Trust for Records of Enslavement and Emancipation - TREE

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Trust for Records of Enslavement and Emancipation - TREE TREE is a UK heritage foundation preserving and sharing original records of enslavement and emancipation.

We make rare documents accessible, support schools and museums, and help communities understand how this history shapes Britain today.

TREE is exhibiting at Bath Abbey from 11 January 2027.Original records from the TREE Collection, relating to enslavement...
18/09/2026

TREE is exhibiting at Bath Abbey from 11 January 2027.

Original records from the TREE Collection, relating to enslavement, emancipation and colonial administration, on display in the Abbey until 28 March.

TREE, the Trust for Records of Enslavement and Emancipation, works with the documentary record of British enslavement and its afterlife in the UK. The Collection is a family archive of estate papers, appraisements and compensation records from the British Caribbean, kept across generations in the belief that Black history should be remembered and retold.

11 January to 28 March 2027. Closed 18 to 22 January, reopening 23 January.

Included in general admission. Free for Discovery Card holders and for BA1 and BA2 residents with a card or proof of address.

A public talk and reception follows at the end of January. Details to come.

In partnership with Bath Abbey
Photography Jed Davis | Content Creator

One issue of the Jamaica Royal Gazette, dated 11 April 1835.Published by authority in Kingston, just eight months after ...
11/09/2026

One issue of the Jamaica Royal Gazette, dated 11 April 1835.

Published by authority in Kingston, just eight months after the Slavery Abolition Act took effect.

Across four pages are vestry notices, property adverts, returns from houses of correction and notices concerning people who had run away.

We’ve picked out fifteen apprenticed people and transcribed their entries.

Read across the issue and the apprenticeship system is there in plain sight. People returned for taxation in the same sentence as livestock. Compensation claims treated as financial assets. Properties advertised with apprenticed people alongside land and cattle.

The claimants were made public and searchable. The people those claims were made about were not.

TREE exists to bring those names back together, put the original evidence in front of people and make the record easier to access.

Original records allow us to see history first hand.Documents like this reveal the language used to describe enslaved pe...
20/08/2026

Original records allow us to see history first hand.

Documents like this reveal the language used to describe enslaved people, including distinctions around colour and complexion, and how those descriptions could intersect with status, labour and value.

They also open up conversations about the historical roots of what we now understand as colourism. What did this language mean at the time, and how far do its legacies still reach today?

There is something particularly powerful about having that conversation while standing in front of the original records.



📸 1 & 3 Jed Davis | Content Creator
📸 2 Antoinette Fernandez

In an event recognising the achievements of the last year, we were able to reflect with the some of the people who have ...
17/08/2026

In an event recognising the achievements of the last year, we were able to reflect with the some of the people who have facilitated many of the opportunities that have gotten us to where we are today.

Thank you all those supporting, and we look forward to carry on the great work!

One year of TREE 🙏This week we’ll be gathering at Bath Abbey to reflect on the first year of the Trust for Records of En...
11/08/2026

One year of TREE 🙏

This week we’ll be gathering at Bath Abbey to reflect on the first year of the Trust for Records of Enslavement and Emancipation.

Since September 2025, we’ve been preserving original historical records, developing education resources, working with schools, delivering talks and events, and building partnerships across heritage, education and our local communities.

Our reflection event is a chance to bring together some of the people who have supported TREE along the way, share what we’ve achieved and give a first look at what comes next.

Thank you to everyone who has been part of our first year, and to Bath Abbey for hosting us.

How did Britain see the world in 1772?This page from Rider’s British Merlin offers a fascinating glimpse.Printed in 1772...
04/07/2026

How did Britain see the world in 1772?

This page from Rider’s British Merlin offers a fascinating glimpse.

Printed in 1772, it describes the known world as Europe, Asia, Africa and America. But look a little closer and you’ll notice there is no United States.

Instead, America is presented as a collection of European colonies and territories.

This wasn’t a political document or an official government publication. It was an everyday pocket handbook, designed to be carried and consulted by ordinary people.

Within its pages, it preserves a snapshot of how the world was understood at a pivotal moment in history.

Sometimes, the smallest books tell the biggest stories.

This week’s post has been researched and written by Noor Hashmi (), a historian and presenter specialising in Caribbean ...
01/07/2026

This week’s post has been researched and written by Noor Hashmi (), a historian and presenter specialising in Caribbean slavery and Britain’s colonial history.

Drawing on an original document from the TREE collection, Noor explores what this 1814 appraisal from Cardiff Estate, Jamaica reveals about enslavement, plantation economies and Britain’s connections to the Caribbean.

Content note: This document contains historical language and terminology reflective of the period in which it was written.

An 1814 appraisal from Cardiff Estate in Jamaica reveals how enslaved people were assigned monetary values within a plantation estate, alongside the valuation of plantation stock and equipment, exposing the brutal commodification at the heart of plantation slavery.

Swipe through to explore what this archive tells us about Britain’s connections to Jamaica and the violence embedded in colonial record-keeping.

Researched and written by .

Read the full article via our Substack (linktr.ee in bio)

On 14 November 1955, my grandfather, Beresford Johnson, arrived in Plymouth aboard the Auriga.Like thousands of others f...
22/06/2026

On 14 November 1955, my grandfather, Beresford Johnson, arrived in Plymouth aboard the Auriga.

Like thousands of others from across the Caribbean, he arrived carrying little more than hope, determination and a belief that a better future was possible.
In the passenger records, he appears as just another name on a long list. A single entry amongst hundreds of others arriving that day.

Yet behind that entry was a man who would build a life in Britain, raise a family and contribute to the communities around him.

The old trunk he brought with him still survives today. Scarred by travel and time, it remains a tangible reminder of the journey he made across the Atlantic and the courage it took to leave everything familiar behind.

Among the items he left behind is a watch that still works perfectly today. I wear it regularly.

Every tick is a reminder of the journey he made, the life he built and the opportunities that journey created for future generations.

For me, these are more than family heirlooms.

A passenger record.
A travelling trunk.
A watch.

Together they tell a story of migration, resilience, contribution and legacy.

The Windrush generation did not simply arrive in Britain. They helped build modern Britain.

Today, I remember not only my grandfather's journey, but the journeys of so many others whose stories deserve to be preserved, understood and shared.

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