Coming soon!!! A new short film imagining an exciting encounter between two famed Georgian writers, both with major anniversaries in 2023. Developed with the kind support of BAAS and the University of Greenwich.
Quobna Ottobah Cugoano was (like Phillis) trafficked into slavery as a child, and sent to work on a plantation in Grenada and bought by a merchant to England where he gained his freedom in 1772. He wrote a book, Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery, published in 1787. His baptism, in 1773, was an act which promised his ongoing freedom; however he didn’t live long enough to see slavery abolished by the UK Parliament. With his exact dates of birth and death unknown, Cugoano’s baptism on 20 August 1773 at St James’s is the only place and date that is clearly and verifiably part of his story. (from Cuguano 250 website)
Learn more about this key figure in Black British history and his baptism at St James’s Church 250 years ago
