When Scotland hosted an abolitionist after profiting from slavery
Little known stories behind Frederick Douglass' speaking tour in Scotland, a country is now dealing with its dark past.
Glasgow, Scotland - When abolitionist Frederick Douglass arrived in Scotland on a speaking tour in 1846 from the United States, 13 years had passed since Britain enacted the Slavery Abolition Act.
Colonial slaves had gradually been freed and Britain's slaveowners were financially compensated for their loss of "property".
Douglass's 19-month visit to Britain and Ireland began in 1845; seven years earlier he had fled slavery himself from the US' slave-owning South for the free North.
"One of the things about his travels in Scotland was his Scottish surname," said Alasdair Pettinger, author of the forthcoming book, Frederick Douglass and Scotland, 1846: Living an Antislaver...