In the Quiet by Holly Rees
1 sound
The history of the newly-restored Pop Recs building served as inspiration for Holly’s song, commemorating Sunderland’s Quaker Women. Once the Quaker-owned Binns Store, the High Street East buildings were the centre of anti-slavery activism led by the women, who refused to stock slave-produced goods and advocated the boycotting of West Indian sugar and American cotton in the 1800s. Praised for their ‘superior devotedness, activity and perseverance,’ prominent American abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison boldly attributed a great portion of the anti-slavery movement’s success to ‘the WOMEN of England, Scotland and Ireland’ in his 1838 address at the Broadway Tabernacle.
Lyrics On high street west There’s a plaque above a shop where The Quaker-owned Binns store used to be
Take a moment Remember these Quaker women leading Wearside anti-slavery
In the quiet
In the quiet
In the quiet
They found the truth that there’s something transcendent
and precious in every person
In the quiet
In the quiet
In the quiet
They raised their voice
no legal vote so they wrote, petitioned and spoke pushed boycotts of slave-produced sugar
a hard campaign lost since behind their husbands’ names These women fought to change the world
The forgotten names of these forgotten women are buried In the history they made
