Abolition

On the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, BBC South staged an interactive day of music, poetry and family history workshops in the shadow of HMS Victory at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

Based at the Royal Naval Museum's Chasing Freedom Exhibition, the event explained how this region was connected to the Slave Trade and the part played in abolishing it 200 years ago.

Raspo steel orchestra

There were live performances from Reading's RASPO Steel Band playing music on the themes of slavery and emancipation in the Boatyard No 7 restaurant.

Artists who took part in the Emancipation slam poetry event at Southampton's Orange Rooms last weekend also performed their lyrical works - highlighting both the impact of the Slave Trade on identity and culture as well as contemporary oppression and slavery around the world.

Bournemouth-based Cameroonian story-teller Noah Messomo held popular drumming workshops where the audience re-created some of the slave songs and rhythms and celebrated what Noah called "the triumph of the human spirit."

Desmond Spence

Meanwhile, Who do you think you are? genealogist Nick Barratt held special one-to-one sessions for BBC Radio Solent listeners, helping them further explore their family history and connections with slavery, the trade and the campaign to end it.

The event was held at the Chasing Freedom exhibition which highlights the Royal Navy's role in combating the trade and its continuing work in defending human rights across the world today. The exhibition itself continues until the end of 2007.