A MAJOR new exhibition is set to highlight the role that Devon and Exeter played in the Transatlantic slave trade.

In Plain Sight: Transatlantic Slavery and Devon will open at Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM) in January and will highlight aspects of Devon and Exeter’s relationship with slavery that organisers say is ‘hidden in plain sight’.

In Plain Sight: Transatlantic Slavery and Devon is the outcome of research that began in 2018 with the goal of learning more about the region’s history and links to slavery in the 18^th and 19^th Centuries.

Because of its Victorian roots, RAMM has a number of benefactors and patrons who were able to point researchers to people, organisations, and families who benefitted from the trafficking of enslaved people. These benefactors were also able to uncover historical sources and documentary evidence highlighting the region’s role in the Transatlantic slave trade.

Using the museum’s artefacts and contemporary sources the exhibition shows the local industries that relied on the trade and details the lives of  people who benefited from its revenues.

It will also feature a newly commissioned film about RAMM’s famous painting Portrait of an African.

In recent years the identity of the painting’s subject with opinions mainly varying between abolitionist Olaudah Equiano and the late 18^th Century musician, actor, and writer Ignatius Sancho.

However questions have been raised about the accuracy of both identifications.

Exeter City councillor Amal Ghusain, said: “The museum has worked with people from local diverse communities to create the exhibition and to plan associated events. This includes an advisory panel, community researchers, academics and students. Julien Parsons, RAMM’s lead on collections and content, said, ‘In this instance, the curators do not know all of the answers, and frequently we were asking the wrong questions.’ By working with these different groups, RAMM hopes to ensure that a range of voices are heard.”

To complement the exhibition, the museum has commissioned artist Joy Gregory to create new pieces in response to In Plain Sight. Gregory, a critically-acclaimed modern British artist whose work tackles challenging social and political problems, worked with textiles, embroidery, photography, and video to highlight the themes of the exhibition.

Her work began by investigating the role that sugar played in the region’s links with the Transatlantic slave trade.

Unprocessed sugar was taken down the River Exe after arriving from the Caribbean. Sugar refining in Devon was profitable because it could be made without paying tariffs. The Topsham refinery in Devon for example is particularly significant since its rise and fall can be traced through its various owners.

Gregory said: “It’s my job as an artist to create curiosity and bring histories together to dig deeper, not just about the wealth, but also about the industry behind that wealth. I am making things of beauty to talk about ugliness, so people can relate to this story, instead of thinking that it doesn’t relate to them and walking away.”

Shelley Tobin, RAMM’s assistant curator of textiles said: “This exhibition gives us the opportunity to bring objects together that were collected many years ago and preserved in families: to re-examine them in the context of historical, social and cultural change, and to reinterpret them for a new audience.”

In Plain Sight: Transatlantic slavery and Devon runs 29 Jan 2022 to 29 May 2022. Find out more at rammuseum.org.uk