MAY SUMBWANYAMBE AND DR PEGGY BRUNACHE
in conversation

Award-winning playwright May Sumbwanyambe and Dr Peggy Brunache, lecturer on the history of Atlantic slavery at the University of Glasgow and Director of the Beniba Centre for Slavery Studies, talk about the case of freedom fighter and Black abolitionist Joseph Knight and Scottish abolitionism.

Joseph Knight became a notable figure in a landmark legal battle that saw him successfully appeal against a Scottish court’s decision that had reduced him to a mere chattel in the ownership of his former slaveholder. This victory affirmed that Scots Law could not uphold the institution of slavery in Scotland, a ruling that would make a profound contribution to paving the way for the abolition of slavery in Britain.