Black History Month: Literary Archaeology – What was it like to be enslaved?

Popular films such as 12 Years a Slave, based on Solomon Northup’s memoir, give us some idea about the lives of slaves in the United States.

But there are few written accounts about the lives of enslaved people in the Caribbean and Africa.

This discussion will consider how, in the absence of written accounts, a group of contemporary writers have attempted to reconstruct the lives of the enslaved using archaeological evidence as a starting point.

The discussion will open and close with a reading of new work by two writers.

Part of Black History Month. This event is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

 

M Shed would like to thank Black History Month events sponsor: Lloyds Banking Group.