Harewood 1807

Sunday 1 Apr 2007 - Wednesday 31 Oct 2007
10.30am - 4.00pm

A commemoration and celebration of the abolition of the slave trade.

In exhibitions like this Harewood digs deep into its roots, and indeed where the money came from to build this elaborate stately home. By 1787 the Lascelles family had interests in 47 plantations (sugar) and owned thousands of slaves in Barbados and across the West Indies. The Lascelles weren't unique - most merchants of the period were involved in the slave trade. Find out more via the detailed downloadable leaflet on the 1807 exhibition (the year of the Abolition Act, Slavery was completely abolished in the British Empire in 1838). It's a sobering thought that the opulence of Harewood was funded off the back of the slave trade.

A Harewood 1807 leaflet outlining the Lascelles involvement in the West Indies trade and the 1807 election is available to visitors to the House, and available in a pdf version.

The Harewood West Indies archive will be online via the Borthwick Institute website and on this website. The archive is currently being conserved and digitised through an HLF grant to the Borthwick. The Lascelles family have actively progressed the availability of the material for public access.

In the House there is a small display, an introductory panel and display case about the Lascelles' and the West Indies in the Library on the State floor and books with relevant botanical illustrations in the Spanish Library.

Read the article on 24hr Museum

Read the article from English Heritage

Find out more about Harewood 1807