{"id":435,"date":"2016-11-30T10:50:54","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T10:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crab.port.ac.uk\/?p=435"},"modified":"2016-12-05T14:28:06","modified_gmt":"2016-12-05T14:28:06","slug":"black-preachers-in-georgian-portsmouth-public-lecture-by-dr-ryan-hanley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crab.port.ac.uk\/?p=435","title":{"rendered":"“Black Preachers in Georgian Portsmouth” – Public Lecture by Dr Ryan Hanley"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As part of Black History Month 2016, the Citizenship \u2018Race\u2019 and Belonging Research Network hosted a public lecture on the history of Portsmouth\u2019s black presence in the late 18th<\/sup> and early 19th<\/sup> centuries. The talk, Black Preachers in Georgian Portsmouth<\/em> by Dr Ryan Hanley, a Junior Research Fellow at New College, University of Oxford and was based in part on Ryan\u2019s PhD research as well as new research using local archives and national databases such as the Legacies of British Slave Ownership database (https:\/\/www.ucl.ac.uk\/lbs\/)<\/a>. Ryan and I joined Mason Jordan on Express FM\u2019s \u2018Portsmouth Breakfast\u2019 show on Monday morning to discuss both the Citizenship, \u2018Race\u2019 and Belonging Research Network and Ryan\u2019s research.<\/p>\n

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Ryan and Jessica on Express FM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Around 45 people came to hear Ryan\u2019s lecture, which followed the experiences of three individuals of African descent whilst they were in Portsmouth. The first individual, James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw (c.1705-1775), a freed slave whose autobiography is the first published by an African in Britain. Gronniosaw\u2019s experience of Portsmouth was mixed: he was conned out of his savings by an unscrupulous pub landlady near the dockyard, but he also found a local advocate who tried to help him get his money back. The next individual is probably the better known of the three; the author and abolitionist Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745-1797). Equiano was still enslaved when he first came to Portsmouth, and while his attempts to escape into the city were ultimately dashed, he still saw the town as a potential beacon of freedom. Finally, Ryan discussed the experiences of a lesser known individual, John Jea (b.1773), a black African preacher who gave sermons to Portsmouth\u2019s working class sailors and communities in Portsea, a mere few streets from where this lecture took place.<\/p>\n

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Ryan\u2019s lecture made use of some fantastic local maps, which he obtained in digital form from the University of Portsmouth library (http:\/\/www.port.ac.uk\/library\/infores\/maps\/<\/a>). These visual aids helped show just how \u2018local\u2019 this transatlantic black history is. As the \u2018home of the Royal Navy\u2019 and as an important commercial port at this time, many different people came to Portsmouth, to live, work, and indeed preach their faith. As Ryan argued, Portsmouth was important to Britain\u2019s Black History because it was a naval port; the main reason black people came to Britain during this period was not slavery, but military service. Ryan\u2019s talk illustrated the complexities of the imperial project in terms of the employment opportunities open to people of African descent in British ports at this time, but also the discrimination and mistreatment they faced.<\/p>\n

Ryan\u2019s talk is available as an MP3 download (below).<\/p>\n

AUDIO: ‘Black Preachers in Georgian Portsmouth’ by Ryan Hanley<\/strong>
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