After Hours at Beckford’s Tower

An after-hours public talk led by Matt Johnston, founder of the Trust for Records of Enslavement and Emancipation (TREE), drawing on original slavery-era documents from the TREE archive. The evening will explore how ordinary administrative records were used to manage enslavement, value human lives, and maintain systems across Britain and the Caribbean.

The talk is evidence-led and reflective, focusing on what the documents show when read carefully and in their original form, including engagement with estate inventories, appraisals, and post-abolition documents relating to the apprenticeship system.