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Thursday 6th October
Photo-Walk
Today we went on a ‘photo walk’ around Glasgow to launch Project 4 for Creative Processes - Response Project.
The Response project involves a walk and talk around Merchant City from CRER
We started at the David Livingstone statue outside Glasgow Cathedral. He is seen as a hero worldwide and no only has a statue, he has a museum dedicated to him in Blantyre, where he was born. However on the panels of the statue there are dedications to bits of work he did, and can be depicted and read as him being the saviour. Himself standing taller than other figures, educating the other figures and we are meant to understand that the other figures are citizens of Africa. Livingstone was a man who supported the idea of abolishing slavery however he was actually dependent on the assistance on the very slave-traders who he wanted to put out of business.
As the tour continued we learned more about the slave trade and how Glasgow was a very popular city for famous families that were well known for enslaving. Families such as The Oswald Family, Richard Oswald was a merchant and slave trader who worked in shipping and trading tobacco. He owned enslaved people in North America, mainly East Florida, Georgia and Virginia. Oswald was involved in the group of enslavers who purchased an island - Bunce Island along the Sierra Leone River which was a trafficking station for the enslaved African people.
Another family was The Buchanan Family which was immediately recognisable because of Buchanan Street and Buchanan Galleries - very popular shopping attraction in Glasgow. Both named after Andrew Buchanan who served as Glasgow’s Lord Provost from 1740-1742. Buchanan was well known as one of Glasgow’s ‘Tobacco Lords’ because of all the money he brought to the city from his tobacco trading. He was one of the first Scots to have tobacco plantations in America, Virginia. Called ‘The New World” where he is thought to have owned up to 300 enslaved.
‘Tobacco Lord’ John Glassford was one of the richest comtemporaries of the era. Owing tobacco plantations in Virginia and Maryland. He collaborated with his brother-in-law Archibald Ingram creating Ingram & Glassford. They were very successful in the field with fleets of vessels and large numbers of tobacco stores across New England. Included in this family portrait was even a faint outline of a black servant which just brings attention back to his involvement within the slave trade.
Another famous landmark with this history is Pollock Country House and Park. The country park and house was built using enslavement money. The Stirling Maxwell’s were one of the biggest landowning families in Glasgow and have a massive fortune that was gained through enslaving, starting in the sugar plantations in Jamaica. Starting with Sir James Maxwell and was inherited to Sir William Stirling and to keep the Maxwell name they adopted the double-barrel ‘Stirling-Maxwell’. The Maxwell’s were given nearly £13,000 after the abolition of slavery in 1834 to compensate for the loss of nearly 700 enslaved.
CONCLUSION
Overall, my eyes were thoroughly opened during this tour and even though it was cut short due to the weather we were invited to join any of the other tours that will occur Sunday’s during Black History Month which I think I will definitely do because I'm interested to see more of the tour. The one thing that I was completely shocked by was the lack of this information I knew. I’ve lived in Glasgow the majority of my life and this was definitely not something I was taught in school - primary or high school which I think is ridiculous considering the crap I learned that I can't even remember or had any effect on the now. I actually really enjoyed doing a bit more research on specific parts of the tour because I felt like I could understand it better and understand what has going on. Although I have a feeling there is definitely portions of this history that I don't think I could stomach just due to the horrific way these innocent people were treated.
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Raise awareness about modern slavery.
Three cartoonists from Portugal, Turkey and Uzbekistan have won top prizes in an international cartoon competition aimed at raising awareness about modern slavery. They were chosen by a panel of judges and the general public, out of 460 entries from cartoonists in 65 countries, who responded to the challenge “What if your pencil was a tool against forced labour?” Portuguese cartoonist, Gargalo Vasco was awarded the top prize.
The competition was organized by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Human Resources Without Borders (RHSF) , in partnership with Cartooning for Peace . It elicited very different cartoons, with powerful messages encouraging reflection.
#cartoonists#Human Resources Without Borders (RHSF)#modern slavery#comtemporary slavery#Cartooning for Peace#International Labour Organization (ILO)
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Eradicate Sex Trafficking!
According to the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, trafficking in persons means the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion for the purpose of exploitation.
Exploitation of persons includes prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. The consent of the person trafficked for exploitation is irrelevant and If the trafficked person is a child, it is a crime even without the use of force. The Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons.
#trafficking in persons#modern slavery#comtemporary slavery#protocol#human trafficking#Exploitation of persons#trafficked persons#Protocol to Prevent Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons#women and children#Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons
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Eradicate Child labour!
Globally, one in ten children works. The majority of the child labour that occurs today is for economic exploitation. That goes against the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which recognizes “the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.”
#economic exploitation#right of the child#hazardous work#child’s education#one in ten children#modern slavery#Convention on the Rights of the Child#comtemporary slavery
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