Bringing it Home: Making Local Meaning in 2007 Bicentenary Exhibitions

This article examines the strategies that were used in exhibitions marking the bicentenary of the 1807 Act of Abolition to give local meaning and local relevance to the general histories of transatlantic slavery and abolitionism. Three approaches are described and evaluated: the first connects localities to the established histories of slavery and abolition; the second seeks more radically to uncover the ‘hidden history’ of these localities’ connections to slavery; and the third uses voices from the present-day community to draw meaning from the histories being considered. Reflecting on the implications of these approaches raises questions about the complex relationships between place and community, between the local and the global, and between past and present identities.