Are there any projects going on at the moment about British funeral monuments/ epitaphs and slavery? The reason I ask is that earlier this summer I was working on an article about 18th-century epitaphs when one in particular caught my eye. Here it is...

It comes from vol 1 of John Le Neve's collection of printed epitaphs, Monumenta Anglicana (1717-19), and this image is taken from @ExploreWellcome's digitisation: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/cdgxe4fc/items?canvas=110&langCode=eng&sierraId=b30530222-0

The epitaph commemorates Spencer Broughton, who died in February 1702/3 having had two careers: first, in the army of King William III; second, as governor of Cabo Corso Castle.

Cabo Corso, also known as Cape Coast Castle, was a fortress used by the Royal African Company to imprison African people before they were trafficked as slaves to British plantations in the Americas. Here's an image of it from the Slavery Images project: http://slaveryimages.org/s/slaveryimages/item/607

Broughton didn’t make it to Cabo Corso Castle, and he never took up his post as Governor. A passenger list for the Royal Africa, the ship on which he travelled, notes that the ship arrived on 1 May – but Broughton had died near Madeira on 1 Feb. [National Archives T70/1436 fol18]

All the more extraordinary, then, almost half of the monument is given over to celebrating Broughton’s connections with the slave trade – which his brothers, who set up the monument, describe as ‘ye service of his Country’.

I came across this monument shortly after Edward Colston’s statue had been toppled in Bristol, and just after Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, announced a review of monuments with connections to the slave trade in English cathedrals: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/26/church-of-england-justin-welby-white-jesus-black-lives-matter

I wondered whether Spencer Broughton’s monument was still in existence and, if so, whether the priest and congregation at the church were aware of its connections to slavery. Would a modern audience understand the monument’s references to the R. A. C. and Cabo Corso Castle?

I sent a message to the priest at Broughton St. Peter’s, who emailed back immediately with an image of the memorial – an elaborate monument by the eminent mason, Edward Stanton. Carved military equipment and a huge ship represent Broughton’s various careers. [Image by L. Butter]

The priest at St Peter’s told me that she had had no idea about Broughton’s connections to the slave trade, and that she was horrified to learn about them. We worked together to make a notice for the church to help visitors understand the context for this monument.

It’s a tiny gesture in the face of such appalling inhumanity, but it is something practical that can be done to acknowledge the injustices of colonialism and slavery and their enduring impact upon our society today. It made me wonder what other work is going on in this area.

What interests me about Broughton's monument is that it reminds us that involvement in the slave trade wasn't just limited to slave owners, like those recorded in the UCL Legacies of British Slave-ownership project: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/