Annette Cobley said: “The terracotta figures are all different sizes, shapes, genders and races, and will be made as individuals to symbolise how these were all people with their own personalities, although they were treated as commodities.”
The days’ events will also include performances of a short historic drama piece by the People’s History Museum - 'No Bed of Roses', a creative workshop for younger children, and performances by Manchester poet Lemn Sissay.
Dr Alan Rice, reader in American Cultural Studies at University of Lancaster, said: “People fought very hard against the institution of slavery and sought freedom again and again. One individual, who came to be known as Henry ‘Box’ Brown, escaped by being posted in a box from Virginia to Pennsylvania with just a bladder of water for sustenance.”
The event is part of a year of activities throughout Greater Manchester, which began in 2007, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade Act, which was passed on March 25 1807.
