Anti-slavery campaigning in Wakefield

(Originally posted 21 October 2022)

In the mid-1800s Wakefield was very active in anti-slavery campaigning. Campaigners promoted human rights and organised meetings and lectures across the district.

Please note: an historical term used to describe Black people is used in the second leaflet. This is not language that is to be used or condoned today.

Frederick Douglass, 1847

Frederick Douglass (1818? - 1895) was an anti-slavery campaigner and social reformer. He had escaped slavery himself. Douglass dedicated his life to campaigning against the practice and sharing his experiences. Douglass became the first Black U.S. Marshal. He is famous for his first autobiography 'Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself'.

Douglass gave a talk at the Corn Exchange in Wakefield on 15 January 1947. You can read his full speech on Newspapers.com.

Leaflet advertising an anti-slavery meeting, which reads: What ho! our countrymen in chains! The whip on woman's shrinking flesh! Our soil still reddening with the stains, Caught from her scourging, warm and fresh! What! mothers from their children riven? What! God's own image bought and sold! American's to market driven, And barter'd, as the brute, for gold! (Whittier). Frederick Douglass, recently a slave in the United States, now one of the most talented Orators in the Cause of Emancipation, will, in connection with other Members of the Anti-Slavery League, address a Public Meeting, to be held in the Corn Exchange, Wakefield, on the Evening of Friday next, the 15th instant. Chair to be taken at half-past Seven o'Clock. Reserved seats, sixpence. Admission, to the body of the hall, free. Wakefield, January 9th 1947. Printed by Nichols & Sons, Printers, Northgate, Wakefield.

A leaflet advertising Frederick Douglass's talk

William Howard Day, 1860

This leaflet advertises a lecture given by William Howard Day. It was in the Music Saloon on Wood Street in Wakefield in December 1860.

Day (1825-1900) was born in New York City. He was the only Black graduate from Oberlin College in 1847. He also received his M.A. there in 1859. He was an abolitionist, editor, publisher, printer, teacher, lecturer, civic leader and clergyman.