'Built with malice aforethought'

Like places and people all over Britain, Leamington Spa and its inhabitants benefited hugely from the wealth generated by colonialism and the transatlantic slave economy. The connections extended across the British empire and beyond, and their legacies are still visible in the town today.

This exhibition introduces the wide variety of Leamington’s links with West Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas from the late 18th to the early 20th century. Find out the stories of enslavement and exploitation behind the town’s grand architecture, explore the roots of the Art Gallery & Museum’s African collections, and learn about everyone from abolitionist activists to cotton merchants, Confederate sailors and missionaries.

Acompanying the exhibition is British Local History and the Black Atlantic - a collection of essays focusing on different places and periods, from the valleys of north Wales in the 18th century, via the steel mills of Victorian Sheffield, to the Edwardian seaside town of Scarborough and living memories of rural Northamptonshire. The book seeks to inspire students, teachers, local historians, and museum professionals who might be thinking about researching their own area and its global connections. It is available to purchase as a physical copy or to download as a free ebook. The publication costs are supported by a grant from the Social History Society.