How should we as Britons remember transatlantic slavery? How has slavery been remembered in the past? This book sets out to answer these questions and, in doing so, traces the way in which British transatlantic slavery has been absorbed into the nation's collective memory.

A separate chapter also considers how Britain's example in abolishing first the slave trade (1807) and then colonial slavery (1833-34) impacted on the rituals of the American anti-slavery movement, and served as a convenient symbol of the potential of freedom in the British West Indies. "Chords of Freedom" offers valuable new insights into the way in which a 'culture of abolition' took root in Britain, and how our views of transatlantic slavery and figures like William Wilberforce have been revised and amended to reflect the changing demands of a series of 'present days'. Its cross-disciplinary approach will appeal to a broad spectrum of specialists, as well as to undergraduates and postgraduates.