From 1978 to 1980, Judy and I and our two tiny daughters lived in Bristol. We were in a basement flat just off the Whiteladies Road, so called because in the days of slave trading, this was the road up which the rich white ladies of the city would travel to Blackboy Hill, where the slave market was held. I was in Bristol for Theological training prior to ordination. Trinity College occupied a mansion originally built by wealth acquired through the slave trade!!
This year sees the 200th anniversary of the Act of Parliament which outlawed slavery throughout the British Empire. This legislation was the culmination of over 25 years of hard work, spearheaded by William Wilberforce, MP. This anniversary has made me think afresh about slavery.  Slavery is not just confined to “the slave trade”: in many ways it was present in the industrial life of our land in the 19th century, and it is with us today, in the sex trade…and in less immediately obvious modes too. There is slavery to drugs, to alcohol, to acquisitiveness and consumerism, to tradition and its opposite, to power and status…
The pernicious thing is that sometimes the things which enslave are not intrinsically bad, but that unchecked and encouraged by advertising, peer pressure, and our hunger for satisfaction, slowly dominate, and even rule us … becoming life-inhibiting rather than life-enhancing.
Slavery of any description is not something from which a person can free themselves. They need someone to set them free.
It is worth pondering in what ways we might be in slavery! Do we even recognise it? So often its stranglehold creeps up on us. Who can set us free?
That part of my training to be a Christian Minister took place in what was once a slave trader’s mansion is not lost on me. I recall the words of him who was hailed as “God with us” – “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
Freedom is both freedom from, and freedom for …
With my greetings, Jim Stevens