Black Atlantic

Another damp and dreary day but thankfully I met a friend in Cambridge and we spent a few very enjoyable and thought-provoking hours at the Fitzwilliam museum. Black Atlantic is the museum’s opportunity to examine its close relationship with the slave trade, and the curators have excelled themselves. What they’ve produced is a very sensitive yet powerful show that lays bare the violent origins of the collection and also how slavery is so closely intertwined with our history. The explanations are factual, sensitive, non-judgemental and completely fascinating. Lots of ‘oh my gosh’ moments looking at household goods (eg 18th century silver tongs made specifically to serve sugar cubes, which links the very existence of the tongs directly to slavery), paintings, books and scientific discoveries. There’s a lot about enslaved people’s resistance to capture and imprisonment, which has been largely ignored until recently. Highly recommended.