Below, you will find the information panels about commodities, commerce and the Atlantic Slave Trade in Lancaster, which were originally exhibited as part of Litfest 2024’s exhibition.

Through a focus on five commodities produced in Lancaster and the surrounding area in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the panels bring to light some of the ways in which colonialism and the trade in enslaved peoples transformed the local economy and the lives of working people. It includes an introduction to the Transatlantic Trade by Imogen Tyler and detailed information by James Fox on felt hats, Alan Rice on cotton, Bella Tyler on slave ships, Gordon Walker and Brontë Crawford on furniture, and Lela Harris on sugar.

You can also view a recording of a Litfest event featuring all of these speakers on the Litfest Player.

(Click here to go back to the main Litfest 2024 Online Exhibition page.)