Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Championed by William Wilberforce, the act ended the trade in slaves in the British Empire, although it was another 25 years before slavery was abolished altogether.

Slavery - the connection to Essex lies in Orsett

So what connections does Essex have with slave trading? Well, Professor Jonathan Catton, Heritage and Museums officer at Thurrock Museum, has discovered that the largest tomb in the grounds of Orsett Church has a rather bleak secret buried within it.

The tomb is home to several generations of the Bonham family and taking pride of place on the side of the tomb is the name Captain Samuel Bonham.Μύ But Captain Bonham didn't spend his whole career serving the navy - he moved into slave trading.

And the tomb, along with Orsett House, which you can find around half a mile from the church, were both built from the profits he made from the trade in human lives.

Africans were forcibly taken from their countries, shackled in claustrophobic conditions and made to row the 4,000 mile journey to the Caribbean.

Given hardly any food and water, many would die in the fierce conditions and those who did make it were sold into a life of slavery.

Captain Bonham regarded the slaves he transported simply as 'goods.'Μύ He would have felt no compassion for the Africans, who at the time were regarded as sub-human. Back home, Bonham was considered a pillar of the community.Μύ

A regular church goer, his career choice would have been respectable and indeed made him very wealthy.

Upon his retirement, he moved out of London to the Essex village of Orsett, near Tilbury.Μύ It was there that he built Orsett House, which still stands and has now been converted into apartments.

The out houses would have been home to horses, as he would have almost certainly continued to travel back and forth to London, to preside over his ongoing businesses.

Win Bernard's forefather was a slave

One of the slaves who made the journey from Africa to Jamaica was the forefather of Essex Police Chief Superintendent Win Bernard.Μύ Win only discovered he had Nigerian roots after enquiring about a relative when visiting his grandmother.

As he continued to probe, she went on to reveal a family tree which stretched back into the time of slavery.

His heritage is a mixture of British, Scots and Nigerian as it was common at this time for slaves to fall pregnant to their owners, which is how many Afro Caribbeans received very western sounding surnames.Μύ Trevor MacDonald anyone?

Win's mother Lynne was unaware of her ancestry and her mother had never previously spoken about it.

She explained that in Jamaica her generation was interested in looking forward, not backward.Μύ The past was something they didn't want to dwell over.

Win's mother Lynne came to England

Lynne's cousin came over on the Windrush, which docked at Tilbury in 1947 and soon after, Lynne, her husband Len and mother all followed.

At the time Jamaica was still a colony with school children being taught that England was the motherland, and for Lynne it seemed like this country existed on another planet.Μύ

When they arrived, the Bernards like many of the early black immigrants found it very difficult to find accommodation.

The typical sign in houses to let read: 'No Blacks, No Irish and No dogs.'

The Bernard family tree had taken the long route from Nigeria to Basildon via Jamaica, and several generations later blacks still didn't find themselves on an equal pegging with their white counterparts.

Black emancipation still had someway to go.