Stolen Lives Project

is a collaborative educational project, bringing together academics, musicians, artists and educationalists. It aims to raise awareness of modern-day slavery, human trafficking and trans-global child labour issues, thereby helping to inform todays’ (and tomorrow’s) anti-slavery campaigners by providing them with an engaging vibrant tool to help the fight against modern slavery. For full access to the material we have produced, all we ask is that you register your name, email address, organisation and/or place of residence.

‘Stolen Lives’ is a unique resource that is designed to have multiple uses. We anticipate that it will not only be of use to schoolteachers, especially those teaching at Key Stage 3 (ages 11 - 14) and Key Stage 4 (ages 14-16), but also to youth groups, museums, music and dance groups, and churches and faith groups. We hope that users will post their own performances or interpretations of the material we have put together, allowing for a much broader sharing of ideas and practice. We look forward to seeing what you come up with! Behind the project is a serious intent, namely to use music and images to promote awareness of modern-day slavery and – just as important – the pressing need to do something about it. Nineteenth-century abolitionists were well aware of the power of music to persuade and inform: indeed, anti-slavery songs were an important part of their opinion-building activities, particularly in the United States. The same is true of images, whether Wedgwood’s famous image of the kneeling slave, or the cross section of the slave ship ‘Brookes’. ‘Stolen Lives’ follows in the same tradition. Put simply, our aim is to use music and images to inform public opinion and, in the process, create a sense of moral repugnance against modern-day slavery and for slavery in all its forms. We should never underestimate the power of such aids to change attitudes and impact on policy and policymakers. As William Wilberforce so memorably put it: ‘You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know’.