Bristol Radical History Week 2007: Sat 27 Oct - Tues 6 Nov

bristol | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday October 17, 2007 13:27 by Will - Bristol Radical History Group thewillsimpson at yahoo dot co dot uk

Witches, Pirates and Smugglers

The week long celebration of West Country people's history returns with a look at some of society's most feared outcasts and folk devils.

This year Bristol Radical History Group turns its attention to Witches, Pirates and Smugglers. Reviled by the authorities, these outcasts often became folk heroes. Who were these ne’er-do-wells? Why did they become enemies of the Church and State? And why are we so fascinated by them today?

During the week we will hear of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, the fearless young women who ended up captaining a pirate ship, the Somerset family who were executed for writing a rebellious book about demonology and we’ll find out how three quarters of the tea in 18th Century Britain was imported illegally under the noses of Customs and Excise.

Bristol Radical History Week 2007 has been organised to investigate these historic events and open up some of the hidden history of the West Country to public scrutiny. Rather than concentrating on royals, famous engineers or wealthy merchants, Bristol Radical History Week concerns itself with the ordinary people of our region, the mass of sometime rebellious and mutinous folk who had their own agendas to fulfil.

October 2006 saw the largest celebration of peoples’ history yet seen in Bristol. Academics from Europe and North America joined local historians and members of the public in a series of public lectures, debates, and a film festival. The week culminated in a recreation of radical preacher James Nayler’s ‘blasphemous’ ride into Bristol, an eye-popping spectacle that Broadmead’s Saturday shoppers are unlikely to forget.

This year’s events will include…

• A series of public lectures and debates featuring academics, local historians and eye witnesses, based around our three main themes.

o Experts on the history of piracy from the USA, Holland and Bristol will explain how these ‘villains of all nations’ began as brutalised common seamen, turned pirate and created a multicultural, democratic and egalitarian society under the Jolly Roger.

o Local historians will reveal the lives of the wreckers and smugglers of the West Country, explain the customary rights of the sea commons, and ask what links these folk to the tobacco and alcohol traffickers of the 1990s?

o We mark Hallowe’en by looking at the repression of witches and uncover the real motives behind the demonisation of women by the Church and State.

• A film festival featuring BBC documentaries and classic smuggling adventures from the golden age of the silver screen.

• All this and a historical boat trip around Bristol’s pirate heritage featuring bawdy sea-shanties and fiery speakers.

Bristol Radical History Week will be open to all, and will be free or of minimal cost. The participants will be members of the public, local history groups and visiting expert speakers. The events are organised by local people from Bristol and are NOT funded by universities, political parties or local government.

More specific details of the events, dates and venues can be obtained from our website at: www.brh.org.uk

We can be contacted at: brh@brh.org.uk