County's role in slavery explored in exhibition

Councillor Hayley Coles, pictured with curator Sophie Harris, said the exhibition painted a clearer picture of slavery's impact on Staffordshire

A museum has launched an exhibition exploring Staffordshire's role in the slave trade.

The exhibition at the History Centre in Stafford features letters written by a woman living on a Jamaican plantation in the mid-1700s. She was writing to her mother in Stone.

Documents relating to the county's abolitionist movement are also on display, along with archive material on the role of women in slavery and the campaign to end it.

Hayley Coles, cabinet member for culture at the county council, said the exhibition painted a clearer picture of slavery's impact on the county and its residents. "Britain was one of the first European nations to ban slave trading nearly 200 years ago," she said.

"We should be proud of what our county has become and the progress we have made."

The exhibition, developed in partnership with Keele University, began earlier in October and will be running at the history centre until 6 December.