A Spot in Time: The Opposition between Terror and the Commons in the Perspective of the Atlantic Revolutions - Peter Linebaugh Was the coincidence on 2 April 1792 in the attempts to abolish the African slave trade and to make the English working class 'a spot of time', to paraphrase William Wordsworth, where vivifying virtue may restore our minds to the sense of right in the midst of fiercest strife, or instances of the perfidy of Albion, splitting the race of Man in twain? What role has the […]
Nanoplex brings you a workshop extraordinaire! Children (5+) are invited to interact with works of art and connect to historical events from Bristol's past. Using b/w copies of sketches by Bristol colourist W.J.Muller (1812-45) of the 1831 Bristol riots, the children will help bring to life segments that will be filmed/animated and put together to make up the original like a giant multicolored jigsaw.
Revolt of the Unemployed : Bread or Batons in Bristol c. 1932. As unemployment topped 3 million and the Labour government collapsed, benefit cuts and the means test sparked unrest across the country. In 1932 Bristol was briefly at the forefront of the protests which rocked the country. The mass demonstrations met brutal repression including police ambushes and the arrest of key activists. This will discuss the character of the movement, tracing its roots back to the ex-servicemen's protests of […]
Riots In 1980 St. Pauls in 1980 Southmead in 1980 The events of April 1980: Riot or uprising? How the St. Pauls riot was viewed by the media 1981 : Like a summer with a thousand July's Why is the Southmead riot forgotten?
Magna Carta And The Commons Magna Carta And The Commons. Or, How Bad King John Pretended to Launch a Crusade against Islam in order to better Conceal his Robbery of the People's Hydrocarbon Energy Resources which at the time (1215-17) took the form of Woodlands; and, Whether the Hydrocarbon Energy Resources which in our day (2006) take the form of Petroleum can be Restored to the "communa tocius terre," or not. We may propose three methods of interpreting Magna Carta: in a word, the legal, the […]
Generously, Bristol Museum allowed a special viewing of a series of paintings, water colours and engravings depicting the 1831 Queens Square uprisings and their aftermath. Artists such as William James Müller (1812-1845) and J. B. Pyne were present at the events and recorded them for your viewing pleasure. Sheena Stoddard the Curator of Fine Art and an expert on Bristol painters also gave a talk about the paintings.
Cunard Yanks Bristol premiere of a Cunard Yanks already shown in Liverpool and New York to popular aclaim. In the early 1950s young, white, Liverpool seamen who worked the Cunard Line, were sailing to New York. Although they did not know it at the time, they were to collide with the explosion of a new cultural scene in the U.S.A. This was the great migration of Afro-Americans to the northern states and the cities of Chicago, Detroit and New York which had brought new music, dance and fashion to […]
Suggested areas of discussion…. The religious/political turmoil of the 17th century Non-conformism and women preachers Hazzard's early life, her beliefs and her non-conformism Hazzard, the English Civil war and the Royalist attack on Bristol Why was Hazzard forgotten and why she should be remembered
'Riot!' The Bristol Bridge Massacre of 1793. Mike Manson author of 'Riot!' The Bristol Bridge Massacre of 1793 talks about the riot and massacre that were a result of toll gates on the Bristol Bridge. Listen to this talk: Download this talk (7 Mb mp3 file)
The Surfin' Turnips will bring a shredding ramonewurzel pirate punk to the outcasts of the nations of the earth in Bristol Radical History Week, bring your prize veg. The Surfin' Turnips also played on Sunday 4th November.
