FRUITS OF THE MARZION QUAKER LIBRARY (9) - KATE THOMAS (2022) 'FALMOUTH AND THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE' AND THREE OTHER GEMS

 I discovered Kate Thomas's booklet on Monday this week in the course of labelling books on the shelves of our library. The full title is 'Collective Amnesia: Falmouth and the Transatlantic Slave Trade' and somehow this booklet and its subject matter had remained unknown to me. 

I shall make contact with Falmouth Quakers and seek more information and understanding about the campaign to raise awareness of the evident racism . One way forward is to move from prominence the wall monument to a slave trader in the Anglican church in Falmouth, adding detail beside it that reveals the truth about Thomas Corker's role in the slave trade. Online, I have found that the latest reference to such a campaign is in 2022; the Church of England hierarchy and bureaucracy, whilst in agreement that action needs to be taken, seem to be stalling further

action. Perhaps I lack the full updates but two years have passed since the campaign was last reported in action and the matters seems unresolved. That can't be right. 

I did make contact with the Falmouth Quakers the next day and I heard back that the wall monument was last seen in 2023 with a covering over it. The Church of England seems to be waiting on a national resolution of this matter. Too slow, methinks. 

The memorial to Thomas Corker in the Falmouth parish church - the text is in Latin; the translation is below.

No direct mention here of Thomas Corker's role in the slave trade - instead he is portrayed as a friend to Africans.

Kate Thomas' booklet is an important read. The section headings give a good flavour of the contents:

• Legalised Mass-Human Trafficking
• Christian Supremacy - White Supremacy
• Resistance and Rebellions in the Caribbean
• Collective Amnesia: Falmouth
• Slave Trade Legacies
• Beneficiaries: The Monarchy, The Drax Family and The Church of England
• Reparations - Caricom [Caribbean Community] Ten Point Plan for Reparatory Justice 
• Where do we go from here? Remove the Slave Trader Memorial from King Charles Church in Falmouth, UK

My primary focus here has been shaped by my discovery of Kate Thomas' booklet on Monday but I had been planning a blogpost that would focus on the first three books I borrowed from the Marazion Quaker library back in the autumn of last year and have only now read well enough to comment further. Let me say straightaway that I had the good fortune to find three books that do indeed deserve a warm recommendation to borrow and read. Here they are:

• George Fox and the Quakers (1991) by Cecil W. Sharman 
• Essays in Radical Quakerism (2002) by David Boulton
• The Quaker Tapestry (1990) by Ormerod Greenwood

Cecil Sharman's work has been reviewed by Exeter Quakers in 2020:

Sharman’s history orientates more towards a chronology of key events in Fox’s life, placing these contextually within their historical setting. Additionally he draws upon anecdotal and other contemporary sources to draw a portrait of Fox's personality and his intense sense of mission.(  )

 

ExeterQuakers | Aug 14, 2020 |  

That seems about right. Sharman begins with an opening chapter that explores The National Scene in which some of the extraordinary historical context for George Fox's life, ideas and spiritual development are outlined. My A-level studies were focused on the 17th century and my guide was the late Master of Balliol College, Oxford - Christopher Hill - a Marxist historian and author of 'The Century of Revolution'. I have long known just how extraordinary it must have been to be alive in that mid-century period of the English Civil War. George Fox was a radical mystic who proved, thank goodness, a very hard nut for the Establishment of Church and State to crack. 

Sharman is a good historian who has recorded a wealth of detail that helps flesh out the remarkable character of George Fox and other early Quakers. I have decided to buy my own copy and will learn more over time. He provides some illuminating detail on George Fox's time in Barbados and his family links to the slave trade (a step-daughter was married to a slave owner).  Kate Thomas in her booklet (see above) references Fox's visit to Barbados 'where he advocated better treatment of slaves and a Christian education to teach them to obey their masters. Not the abolition of slavery.' (p.16) This matter is an important issue for Quakers to know about and reflect upon. It may be worth your while having a read of my library blogpost on David Olusoga's book: 'Black and British' to get more background - see Rob Donovan - Author: FRUITS OF THE MARAZION QUAKER LIBRARY - DAVID OLUSOGA (2020) 'BLACK AND BRITISH - A SHORT, ESSENTIAL HISTORY'

Essays in Radical Quakerism by David Boulton is full of riches. David is a member of the Quaker Universalist Group (QUG); a Quaker attender and a registered Humanist. QUG's foundation belief is that spiritual understanding is accessible to everyone of any religion or none, and that no one person can claim to have a final revelation or monopoly of truth. His book brings together 15 articles he has published before. It covers such issues as mysticism, the historical Jesus, and the nature of religious experience in our secular postmodern age. Here is a taste of the originality and insight in these essays: 

'By denying biblical infallibility and inventing new metaphors for Jesus as mystery, Quakers seemed to be departing from the very essence of Protestant faith. Indeed, the widespread fear that Quakers were secret papal agents, Jesuits in disguise, which seems so laughable today, is suddenly explicable when we understand it in these terms... Had not [Roman Catholic] priests placed the mystery of elaborate symbolism over the history as plainly related in the bible?' (p.48)

I have also decided to buy David Boulton's book, second-hand, for further reading.

The Quaker Tapestry with its text by Ormerod Greenwood is a magnificent achievement. The Tapestry itself is a celebration of three hundred years of Quaker experience and spiritual insights - 75 of the panels in the Tapestry are illustrated in the book; more than 2,000 people in eight countries have played a part in its creation. It is indeed, as intended, a modern Bayeux Tapestry. 

Here, to whet your appetite, are the thirteen Chapter headings:

1. The Quaker Context
2. How Quakerism Began
3. Publishers of Truth
4. 'Keep Up Your Meetings'
5. Two Quaker Thinkers: Penn and Bellers
6. John Woolman and the Slave Question
7. Quakers in Industry
8. Quaker Scientists and Doctors
9. Newgate, Muscovy and the South Seas
10. A Witness for Peace
11. Quaker Relief
12. The Gospel Must Be Social
13. Quakers as a World Family 

Irresistible! I need my own copy to savour - and it cost less than £7, with postage!