Names of celebrated figures in history were often given to the enslaved as a form of ridicule. Scipio Africanus, the name of a celebrated Roman general, was given to a young African servant buried in Henbury, Bristol, in 1720. Despite the very grand gravestones erected by his master, the Earl of Suffolk and Bradon, there is no record of his burial in the church register. From the inscriptions we know that Scipio converted to Christianity and that he was highly regarded by his owners.
© Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives
Accession reference: Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives by permission of the Vicar and Churchwardens of St Mary, Henbury
Themes
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Trade and Commerce
Understand how the demand for luxury goods and the Industrial Revolution fuelled the transatlantic slave trade, and how the British…
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Plantation Conditions
Understand the harshness of daily life on the plantations, the oppression used to exert control, and the profits…
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The Campaign for Abolition
Understand the forces that led to abolition, the resistance and rebellion on the part of the enslaved, and the…
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Emancipation
Understand how the 1807 Abolition Act ended the British involvement in the slave trade but not slavery, how British women pushed for full…