Elizabeth Dawson and Sarah Parker Remond
In the 19th century, Wakefield was among several cities in the UK where anti-slavery movements gained significant ground.
Wakefield is notable for incredible abolitionist campaigners like Elizabeth Dawson and Ann Hurst. Wakefield also saw visits from luminaries of the abolitionist cause such as Frederick Douglass and Sarah Parker Remond who used their lived experience and personal stories to rally against the enslavement of Black and indigenous peoples.
Elizabeth Dawson and Sarah Parker Remond are Numbers 17 and 18 in our quest for #BluePlaqueParity.
Elizabeth Dawson Broadsheets
Creative Response: The Abolitionists Films
As part of our Abolitionists strand we have pinpointed a handful of landmark women who have been airbrushed from much of our history but who were pivotal to abolitionism advocacy in Wakefield.
Below, see our film featuring Elizabeth Dawson:
Ahead of the third chapter of the Abolitionists featuring speaker Sarah Parker Remond, which was released on International Women’s Day 2022, we conducted an interview between writer Emma Wise and actor Jemma Thompson who plays Sarah Parker Remond. Jemma reflects on the role, and her personal connections to the anti-slavery movement and the horrors of enslavement:
And below you can find the Abolotionists Chapter III:
Blue Plaque Unveiling
We unveiled Elizabeth Dawson and Sarah Parker Remond’s blue plaque at a ceremony at Unity Hall as the culmination of our Heritage Action Zone weekend in September, 2021
