Squaring The Triangle

The current Library and Museum exhibition is called Squaring the Triangle it forms part of the commemoration of the 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of the slave trade. Based on a previously unknown archive of material, the exhibition covers the establishment of the first Masonic lodge, African Lodge, for black men in revolutionary America, which was governed from London, as American lodges did not permit black membership. Under its leader, Prince Hall, a freed New England slave, Prince Hall Masonry, as it is now known, has become the major black Masonic organisation in the world.

Freemasons were (and are) required not to discuss politics or religion at Lodge meetings but, as individuals, members had their own views and in this period were both abolitionists and slave owners. James Stanfield, artist, poet and member of Phoenix Lodge in Sunderland, turned his literary abilities towards the subject of slavery in his Observations on a Guinea Voyage in a series of letters addressed to the Rev. Thomas Clarkson (1788). Stanfield also contributed poems to the Masonic newspaper of the day. Durham lawyer and freemason, William Hutchinson, wrote an anti-slavery play. In Liverpool, a major port for the slave trade, the membership of Merchant’s Lodge included the slave ship owners Thomas Golightly and Roger Leigh.

The rules of the governing body, the United Grand Lodge of England, dating from 1717, originally stated that any man wishing to be initiated into freemasonry had to be free-born. The exhibition includes correspondence from members prominent in the local societies of the Caribbean which shows their changing attitudes towards the slave trade. Representation was made to Grand Lodge about this rule, notably from Albion Lodge in Barbados, with support from Lodges in Antigua and St. Vincent, and in 1847 it was resolved to substitute the term ‘free man’ for ‘free-born’ thus enabling ex-slaves to become members of Masonic lodges.

Exhibition runs from Monday 14th May to Friday 28th September 2007, 10am -5pm, Monday to Friday
Admission free

A diagram of the slave ship Brookes, drawn by the abolitionist Thomas Clarkson, which became an iconic image for the anti-slavery campaign and is taken from an edition of Clarkson's writings in the Library and Museum collection.