The Isle of Man has historical links with the slave trade

The display, which ties in with the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, is to be staged at the Manx Museum in Douglas.

The museum's annual film night on 23 March will also broadcast the first public screening of a new DVD, entitled Manx Slave Traders.

The hour-long DVD has been produced by social historian Frances Wilkins.

Slave ships

The film highlights the role of Manx mariners and merchants in various aspects of the 18th Century transatlantic slave trade, in particular, the island's close links with the slave trading community in Liverpool.

The DVD draws on manuscript sources to illustrate its themes as well as recent filming around the Isle of Man.

Manuscripts have come from as far away as America and there is also a copy of the logbook of Manx slave ship captain George Cannon, which details the conditions on board two of his slaving voyages in the late 1790s and the health of the slaves he was transporting.

Detailed correspondence and legal papers from the early 1770s in the Manx National Heritage Library, also help to tell the story of a Manx-owned plantation at Blewfields in present day Nicaragua.

Historical snapshot

Wendy Thirkettle, an archivist at the Manx National Heritage Library, said: "These records include inventories for the plantation which name the slaves and give other personal details, including the value placed on each slave's head.

"As such they give us a snapshot of the plantation at a given point in time and enable us to learn something about these enslaved men, women and children."

The film night coincides with a weekend of commemorative events across the British Isles to mark the passing of abolition legislation through the Houses of Parliament at Westminster.