Sophie Oldham

• BA (Hons) Archaeology
• Remembering the Enslaved at Home: Slave Burials in Britain from 1701 to 1868

Slave burials have been a major focus of historical and archaeological research in the Caribbean and North America, but comparatively little work has been undertaken on the graves of enslaved individuals who died in Britain. This project has three aims. First, to quantify the number of enslaved individuals whose graves survive in Britain today; second, to ask what the imagery and wording on these memorials reveal concerning contemporary attitudes to the slave trade, and third to examine the ‘afterlife’ of these memorials as sites of memory, from the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 to the present day. The outcome of this research has led to the creation of a database which lists all of the slave graves that have been identified, a map illustrating the distribution of these graves across Britain and an analysis of how these graves are remembered and engaged with in today’s society.

Funding source: Newcastle University

Supervisor: Dr Jane Webster