eventbrite.co.uk

Black American Women Virtual Walking Tour: https://virtualblackamericanwomentour.eventbrite.co.uk

Frederick Douglass in Britain and Ireland Virtual Walking Tour: https://virtualtourfrederickdouglassinbritainandireland.eventbrite.co.uk

Please keep an eye on your email - half an hour before the tour starts, I'll send around a Zoom link and password. Depending on numbers, it will be best to mute yourself while on the call, and after every "virtual stop" if someone wants to ask a question, raise your hand / ask it through the comment box.

Any questions? Contact me at [email protected], and if you want to learn more about this topic, please visit my websites www.frederickdouglassinbritain.com (my mapping project) and also https://blackabolitionistwalkingtours.wordpress.com