Surrey Quakers in Black History Month
Surrey Quakers feature in an archive collection exploring the local abolition movement
Surrey Quakers feature in an archive collection exploring the local abolition movement to celebrate Black History Month. The material was compiled by the Surrey Heritage team as part of its ‘Marvel of the Month’ collection for the Surrey History Centre. The October archives explore Surrey’s contribution to the campaign against Britain’s slave trade in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century. Surrey Quakers feature alongside MP Henry Drummond and Guildford Anti-Slavery Committee, and political reformer Stephen Lushington.
‘In 1787 a small, mainly Quaker group formed The Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade which was supported by Quaker Meetings, including those at Capel, Charlwood, Dorking, Reigate, Godalming and Guildford,’ the Surrey History Centre page on the Surrey County Council website reads.
‘Directives from the Yearly and Quarterly Meetings gave clear instruction for members to campaign for abolition and stand firm against the abhorrent trade. This sentiment is evident from surviving papers in the minutes of Godalming Society of Friends Monthly Meeting dated 1784, and the Sussex and Surrey Quarterly Meeting of 1821.’
Debby Flack, clerk of Godalming Meeting, told the Friend that she was pleased that the work of these historic Friends was being remembered. ‘I’m not sure how much we know about the Meeting’s history in this area. It’s good to know that Quakers are still here working for peace and justice, and it’s so important that their contribution is still being recognised. We’re doing a lot of focus on racism at the moment in the Meeting. I’m giving a talk on 14 October. My parents were part of the Windrush generation.’
Surrey Heritage has marked Black History Month for twenty years but says ‘the seismic impact of the Black Lives Matter movement this year reinforces the importance not only to celebrate the lives and achievements of Surrey’s Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people but to reveal and acknowledge how these people were treated in the past.’
