Wikipedia:University of Edinburgh/Events and Workshops/Scotland, Slavery and Black History

Info about the event
Would you like to improve public knowledge of Scotland's Black history, and to help make Scotland's deep connections to Atlantic slavery better understood? Wikipedia is one of the most widely used means by which people get information, but it has lots of gaps and problems. This project will work to make it better. You might create a page for William Fergusson, the first known Black student at the university of Edinburgh and governor of Sierra Leone in the 1840s, or update the page on the controversial politician Henry Dundas to ensure that it fully represents research-based understandings of his activity in relation to slavery. Full training will be provided, and no specialist knowledge is required, just a commitment to developing accurate and comprehensive knowledge. Come to an initial information meeting, with talks by Lisa Williams (Edinburgh Caribbean Association) and Tom Cunningham (UncoverEd) 18 November 5.30-7.00, via Teams.

Subsequent workshops will take place on three Wednesdays in January, 5.30-7.00 pm.

Come and help us improve Wikipedia's representation of history at Scotland, Slavery and Black History editing event!

Your 1,2,3 to get started!

 * 1) Link to online MS Teams call
 * 2) '''Interested to help edit? Fill this form out if so!
 * 3) ''' Create your Wikipedia account
 * 4) And once you have created your account join the Wiki dashboard

Schedule
5.30pm-7pm each session:


 * Session 1 Wed 18th Nov: Talk, examples, purpose, context--sign up after that.
 * Session 2 Wed 13th Jan: Researching (Jan 13), dividing people into pairs/groups to work on particular pages, provide sources.
 * Session 3 Wed 20th Jan: Wikipedia training by Ewan McAndrew, Wikimedian in Residence and beginning to do the edits.
 * Session 4 Wed 27th Jan: Doing the edits, publishing the work, making it discoverable (adding links), final review.

Join us as we help make Wikipedia better!

Editing
Questions about editing? Read the Wiki-editing FAQ!

Articles to create

 * William Fergusson (governor of Sierra Leone) - First known black student at University of Edinburgh, born Jamaica, only black governor of Sierra Leone.
 * Jean-Baptiste Philip - Trinidad born, studied medicine at UoE, wrote 'Free Mulatto' (1823).
 * Jesse Ewing Glasgow - Philadelphia born African American intellectual, student at UoE 1858-60, author of pamphlet on John Brown's Harper's Ferry raid. Died young, while still a student at Ed.
 * Lothian Black Forum - Anti-racist organisation active in Edinburgh 1989-92.
 * Axmed Abuukar Sheekh - Somali student killed by fascists in Edinburgh, 1989.
 * Seetsele Modiri Molema - Studied medicine at Glasgow Uni graduating 1919, President African Races Association Glasgow, secretary of African National Congress (South Africa) 1949.
 * Lothian Black Forum - Anti-racist organisation active in Edinburgh 1989-92.
 * Axmed Abuukar Sheekh - Somali student killed by fascists in Edinburgh, 1989.
 * Seetsele Modiri Molema - Studied medicine at Glasgow Uni graduating 1919, President African Races Association Glasgow, secretary of African National Congress (South Africa) 1949.
 * Seetsele Modiri Molema - Studied medicine at Glasgow Uni graduating 1919, President African Races Association Glasgow, secretary of African National Congress (South Africa) 1949.
 * Seetsele Modiri Molema - Studied medicine at Glasgow Uni graduating 1919, President African Races Association Glasgow, secretary of African National Congress (South Africa) 1949.

Articles to edit

 * Henry Dundas - Update with better information on Dundas's involvement in debates over slave trade and in imperial wars.
 * Frederick Douglass ( to include the time he spent in Edinburgh!)
 * William Wright - Doctor and botanist, born Crieff, Perthshire, trained at U of E, spent 13 years in Jamaica, fellow of Royal Society Edinburgh, owned sugar plantation and enslaved people.
 * Bunce Island - Island in Sierra Leone, with significnat role in slave trade. Currently no mention that the 'London-based firm' of Grant, Oswald and Co which took it over in 1748 had strong Scttish connections, or the significance role of Scots working there. NB also spelled 'Bance Island'.
 * James IV - No mention of the significant presence of Africans at the court of James IV (King of Scotland 1488-1513). At least 5 black people lived at court.
 * Bute House - Official residence of Scottish first minister. Add information on slave-owning residents including John Innes Crawford and Sir John Sinclair.
 * Malvina Wells - Add reference to her entry in New Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women and check for any further information (but entry is relatively complete already given how little is known).
 * James IV - No mention of the significant presence of Africans at the court of James IV (King of Scotland 1488-1513). At least 5 black people lived at court.
 * Bute House - Official residence of Scottish first minister. Add information on slave-owning residents including John Innes Crawford and Sir John Sinclair.
 * Malvina Wells - Add reference to her entry in New Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women and check for any further information (but entry is relatively complete already given how little is known).
 * Bute House - Official residence of Scottish first minister. Add information on slave-owning residents including John Innes Crawford and Sir John Sinclair.
 * Malvina Wells - Add reference to her entry in New Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women and check for any further information (but entry is relatively complete already given how little is known).
 * Malvina Wells - Add reference to her entry in New Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women and check for any further information (but entry is relatively complete already given how little is known).

Things to remember
Want a headstart on learning more about Wikipedia? Go to our website. Email me at ewan.mcandrew@ed.ac.uk with any questions.
 * 1) Wikipedia is a tertiary source. Articles are backed up by facts from reliable, published secondary sources. Primary sources tend not to be used.
 * 2) Write with encyclopedic content in mind. Not academic essay. Strip back your writing to the facts.
 * 3) Write accessibly with a lay audience in mind. Any jargon needs explained the first time it is mentioned.
 * 4) Write with a neutral point of view. Split text up into sections.
 * 5) Cite everything you write. Keep a note of urls (open access if possible), Journal articles DOI identifiers, Book ISBN numbers.
 * 6) Page numbers, volume numbers and book chapters should be included in your citation information too.
 * 7) Write in your own words as much as possible. Even close paraphrasing counts as copyright violation.
 * 8) Short quotes can be included but need to be attributed.
 * 9) Images have to open-licensed to be allowed on Wikipedia. CC-0, Public domain, CC-BY, CC-BY-SA licensed images are allowed.
 * 10) Open images can be searched for using search aggregator tools such as CC Search.

More useful links
Here are some useful links to help you with your editing:
 * Read up to find out more about sources and verifiability.
 * Check out the notability guidelines and what topics can be written about on Wikipedia.
 * Consider whether you have any conflicts of interest.
 * You can find advice on how to search for relevant sources here.
 * All sorts of helpful guides and online resources can be found below:


 * You can add pictures for use on Wiki-pages and beyond on Wikimedia Commons. Your Wikipedia account will work on Commons too - as well as all the other Wiki-projects and different language versions of Wikipedia.

Here are some ways to keep track of your edits:
 * You can view all your contributions to Wikipedia by clicking "Contributions" (in the top right of this page).
 * The Pageviews tool is a great way of measuring how many people are looking at the page you created/edited. You can even export the data if you'd like it for reports, etc.

After today
Once you've learned the basics of editing using Wikipedia’s Visual Editor, I hope that you'll stay logged in and edit or create more articles. As a first step you may like to check out what What Wikipedia is not along with its 5 guiding principles: The 5 pillars.


 * The Wikipedia Adventure Start Page - a fun tutorial introducing new editors to Wikipedia
 * Visual Editor user guide
 * Questions – a guide on where to ask questions
 * The Teahouse new editor help space
 * Wikipedia Help pages
 * The simplified ruleset – a summary of Wikipedia's most important rules
 * Is your topic notable enough for an article?
 * Be Bold!
 * Don't let grumpy users scare you off.
 * Learn from others
 * How to write a great article
 * A simplified manual of style


 * Please sign your messages on talk pages with four tildes ( ~ ). This will automatically insert your "signature" (your username and a date stamp). The [[File:Button sig.png]] or [[File:Insert-signature.png]] button, on the tool bar above Wikipedia's text editing window, also does this.
 * If you would like to play around with your new Wiki skills without changing the mainspace, the Sandbox is for you.
 * Check out upcoming Wikimedia in Scotland editing events.
 * Check out upcoming Wikimedia UK editing events.

Video guides to editing Wikipedia

 * Wikipedia - It's main policies & guidelines
 * Navigating Wikipedia's front page
 * How to structure an article on Wikipedia: the Featured Article
 * Wikipedia editing in 30 mins
 * How to edit an existing article the right way
 * How easy is Wikipedia's Visual Editor? 5 min walkthrough
 * How to edit using with Visual Editor Part 1: Creating an Account
 * Editing Wikipedia using Visual Editor: Part 1.1 Adding Headings
 * Editing Wikipedia using Visual Editor: Part 1.2 Adding bold & italics
 * Editing Wikipedia using Visual Editor: Part 1.3 Adding bullet points
 * Editing Wikipedia using Visual Editor: Part 1.4 Adding links
 * Editing Wikipedia using Visual Editor: Part 2.1 Adding citations and references
 * Editing Wikipedia using Visual Editor: Part 2.2 Further practice with citations (DOI and Pubmed IDs)
 * Editing Wikipedia using Visual Editor:Part 2.3 Adding an image
 * Editing Wikipedia using Visual Editor: Part 2.4 Adding categories
 * Editing Wikipedia using Visual Editor: Part 3 Creating a new article in the Sandbox
 * Editing Wikipedia: Communicating with others using the Talk page and Help Desk
 * Moving a drafted article into Wikipedia's live space.
 * Create visually dynamic timelines in minutes with Histropedia
 * Use the 'Find Link' tool to add links BACK to your page from other pages that SHOULD link to your page.

Glasgow
List of articles relating to Glasgow's slave trade history.

Starting places

 * Merchant City - lead section needs expansion, article mentions tobacco lords but not slavery.
 * Tobacco Lords - additional references, some parts not cited. Includes list of notable tobacco lords. wording obfuscatory? not sure.

Buildings & places

 * Ramshorn Cemetary
 * Glasgow Museum of Modern Art
 * Buchanan Street
 * Glassford Street
 * St Andrew's in the Square

Notable(?) tobacco lords
How do we approach this? What thinking do we need to do around writing these men's histories?
 * Andrew Buchanan
 * Andrew Cochrane of Brighouse
 * Andrew Caskie of Kilcreggan
 * William Cunninghame
 * James Dunlop
 * John Glassford
 * Logan Lowe of Aberdeen
 * Alexander Oswald
 * Alexander Speirs
 * George Bogle of Daldowie