Now that I have handed in my research proposal I feel that I can really start with a more practical approach to the project. I realised that I have never blogged about what my initial idea for a story is about or where it comes from. Although I am trying to raise awareness of modern day slavery I feel that if I try to depict one story from modern times the story might form a bias or be focused on one aspect of slavery. Instead I intend to use a more historical story that will allow me to bring up the issue of modern day slavery and hopefully show a wider scope of the problems or issues involved in society today. The reason for this choice is that many of the stories of people already within the UK or some of the people shown on recent documentaries seem hard for me to fully relate to. Sure I have empathy for these people and I can try and understand their position, I can even try to place myself in their shoes but this is difficult. In most cases I know little about the culture, the towns or cities they are from or their situations in a broader context.
For these reasons I have chosen to use an existing story from nearly 400 years ago. In 1650 the Scots had a battle with the English, the Scots were annihilated and thousands were taken as prisoners. Some of these prisoners were sent to Barbados to work on the sugar cane plantations. Debate is still ongoing as to whether these people were classed as slaves or indentured labour who served most likely for a seven year period. This is not my primary concern, to me forced labour is slavery especially when seen from the perspective of the victim. There are still descendants of these Scots living in Barbados today, who have kept the nickname red legs that was giving to the first Scots who arrived on the island (they did not take well to the sun). Although this situation occurred nearly 400 years ago these people came from a town not far from where I had lived most off my life. For some reason I am able to relate to their situation better.
This choice also gives me a ready made narrative on which I can add, subtract or play around with as I please to create a fictional story. When I first heard about this story it changed my own perspectives. Previously if someone had asked me to say what the first image was in my mind at the mention of the word slavery, I would have pictured boats leaving the African coast. This information threw my whole concept of slavery, it also made me realise that my instincts still regarded slavery as historical issue. This was not because I was unaware of modern day issues but they were not at the forefront of my mind, they were not the first thing I imagined. I thought that maybe others think the same way, this is what made me realise that by becoming more aware of modern day issues myself perhaps I could also make other more aware.
Having descendants of these Scots still living in Barbados made me realise how this story could be threaded together and bring historical stories and present times together. The name red legs might be what connects them, this may change through the progression of the project but it gives me a starting point to work with. I hope to be able to portrait this story on multiple levels, I don't want it to be blatantly obvious that the story is related to the story of Dunbar. I do hope that there will be enough clues that I could be worked out if someone wants to. My initial thoughts are to create something that works on possibly three levels, one a fantastical story of battles, enslavement, escape with a happy ending. Another level might be "oh this is a story of slavery" and then next level would be "I think this is about the battle of Dunbar".
Experimenting with methods of metaphor, symbolism or morphism will contribute into being able to build in layers to the story. These themselves will only be contributors towards learning more about semeiotics, narrative and the interplay between text and visual. This project is about me having fun and gaining more knowledge about what is possible with the picture book format. Links are shown below that show more detail on the battle of Dunbar and the descendants still living in Barbados.
http://bcw-project.org/military/third-civil-war/dunbar
https://youtu.be/hDWAt_QfMvA
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