ACTING HIGH COMMISSIONER COMMENDS CITY OF WELLS

Acting High Commissioner Mrs Patrice Laird Grant commended the City of Wells for staging the ‘Wells and Transatlantic Slavery Conference: Histories, Legacies and Perspectives’, which explored the City’s past connections with the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and British slavery in the Caribbean.

The conference, held in March, was co-chaired by Jess Witchell, Wells Cathedral Learning Manager and Susann Savidge, of the Somerset African Caribbean Network. It included talks that gave a range of histories and perspectives including contributions from partners and historians from the Caribbean. The in-person event, hosted by Wells Cathedral School, attracted 135 adults and sixth formers, representing a wide range of locations across the country.

“The Jamaican High Commission is encouraged by your research which delves into the history of Wells to show how it derived wealth from the slave economies of what was then known as the British West Indies,” Mrs Laird Grant said, in her message to the conference. “We are also pleased with the unveiling of the new heritage trail that reveals for the first time information linking some of the key sites of Wells to Transatlantic Slavery.”