The impact of Britain's colonial past on Barking's heritage by Simone Panayi

Tucked away in the tiny print of Victorian newspapers is a local story that should be shared this Black History Month and beyond – an incredible and inspirational story of transcending the suffering of slavery, to fight for freedom and equality. In October 1888, Revered W B Brown, and his wife, were on a lecture tour entitled, ‘Scenes in Slave Land’. They had travelled from Baltimore, in America, to speak out against slavery and addressed Barking Baptists at a temporary Baptist Chapel on Ripple Road (not the earlier chapel on Queen’s Road, sketched by Frogley, or the beautiful Tabernacle was built in 1893).

This event was recorded in the Barking, East Ham & Ilford Advertiser and the Hendon and Finchley Times also covered the lecture in great detail, when it was delivered at Victoria Hall, enabling us to find out more about this intriguing visitor.

Reverend Brown was born the son of a 'free father' and a 'slave mother' and therefore forced to ‘scare crows’ for ‘his owner’, from the age of eight. He described how he was ‘always longing to escape’ and eventually took that perilous risk… Unfortunately he was recaptured and resold in Baltimore market… Twice, during the American Civil War he fled to the north to join the Union Army in order to fight for the ending of slavery in the United States, and in 1863 he was with that army when, ‘the guns boomed out’ to celebrate the emancipation proclamation (freedom for all slaves) and he shared, ‘…with 4,500,000 of his race, the joy of liberty’. This was written into the US Constitution two years later. ‘Freed themselves’, the couple, ‘longed and laboured for the freedom of their race in…Africa,’ where slavery still persisted, in 1888.

The transatlantic slave trade had begun several hundred years earlier - taken from Africa, by British and European traders, the captives were exploited for their labour in the ‘new world’ plantations, across the Americas and Caribbean islands. They were enslaved to produce valuable commodities, for their owners, such as rum, sugar, tobacco, and cotton. Fortunately for Barking its colonial legacy does not include any controversial statues or grand buildings constructed from the profits of the slave trade, by wealthy traders, merchants, bankers, investors or land owners in the colonies, who had benefited from enslaving others. Rather it can be proud of its links with abolition and those who opposed slavery and human trafficking.

One of the first religious groups to challenge the existence of slavery were the Quakers - like the many Baptists, Methodists (including founder John Wesley, who visited Barking in 1783 & 84) and other non-conformist Christians, including the famous Anglican abolitionist, William Wilberforce, who followed in their footsteps, the Quakers argued that all people were born equal - ‘God’s light is within everyone…’ They therefore allowed women to preach, promoted pacifism, and denounced slavery.

The Religious Society of Friends was founded in 1652, by George Fox. Quakers (as they were known) were recorded in Barking soon after. They purchased half an acre of orchard here in 1672, to use as a burial ground and the following year they bought Tate’s Place (opposite), where the Tudor hall could be used for gatherings of friends and worship. One of the Barking Quakers, William Mead, became a good friend of Fox and was also imprisoned for his beliefs, with William Penn - who later founded Pennsylvania as a Quaker state (opposed to slavery) in America. Many escaped and rescued slaves found refuge there, including the incredible Harriet Tubman. The picture below shows Mead and Penn's trial where the jury controversially found the Quakers 'not guilty' against the King's counsel, they were released from prison but still fined for their religious practices. To find out more see: https://www.lauderdalehouse.org.uk/about-us/our-history/william-mead

By 1758 the Quakers were actively campaigning to abolish slavery, one of their many advocates was Elizabeth Fry. She had eleven children, lived in Newham for 35 years and holidayed in Dagenham. Mrs Fry became a world-famous Prison Reformer. Queen Victoria was a great admirer of her achievements, and her face previously graced the Bank of England £5 note (2002-2017)… She was buried in Barking’s Quaker cemetery (between North Street and Whiting Avenue) in 1845, her remains still lie there and a memorial explains more about her achievements.

In 1908 a new Friends’ Meeting House was built on the site of the previous Tudor hall, and one of the paneled, rooms is said to still exist within it… This building was purchased by Barking’s Sikh community in 1971, to become the Singh Saba, which will be celebrating fifty years in Barking next year. They share some views on God, with the Quakers who were here before them - the Guru Granth Sahib says, "There is no other like the merciful God. He is contained deep within each and every one." The crowning glory for their Barking anniversary, will be the new Gurdwara, on Gurdwara Way, built in the style of its region of origin – the Punjab, where Guru Nanak built the first one in 1521-2, not long before Tate’s Place was built on the site of the previous Barking Gurdwara, at the time of King James I...

Barking’s Indian connections date back to at least 1866, when the great Jute works was opened in Fisher Street (now Abbey Road) by Thomas Duff. At the time it was the largest in the world! There were over 1,000 workers there, mainly women and children, creating jute bags and sacks. Mr Howe, of Barking, explained in 1891, ‘the fibre of raw jute is obtained chiefly from British India…its native place’. He believed it was imported to the UK from the 1820s and including the Daisee kind from the Calcutta area. Meanwhile much of the female labour force was imported, from Ireland, as ‘spinners’ and Dundee in Scotland, as ‘weavers’. In 1935 Mrs Storey recalled memories from her childhood, including the sound of the workers’ clogs on the cobbles to and from work. When ‘at liberty [the women] wore flounced and highly coloured dresses, braided and coiled hair, and were hatless and shawled.’ The female weavers’ salaries were, ‘as much as many of the men’ – a rare situation at the time. A local church formed a ‘Jute girls distress fund’ in 1886 when the factory closed for two years during an economic depression. It did reopen but finally closed for good in 1891. Strikes and factory laws gradually increased the wages and improved the conditions of UK workers but the Barking works could no longer compete with the factories opening in India, where the sacks were produced far more cheaply, by the end of the Victorian Era. William Warne took over the factory making medical products and the insides of footballs, among other things, from natural rubber (caoutchouc) – which was also imported from India!

Mahatma Gandhi (pictured in a portrait from Valence House Museum's collection) visited Kingsley Hall, in Barking, in 1931, speaking up for the civil liberties of disadvantaged groups and calling for Indian Independence from the British Empire, which was eventually achieved in 1947, when it became a former colony like the American states, Canada, and Australia, along with Pakistan. Barking’s Al Medina Mosque has served the local Muslim community here for over thirty years now and is recognised as a ‘beacon mosque’.

Many other countries achieved their independence, during the post war era, including, Sri Lanka in 1948, Ghana in 1957, Cyprus in 1962, Jamaica and Uganda in 1962, Barbados in 1966, to name a few. Nigeria is celebrating sixty years of Independence from the British empire this month, and Barking residents of Nigerian heritage form one largest ethnic communities in the borough. A lasting legacy of British colonial history, in Barking, has been the settlement of peoples from across the former colonies. Like the European settlers – including, pre-historic tribes, Germanic Saxons, Scandinavian Vikings, French Normans and Jewish refugees – who came before them, they bring their colourful culture, customs and beliefs to the evolving heritage of the local area.

About thirty years after Reverend Brown gave his emotional lecture at the Baptist Chapel, Barking welcomed another significant visitor of African Heritage - he did not arrive to preach, but to play football, for Barking FC. Jack Leslie performed with impressive skill too, it’s worth remembering that the father of Barking’s current club president, Dave Blewitt, described Jack as, ‘the greatest player he had ever seen play for Barking in his 60 plus years of watching the Blues.’ In 1925 Jack was born in Canning Town to an English mother and Jamaican father. After playing for Barking he was a successful striker for third division Plymouth Argyle, with an impressive scoring record, and was named in the England squad for an international match against Ireland. He would have been the first black England player, 53 years before Viv Anderson… Yet his name mysteriously disappeared from the team sheet… See the B&D Post for more information and the local campaign for a statue of him..

Jack Leslie recovered from the disappointment and scored over a hundred goals in his career. After his retirement, he worked at West Ham for many years, and one of the mangers he worked with, Ron Greenwood, was the first to finally select a black player when he became England manger; perhaps Leslie’s personal story played a part in his ground breaking decision – more than half a century later than it should have happened…

Although the slave trade was abolished by the UK government in 1807 and slavery outlawed across the British empire in 1834, the battle against racial prejudice has courageously continued for people of African heritage in the UK, and the demand for equal rights and opportunities for all underprivileged and minority groups, will carry on into the future.

We welcome people of every heritage to join our heritage volunteers for this local project, researching and celebrating Barking's past and evolving cultural heritage.