Alison Dow Lecture – Heritage Open Day

1pm Saturday 19th September 2026

The Abolition Campaign to end slavery in the British Empire is said to have been the world's first successful human rights campaign.

Norfolk women including the radical Elizabeth Fry, Amelia Opie, Harriet Martineau and Anna Gurney played a vital role in the campaign although they themselves lacked even the right to vote. Many of these women were Quakers and were part of Goat Lane Meeting.

The determined women campaigners employed and developed strategies despite much opposition even from Wilberforce himself.  Generations of women then used these strategies in the suffrage campaign which was to follow – another great human rights struggle. The suffrage struggle clearly has roots in our county.