19 June 1865

Photo by G@ttoGiallo. Creative Commons Licence.

A blog which explores the differences between British and American English, and a photo blog by someone who lives in Paris, don't appear to have much in common. And they don't.

But it was on Britishspeak that I first learnt that 19 June 1865 is the day that slaves in the USA were freed, and it was today that I found the photo above, taken by G@ttoGiallo at the Calabar Museum in Nigeria.

Just looking at that board gives some idea of the enormity of the crime. Those numbers are all people. And we must not forget that, although it takes different forms, slavery and human trafficking still exist in the world today.

Man's inhumanity to man

Many and sharp the num'rous ills
Inwoven with our frame!
More pointed still we make ourselves
Regret, remorse, and shame!
And Man, whose heav'n-erected face
The smiles of love adorn, -
Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn!

Robert Burns

On 25 March, we will be commemorating the bicentenary of the Act of Parliament which abolished the slave trade in the British Empire: an Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Some details of the history can be found in the National Archives website, and more on the government site.

All this week BBC local television is broadcasting programmes showing the local connections with the slave trade - it has touched people all over the country. We are not so far from a large naval base which has a special exhibition "Chasing Freedom" to show the navy's role in combating the slave trade.

Is any of this enough to stop it happening again, albeit in a different form? Modern day slavery remains a huge problem. When will we ever learn?