A talk about John Brown in Dorchester

Discover the story of John Brown in this special talk for Black History Month. with Jordan Cole, a student at Bath Spa University, and Eve Mordue, Collection Manager at Dorset Museum
They will talk about the research that has taken place to find out more about his life and time spent living in Dorset. This has contributed to a special display outside the Museum’s Collections Discovery Centre, which runs from 6 October 2023 until the end of the year.
John Brown was born into slavery in Virginia, USA around c.1811. He escaped slavery in 1845 by travelling to Michigan via the Underground Railroad. In 1850 Brown moved to England to live as a free man, and during the 1860s he spent a few years living in Dorchester, Dorset, where he made a living as an herbalist.
Brown went around Britain giving lectures on what he had experienced, and the lectures helped raise support and funds to end slavery in the US. His book Slave Life in Georgia (1854) was published with the help of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. In 1868, while living in Dorchester, he gave a talk at the town’s Corn Exchange.
This event is FREE but please consider adding a donation at checkout when you book to help us continue to provide a talks series in the future.

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