Tate Britain, London
From a sticky Caribbean thunderstorm to the cocaine-fuelled violence of the New York street corner, the artist takes us through the highs and lows of his journey to the present moment

A soundtrack of rain sizzles on a tin roof, interspersed with snatches of music and radio voices struggling against the storm. The shiny tin slung overhead and the bare neoclassical walls compound the echoing reverb of the Duveen Galleries at Tate Britain. I want to sink to one of the rattan sofas grouped about the floor, close my eyes and drift to the noise of the sweltering hurricane season in the Caribbean. It’s enervating. I think of sweat glueing my body to the protective clear plastic cover of the sofa. Maybe they should turn the heating up, to complete the experience.

This is the opening that greets visitors to Alvaro Barrington’s Grace, his three-part Tate Britain commission. The length of the Duveen and its division into three sections invites a narrative approach, a journey in time as well as space. For now, we are in Grenada, in a kind of symbolic, schematic recreation of Barrington’s childhood home, living with his grandmother.

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© Photograph: Guy Bell/REX/Shutterstock

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© Photograph: Guy Bell/REX/Shutterstock

Lambeth Palace documents show purchase of enslaved people in 18th century approved by Anglican archbishop

• Life on plantations owned by Church of England missionary arm

An archbishop of Canterbury in the 18th century approved payments for the purchase of enslaved people for two sugar plantations in Barbados, documents seen by the Observer have revealed.

Thomas Secker agreed to reimburse a payment for £1,093 for the purchase of enslaved people on the Codrington Plantations, as well as hiring enslaved people from a third party. It was stated the measures were “calculated for the future lasting advantages of the estates”.

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© Photograph: Appreciative Snaps/Shutterstock

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© Photograph: Appreciative Snaps/Shutterstock

Documents from Lambeth Palace archives show how one of Justin Welby’s predecessors approved the purchase of enslaved people for the notorious Codrington sugar estate

• Revealed: how Church of England’s ties to chattel slavery went to top of hierarchy

In the 18th century an enslaved mixed race woman named Quasheba escaped from a sugar plantation where she was held captive on Barbados.

There are no records of Quasheba’s fate, but the horrific conditions from which she fled in 1783 are well-documented. She is simply recorded in official papers as “run away”.

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© Photograph: Ms Jane Campbell/Shutterstock

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© Photograph: Ms Jane Campbell/Shutterstock

A Furious, Forgotten Slave Narrative Resurfaces (NYT gift link) John S. Jacobs was a fugitive, an abolitionist — and the brother of the canonical author Harriet Jacobs. Now, his own fierce autobiography has re-emerged.

An extraordinary personal story, and impressive scholarly labor on the part of his biographer, as well. John S. Jacobs (Wikipedia) Unapologetically Free: A Personal Declaration of Independence From the Formerly Enslaved (brief excerpt from the text)

A once-enslaved man's music was hidden for centuries is an article by Diane Orson about Sawney Freeman, who published a book of his violin compositions in 1801 in New Haven, Connecticut. That work is lost, but in 1817, Gurdon Trumbull copied down many of Freeman's tunes, and that manuscript survived. His music was arranged for a quintet by Anthony Padolfe Jr. and is available online. My favorite is the haunting New Death March, but all 15 compositions are lovely. Connecticut Public Television also made a video based on Orson's article, part of a series on Connecticut's history of slavery.

Sherman theatre, Cardiff
Conceptually brilliant, with complex characters and a fearless cast, Azuka Oforka’s debut play is a remarkable examination of women under colonialism with contemporary resonance

The Women of Llanrumney is a blistering full-length debut play by Azuka Oforka. Conceptually dexterous and containing four astute and fearless performances, it marks Oforka as an urgent and important voice in Welsh theatre.

While the Llanrumney sugar estate in St Mary, Jamaica, was real, the narrative of Oforka’s historical play reimagines it under the ownership of the unwed and independent Elizabeth Morgan (Nia Roberts). Housekeeper Annie and her pregnant daughter Cerys (Suzanne Packer and Keziah Joseph) are enslaved in her service, but when the sugar crop begins to fail safety becomes brutally conditional for all three.

The Women of Llanrumney is at Sherman theatre, Cardiff, until 1 June

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© Photograph: An Pinto/Ana Pinto

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© Photograph: An Pinto/Ana Pinto

Church statement expressing ‘regret’ that members took money from plantation owners in 1844 condemned as ‘shameful’

The Free Church of Scotland has been accused of “shameful” behaviour after it refused to apologise for receiving money from slavery worth millions of pounds today.

The Free Church is known to have accepted donations from plantation owners in the southern US states soon after its foundation in 1843 and then a significant bequest from a wealthy Glaswegian sugar baron 10 years later.

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© Photograph: George Kendall Warren/Reuters

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© Photograph: George Kendall Warren/Reuters

Podcast (2:42:24) with transcript. Christopher Brown is a professor at Columbia specializing in the slave trade and abolition. He argues that abolition, though obvious in retrospect, was not inevitable and relied on a particular set of circumstances that could have been disrupted at many points. He has also written about Arming Slaves and has an interesting review of Capitalism and Slavery at LRB.