in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the north atlantic slave trade, and in particular the role played by peter peckard (master of magdalene) in stimulating the abolition movement, the college organised a series of events in february 2007.

a full schedule of all magdalene's events can be found here, two magdalene events of particular significance were:

[a] a symposium on slavery past and present: chaired by honorary fellow john simpson the symposium featured contributions from two other honorary fellows (sir richard jolly and sir mark malloch-brown) as well as from ronald hyam, aidan mcquade (anti-slavery international) and eleanor sharpston qc (advocate general, european court of justice) details here

[b] a production by opera east of inkle and yarico by arnold and colman, the late eighteenth century's most signficant anti-slavery opera in a new version by richard luckett: an essay on the opera by richard luckett can be downloaded here, and the full programme produced for the performance here

the college is rightly proud of peckard and its other early human rights activists and is happy to be associated with the continuing fight against slavery, not least with the work of anti-slavery international which, founded in 1787, is the world's oldest international human rights organisation. their website can be accessed by clicking on the logo below.