The Voyage of Molly with Steve Richardson

A talk on Dorset and Britain’s Part in the Wider Atlantic Slave Trade.

Major ports such as London, Liverpool and Bristol are well known for their involvement in the trading of enslaved people, but many smaller British ports were also engaged in this trade. Some of Dorset’s ports saw slaving voyages, and one such voyage was undertaken in 1758 by a ship called Molly which sailed from Poole. This voyage lasted for more than half a year, delivering a number of slaves to a port in America, and then returning to Britain with a cargo of valuable commodities.
This talk will look at some of the sources currently available and how Dorset’s and Britain’s slaving fits into the wider Atlantic Slave Trade. It will also showcase the storymap created by Steve Richardson which charts Molly’s voyage in an innovative online map.

Steve Richardson was a teacher but now devotes his time to cycling, painting and researching the past – in particular Britain’s imperial past and its legacies.